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Massive Protests Against Homosexual Marriage in Paris

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Photo Credit: independent.co.ukEarlier about 400,000 people, including many children, had defied warnings of possible far-right violence and marched in peaceful protest against France’s newly enacted law permitting same-sex marriage. Twenty members of a xenophobic far-right group, “Génération Identitaire”, clambered on to the roof terrace of the headquarters of the Socialist party during the afternoon and unfurled a banner calling for the resignation of President François Hollande. They were rapidly dislodged and arrested by police.

Even before the violence broke out, the government said that there had been 96 arrests, mostly for possession of weapons.

The “marriage-for-all” law, allowing gay couples to marry in town halls and adopt children, passed its final legal and constitutional hurdles earlier this month.

The first officially recognised same-sex marriage in France will take place between two men in Montpellier on Wednesday.

The passage of the law, and warnings of possible violence, had been expected to dampen the ardour of protesters for what was billed as the “last demonstration” in a series of half a dozen large rallies that began in December. Police put the turn-out at 150,000. The organisers claimed 1,000,000. Other organisers estimated over 400,000, which seemed closest to the mark.

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‘Conservative’ Virginia Now Embracing Homosexual Marriage

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Photo Credit: Matt WuerkerWelcome to the gay rights battleground of Virginia.

Yes, you read that right. In the 2013 off-year elections, a state that once leaned solidly to the center-right has become the newest focal point in the national debate over same-sex relationships. A gubernatorial race already defined partly along culture-war lines has grown even more contentious since last weekend, when Virginia Republicans nominated as their lieutenant governor candidate a firebrand minister who has called gays “very sick people psychologically” and suggested a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.

Remarkably, in a New South battleground where Democrats have traditionally won by carving out independent, non-partisan reputations, it’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe who’s most eager to keep gay rights on the political front burner.

When McAuliffe first ran for governor in 2009, he ran a conventionally cautious Democratic campaign, endorsing civil unions for gay couples but warning that Virginia would be unlikely to accept gay marriage. After all, it was only a few years earlier – in 2000 – that Republican George Allen ridiculed then-Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb for representing “Vermont values,” after his vote against the Defense of Marriage Act.

This year, McAuliffe fully supports same-sex marriage.

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Delaware: 11th State to Legalize Gay Marriage

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Photo Credit: joseanavasBy a slim margin, a divided Delaware state Senate voted Tuesday to make their state the 11th in the nation to allow same-sex marriage.

The Senate’s 12-9 vote sends the bill to Democratic Gov. Jack Markell, who supports the measure and planned to sign it later in the day. It would go into effect July 1. “I think this is the right thing for Delaware,” the governor said after the vote, while posing for pictures with supporters outside his legislative office. “It took an incredible team effort.”

Gay rights activists and their supporters in the chamber erupted in cheers and applause following the Senate vote. Delaware’s same-sex marriage bill was introduced in the Democrat-controlled legislature last month, barely a year after the state began recognizing same-sex civil unions. The bill won passage two weeks ago in the state House on a 23-18 vote.

While it doesn’t give same-sex couples any more rights or benefits under Delaware law than those they have in civil unions, supporters argued same-sex couples deserve the dignity and respect of married couples. They also noted that if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars married gay couples from receiving federal benefits, civil unions would not provide protections or tax benefits under federal law to same-sex couples in Delaware.

Opponents, including scores of conservative religious leaders from across the state, argued same-sex marriage redefines and destroys a centuries-old institution that is a building block of society.

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Rep. Louie Gohmert: A 'Conservative Firebrand'

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Photo Credit: Getty Images Below is the transcript of an interview conducted with Louie Gohmert as he walked back to his office after a Fox Business Network television appearance on Capitol Hill. In the interview, Gohmert discusses the state of the GOP, President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, and whether he has considered running for Senate…

What do you think the 2012 election said about the GOP? A lot of commentators say it showed that the GOP has to change on immigration or become supportive of gay marriage to remain competitive. How do you see it?

