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Tennessee Courts Replace ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ With ‘Parent 1,’ ‘Parent 2’

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downloadChildren will now have “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” instead of a mommy and a daddy, according to Tennessee’s Administrative Office of the Courts.

Shortly after the Supreme Court redefined marriage, the state’s Office of the Courts revised its documents. A spokesperson for the courts confirmed to me that the words “Mother” and “Father” had been replaced by the terms “Parent 1” and “Parent 2.”

I was alerted to the gender-neutral parenting documents by Kendra Armstrong, a family law attorney in Memphis and one of my longtime readers.

“Why are heterosexual parents having their rights violated?” she asked. “So now it’s improper and inappropriate in a court of law to refer to a parent as a mother and a father?

The court spokesperson did not elaborate on why they felt compelled to change the longtime wording or whether Parent 1 brings home the bacon or whether Parent 2 wears the pants in the relationship. (Read more from “Tennessee Courts Replace ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ With ‘Parent 1,’ ‘Parent 2′” HERE)

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Tennessee Lesbian Couple Faked Hate Crime and Destroyed Own Home With Arson for This

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arson6n-2-web[Editor’s note: the story about Craig James follows below] By Nicole Hensley. A lesbian couple faked a hate crime that left their home a pile of charred rubble at their Venore, Tenn., property in 2010, local reports said.

An insurance company caught on to the ruse months after the blaze and accused Carol Ann and Laura Stutte of perpetuating a hoax and blaming the fire on their neighbor, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

A federal jury ruled in favor of the insurance company’s belief that the couple spray-painted an anti-gay slur on their own garage to spin the fire as a hate crime based on their sexual orientation.

The homeowners intended to bank on an insurance claim of more than $276,000, American National and Casulty Company alleged in court documents obtained by the News Sentinel.

The target of their stunt was Janice Millsaps, a neighbor whom the Stuttes accused in news reports and a lawsuit of threatening to kill them and burn their house down. (Read more from “Tennessee Lesbian Couple Faked Hate Crime and Destroyed Own Home With Arson for This” HERE)

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Sports Analyst Craig James Claims Religious Discrimination

Craig James Senate ImageBy Baptist Press Staff. College football analyst Craig James filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against Fox Sports, alleging he was fired from a broadcasting position because of his Christian belief that homosexuality is sinful.

“This case is much bigger than me,” James said in a public statement from Liberty Institute, the Christian legal organization representing him. “It affects every person who holds religious beliefs. I will not let Fox Sports trample my religious liberty.

“Today, many people have lost their jobs because of their faith. Sadly, countless are afraid to let their bosses know they even have a faith. This is America, and I intend to make sure Fox Sports knows they aren’t above the law.”

After being hired by Fox Sports Southwest in 2013, James, a former NFL running back, worked one game and then was fired. A redacted copy of the lawsuit posted online by Liberty Institute states, “When James asked, defendants identified one—and only one—reason for terminating James: his beliefs about marriage, which are explicitly religious in nature” . . .

In response to James’ firing, a Fox Sports spokesman told the Dallas Morning News in 2013: “We just asked ourselves how Craig’s statements (about homosexuality) would play in our human resources department. He couldn’t say those things here.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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‘Strip Church’ Ministry Helps Tennessee Exotic Dancers Shed their Pasts

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Photo Credit: Erin Stevens

Photo Credit: Erin Stevens

One woman at a time, Erin Stevens is determined to lead every stripper in Nashville to salvation.

The 42-year-old pastor’s wife launched Strip Church in October following a 21-day fast during which Stevens claims God spoke to her directly, telling her to reach out to those farthest from a divine lifestyle.

“I just thought that I’ve got to do something,” Stevens told FoxNews.com. “So I felt the Lord say to me, ‘Go feed the strippers.’”

Stevens, whose husband is the lead pastor at Friendship Community Church in Mount Juliet, then began taking home-cooked meals to a local strip club in Nashville, Tenn., twice a month. In addition to moral support and general counseling, Stevens provided a nondenominational, judgment-free approach, she said.

“I told these girls they may not need God right now in their lives, but they will at one point,” Stevens said. “We never go in with a Bible and we never go in with a prayer sermon. We don’t try to change them, we just love them.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Restaurant Tells Woman who Ran into Male Cross-Dresser in Ladies Room to Use Men’s Room (+video)

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Photo Credit: CBS

By Todd Starnes. A Nashville woman who found herself face-to-face with a “big, burly” cross-dresser in the ladies room of a family restaurant felt her horror turn to anger after a restaurant manager suggested she try the men’s room.

Transgendered people in several states have been fighting for the right to use public restrooms that correspond with whatever sex they consider themselves, with lawmakers in California and Massachusetts providing support for the idea. But David Staton, whose wife had the disquieting run-in while eating out at Amerigo, a restaurant in the country music capital, has a simple solution.

“There needs to be some sort of law that says if you are born a man with man-parts, you go to the men’s bathroom,” said Staton.“In a family restaurant, men should go to the men’s room and women should go to the women’s.”

Amerigo owner Doug Hogrefe confirmed to Fox News that the incident occurred and apologized to the couple.

“Amerigo does not have a policy regarding questioning its guests about gender identity in our restrooms,” he said. “In my 20-plus years in the restaurant industry, this is also the first time something like this has come up.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Transgender Teen Voted Prom Queen At Middleboro High

By Lauren Leamanczyk. Cody Tubman had a dream prom night, the perfect dress and then the crown to go with it.

Cody was voted prom queen of Middleboro High School.

“I was all smiles,” Cody says laughing. “We were standing there and they announced I was prom queen. So I was like ‘oh yay, so exciting,’ But it was kind of surprising.”

It was surprising because Cody is transgender.