I think if we had done the things we promised that we wouldn’t be told that now we have to pander. You know, Scott Walker showed if you make promises and you do what you promise, you don’t have to pander. And, you know, Chris Christie has done somewhat the same thing. You make promises when you’re running, and keep your promises. And even when people disagree with you or don’t like you, they will look upon you as being a person of honor and they’ll respect you and you will be elected again. It’s just that people are so hungry for elected officials that will do what they say and say what they’ll do and keep those promises.

So you don’t accept the argument that the country is changing and the Republican Party has to change with it?

The country is always changing and we do need to change, and by changing we change the way we message, but there are some things — like honest, integrity — those kind of values that never go out of vogue. And I think people are hungry for honesty and integrity and I think that’s where we need to be — not pandering. And I also think if we start making the kind of changes that you’ve talked about policy-wise, even though they’re diametrically opposed to what we’ve said when we’ve been elected, I don’ think we’ll come back. People would rather have somebody of honor and integrity. I mean look at [George] Washington. People disagreed with him. He didn’t have 100 percent agreement on a whole lot of things, but he was a man of integrity and kept his word and that’s why we still celebrate him today, in addition to being very brave.

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RNC OKs Anti-Homosexual Marriage Resolution

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Photo Credit: AP

With no debate, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously here Friday to reiterate the party’s opposition to gay marriage.

The push from social conservatives came after last month’s “autopsy” report called for more GOP outreach to gays and said the party must change its tone on the issue to appeal to younger voters.

Some party leaders were frustrated by the optics of passing such a resolution at a spring meeting in the heart of one of the country’s most gay-friendly enclaves, and there was a clear effort to avoid a public back-and-forth over the measure. The resolutions committee passed it during a private Wednesday session that was closed to the press.

The language of the resolution affirms the party’s “support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman” — a position that was already in the platform that passed at last August’s Republican convention.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released earlier in the day found that 53 percent of registered voters now favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, with 40 percent in opposition. The poll found that 54 percent of independents back gay marriage, but 66 percent of Republicans oppose it.

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Saying "The Lord Made Homosexuals," Another US Senator Jumps on the Gay Marriage Bandwagon

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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) announced his support for gay marriage Thursday, becoming the 51st senator to do so.

“If we are endowed by our Creator with rights, then why shouldn’t those be attainable by gays and lesbians?” Nelson told the Tampa Bay Times. “Simply put, if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn’t, and I won’t.”

Nelson’s support came after numerous Democratic senators backed gay marriage in advance of Supreme Court cases on the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s gay marriage ban, Proposition 8. Two Democratic senators, Bob Casey (Pa.) and Tom Carper (Del.), declared their support earlier this week. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) became the second Republican senator to back gay marriage, following Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio.

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The War On Marriage And Motherhood

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Photo Credit: Alexander Hunter

President Obama and I have very different notions of what a family is. For liberals, the family can apparently be everything from “Heather Has Two Mommies” to “Daddy’s Roommate” to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “It Takes a Village.” In the opinion of electoral majorities in Kansas and 40 other states, however, that does not a family make.

For conservatives, the concept of family is the same as the Judeo-Christian model God ordained, a model supported by every other major world religion. It is the same unit recognized by the laws of nature, the laws of government, and civilized societies for thousands of years: one man, married to one woman, with so many children as God should see fit to entrust to their care through birth or adoption. In my case, that means me, Angela (my wife of 18 years), and our four children (who happen to be adopted).

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week in two landmark cases concerning homosexual marriage. The Hollingsworth v. Perry case challenges the federal constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative approved by 7 million voters to amend California’s state constitution to define marriage as an institution that involves only one man and one woman. The Windsor v. United States case challenges the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 federal statute overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1996 that recognizes traditional marriage for federal purposes and protects states from having homosexual marriage imposed upon them by other states.If at least five Supreme Court justices do not resist the temptation to legislate from the bench, they might overturn Proposition 8 and DOMA. If that happens, the high priests and priestesses of political correctness will have done irreparable harm to yet another pillar of the American paradigm for our patriotic, wholesome culture — “God, the flag, mom and apple pie.” Activist judges have already expelled faith from the public square (forbidding the Ten Commandments, a cross in remembrance of our military heroes, and Christmas Nativity scenes) and decriminalized burning the Stars and Stripes in public. The First Lady’s “Let’s Move!” initiative and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s sugary-drink ban suggest the days of consuming apple pie might well be numbered.