She was born a boy but she started dressing as a girl when she was a freshman in high school. She says she feels more confident and comfortable in her body. Read more from this story HERE.

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‘Transgender’ person reveals how he served as part of Navy SEAL Team Six for 20 years before retiring and leaving his male self behind

Photo Credit: Daily Mail


By Meghan Keneally. A former Navy SEAL has written a book about the 20 years that they spent in the elite squad before living life as a woman.

Kristen Beck was called Chris while she served in the famous Navy SEAL squad, one team of which gained international recognition for being the ones who killed Osama bin Laden.

As Chris, Beck served for 20 years in SEAL team 6 and retired just months before the May 2011 raid on bin Laden’s compound.

During her time in the military, Beck went on 13 deployments- including seven in combat zones- and earned both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

Now she is detailing her multi-year process in transitioning from living life as one of the world’s most highly-skilled soldiers to that of her female personality that feels like more of a matched fit to her mental and emotional personality. Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Threaten Prosecution for Anti-Muslim Speech

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Photo Credit: Anuradha Sengupta

A U.S. attorney in Tennessee is reportedly vowing to use federal civil rights statutes to clamp down on offensive and inflammatory speech about Islam.

Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, was quoted by the Tullahoma News this week suggesting that some inflammatory material on Islam might run afoul of federal civil rights laws.

“We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected,” Killian told the newspaper.

Killian, along with the FBI special agent that runs the Knoxville office, are set to speak next week to a special meeting with the local Muslim community, informing them about their rights under federal law.

“This is an educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion and exercising freedom of religion,” Killian said about the meeting. “This is also to inform the public what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Pro-Wrestler May Have RINO Senator from Tennessee in his Sights

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Glenn Jacobs, the seven-foot-tall professional wrestler better known as Kane, just might be the next Republican senator from Tennessee.

The former WWE world champion (and uncompensated Daily Caller columnist) is already being touted by Tennessee tea-party groups as the man who can beat moderate GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander in 2014.

“It’s well known that Lamar Alexander is considered by most as a RINO (Republican In Name Only),” reads a late-May statement from the Tennessee Alliance of TEA Party & Liberty Groups. “If Mr. Jacobs actually announces his candidacy against Alexander, with such a famous name known around the world, this would be a prime situation for ALL of the Tennessee TEA Parties to strongly support his candidacy.”

Jacobs insists he has “no plans to run at this point.” But, at the same time, he is not prepared to rule it out.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tenn. Woman Gets 51 Years in Newborn Twins Deaths

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Photo Credit: EtanSivad[The 26-year old mother, Lindsey Lowe,] gave birth to the twin boys in the bathroom of her parents’ home in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Hendersonville, about 20 miles northeast of Nashville on the night of Sept. 12, 2011. She told police she smothered them and placed them in a laundry basket so that her parents would not hear their cries. Lowe’s parents found one of the babies two days later and alerted police…

In ordering the maximum sentence on the child abuse charges, [Judge Dee David] Gay said he found Lowe to be untruthful and selfish and called it a tragedy that so many people believe her version of events.

Gay said Lowe’s statement in a letter to the judge claiming she did not know she was pregnant was “not credible,” and he chided her for writing that the babies’ father had date-raped her.

“Just how in the world is that relevant?” he asked. “And is it supposed to devalue the lives of these children?…There are real serious problems in you taking responsibility for what you did.”

Gay quoted Focus on the Family founder James Dobson saying, “Our children are the true wealth of any nation” and added that we cannot become “a child-killing society that views children as burdens rather than blessings.”

Read more from this story HERE.

‘I Cling To My Bible, Guns,’ Says Black Female Senate Hopeful

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Photo Credit: Human Events

Tennesee’s outspoken African American female Senate candidate in 2014 spoke to Guns & Patriots about gun rights, racism, and the Bill of Rights. “Gun control historically begins with blacks who were forbidden from owning guns,” said Brenda S. Lenard, a 2013 political science PhD candidate from the University of Tennessee and a resident of Kingston.

“It was very easy for slave owners to keep and control blacks with gun control,” she said. The same thing is happening today, she said. “It is a slow process of gun confiscation.”

It starts with certain groups of people, or certain types of rifles, and turns into an outright ban of firearms, said the two-year NRA member. Lenard said the term racism is over-used. “I think that diminishes real issues of racism.”

“The government should not infringe on anyone’s rights,” she said. Although blacks were one of the first groups to be targeted, today’s gun grab is not just about race, but about fundamentally altering civil rights for all Americans, she said.

The Bill of Rights does not matter anymore, she said. “This is about power and control.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama circumvents yet another state ban on Planned Parenthood funding

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After reaching an agreement to send more than $1 million over three years to a Planned Parenthood in Tennessee, the Obama administration has awarded $3.1 million in federal funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates in New Jersey.

The grant announcement was made Tuesday by Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez, (D-NJ), two pro-abortion Democrats in the U.S. Senate who are longtime allies of Planned Parenthood. The funding comes through the Department of Health and Human Services to Planned Parenthood and other agencies.

The Obama administration grant to the abortion company also comes after Governor Chris Christie again vetoed state taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

The New Jersey Senate passed a measure to restore the $7.5 million in funding 26-13 with all of the Senate Democrats voting to restore the Planned Parenthood funds along with Republicans Diane Allen and Jennifer Beck. Pro-life advocates called on him to rescind the funding again, after two of the abortion business’ centers closed last year following the first veto of the funding.

The new funding brings the New Jersey Family Planning League’s total federal funding this year to nearly $6.3 million. The NJFPL works with Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey, Planned Parenthood of Central and Greater Northern New Jersey, Hoboken Family Planning, and Women’s Health and Counseling Center in Somerville to fund 25 locations.

Read more from this story HERE.