That leaves motherhood. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Congressional Resolution that established Mother’s Day. Every president since Woodrow Wilson has issued proclamations that pay homage to the significance of motherhood. In 1981, Ronald Reagan wrote: “They shape the character of our people through the love and nurture of their children. It is the strength they give their families that keeps our nation strong.” In 2011, President Obama wrote: “[W]e celebrate the extraordinary importance of mothers in our lives. The bond of love and dedication a mother shares with her children and family is without bounds or conditions.”

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Two 11-Year-Olds Receive Threats For Testifying Against Same-Sex Marriage

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

In the past two months, in attempts to offer an argument against same-sex marriage, two children have testified before their state legislators, countering other children who have been testifying for it. The two children testifying against it have either been crudely insulted or received death threats.

In February, speaking to the Minnesota House Committee on Civil Law, 11-year-old Grace Evans offered this statement…

Her father, Jeff Evans, revealed the treatment Grace had received from political opponents:

We haven’t had any physical threats, but we’ve had some rather colorful comments about my 11-year-old. I’ve been monitoring it to keep my family safe and have a heads up on it. It’s really shameful the things that people will say, hiding behind an Internet alias. We see it as more representative of where political discourse is in our country, where you can’t take a position without receiving a great deal of flak, which is unfortunate.

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After Repeatedly Refusing to Answer, Alaska’s Sen. Begich Now Embraces Homosexual Marriage

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong

After remaining mum on the subject when asked about it last week, Sen. Mark Begich’s office issued a statement Monday night from the senator supporting marriage equality.

“I believe that same sex couples should be able to marry and should have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as any other married couple,” the Alaskan senator said in what appears to be his first direct statement on the subject.

“Government should keep out of individuals’ personal lives — if someone wants to marry someone they love, they should be able to. Alaskans are fed up with government intrusion into our private lives, our daily business, and in the way we manage our resources and economy,” he continued.

Although Begich’s office did not respond to an earlier request for comment about his views on marriage equality, the Human Rights Campaign informed BuzzFeed Monday afternoon that Begich’s office had told the LGBT rights organization that Begich supported [it].

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Pastor Jailed In Christian -vs.- Lesbian Case

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Photo Credit: WNDA Mennonite pastor has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for helping a member of his congregation flee the country rather than turn her young daughter over to her one-time lesbian partner.

Last August, Pastor Kenneth Miller, of Stuarts Draft, Va., was convicted in a Vermont court on a charge of aiding in international parental kidnapping. He admitted that he helped Lisa Miller (no relation to the pastor) and her daughter, Isabella, leave the U.S. in 2009 at Lisa’s urging.

It is the latest twist in one of the most talked-about and consequential child custody cases of the modern era. After childhood abuse led Lisa Miller into a dysfunctional life of addictions and homosexuality, she experienced a change of heart, converted to Christianity and left the homosexual lifestyle, in which she had lived as “spouse” to another lesbian woman, Janet Jenkins. During their same-sex “civil union,” Miller had given birth to a daughter, Isabella, conceived through artificial insemination.

As a new Christian, Lisa Miller’s all-consuming focus in life was to be a good mother to Isabella. However, after a Vermont judge demanded that Lisa allow her former lesbian partner, Janet Jenkins, to have unsupervised visits with little Isabella, Lisa’s nightmare – which continues to this day – got its start.

According to the testimony of experts and eyewitnesses, the court-ordered visits were severely traumatizing the child, and Isabella’s court-appointed advocate said Jenkins was “turn[ing] her world upside down.” A clinical therapist testified Isabella appeared “traumatized” by her visits with Jenkins, and that “unsupervised visits … could cause permanent damage to normal development.” A social worker testified the little girl “suffers from sleep disturbance and nightmares, having difficulty sleeping through the night,” adding that “Isabella also talks about death, and has expressed fear that if her mother Lisa dies she will be at risk. Without prompting, Isabella has said she is afraid that Janet Jenkins may take her away from Lisa.”

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