Make comments to many of these news stories and be an online presence to stand for true marriage!

Make comments to many of these news stories and be an online presence to stand for true marriage!

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Supreme Court to hear gay marriage cases in April

Associated PressSetting the stage for a potentially historic ruling, the Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide whether same-sex couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the Constitution.
The justices will take up gay-rights cases that ask them to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire nation that people can marry the partners of their choice, regardless of gender. The cases will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late June.
Proponents of same-sex marriage said they expect the court to settle the matter once and for all with a decision that invalidates state provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Read the entire article at: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/16/supreme-court-to-hear-gay-marriage-cases-in-april/

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Atlanta Ousts Fire Chief Who Has Antigay Views

Read the story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/us/atlanta-ousts-fire-chief-who-has-antigay-views.html

MEDIA RESPONSE — 7 JANUARY 2015 Church Responds to Questions Regarding Upcoming TLC Program

SALT LAKE CITY — 

A new program on the TLC cable channel to air later this month, titled "My Husband's Not Gay," has generated significant news media coverage this week. Several journalists have asked the Church questions about the program because it features three Mormon couples. While the Church has no connection to the program and rarely comments on commercial productions, Church spokesman Eric Hawkins gave the following statement to the media regarding the issues being discussed:  
“The decision for a woman and man to marry is deeply personal. While the Church does not promote marriage as a treatment method for same-sex attraction, couples who are trying to be lovingly supportive of each other while being true to their religious convictions deserve our support and respect.”

Official information regarding the Church’s position and teachings on same-sex attraction can be found here:

TLC show about Mormons with same-sex attraction creates media uproar

Compiled by , Deseret News                                       Published: Wednesday, Jan. 7 2015 
Summary
The TLC special "My Husband's Not Gay" is creating a media hubbub before it airs on Sunday. A change.org petition seeks to cancel the show, which looks at the choices of four Mormon men, three of whom married women, not to act on same-sex attraction.

 "I think if you're on a show called 'My Husband's Not Gay,' then your husband's gay. I also think there is a reverse bullying in the gay community where you can't (live) a certain way — and I'm sure this is controversial — I think if a guy is attracted to guys and he wants to try to live a straight lifestyle, that's as much his prerogative as somebody that wants to live a gay lifestyle.”
                                                                      Former "Roseanne" star Sara Gilbert

SALT LAKE CITY — "In Salt Lake City, Utah, there are a group of Mormons who live their lives a little bit differently."
The cable channel TLC clearly hoped that tagline would draw attention to its one-hour special to air Sunday night called "My Husband's Not Gay."
Mission accomplished. Gay groups are attacking the show, and a change.org petition asking TLC to cancel the broadcast had more than 92,000 supporters as of the lunch hour Wednesday.
"This is the kind of thing TLC loves," "Entertainment Tonight" co-host Kevin Frazier said on the CBS talk show "The Talk."
The reality-based show portrays the lives of four men who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and who are attracted to men. Three are married to women and the fourth is dating women.
All seven are members of the North Star International community, an independent group of Latter-day Saints who experience same-sex attraction and desire to live in harmony with the church's teachings, doctrines and values, or who are family or friends of those who do.
LDS doctrine teaches that sexual relations are reserved for a marriage relationship between a man and a woman. The LDS Church, which had no involvement in the broadcast nor in the selection of the four men portrayed, released the following statement on Wednesday afternoon:
“The decision for a woman and man to marry is deeply personal. While the Church does not promote marriage as a treatment method for same-sex attraction, couples who are trying to be lovingly supportive of each other while being true to their religious convictions deserve our support and respect.”
In the show's trailer, one of the men says, "There is no marriage that is perfect — ours isn't — but, with our faith in God, we believe we can overcome anything."
Another portrays the spectrum of same-sex attraction, saying, "I'm attracted to my wife, for sure, and I'm definitely attracted to men, too."

These Mormon women married men who like men — and they’re all OK with it

By Jane Ridley                                                                                               January 5, 2015 | 10:30pm
Sitting in a French restaurant on one of their regular double dates, the two married couples enjoy an animated conversation covering the usual small talk about jobs, sports and the challenge of parenting.
The mood lightens when a cute male server approaches the table to take their order. But it’s the husbands — not the wives — who start to flirt with him, suggestively joking that he milk a goat by hand to make cheese for their salads.
“Well, he’s a very good-looking guy,” gushes Jeff Bennion, 44, as he and his buddy, Pret Dahlgren, 32, eye the hunky specimen returning to the kitchen.
Far from being shocked or offended, Jeff’s other half, Tanya, 42, and Pret’s spouse, Megan, 32, roll their eyes in amusement.
“Are we going home together or what?” Tanya jokes, half-expecting Jeff to ask for the waiter’s number when the men check him out yet again after their meals arrive.
Mischievous banter like this, as revealed in the upcoming TLC documentary “My Husband’s Not Gay,” is common in the lives of the Bennion and Dahlgren families, two of three Mormon households who showcase their unconventional marriages for the one-off reality show airing Sunday.
The husbands, all of whom spoke openly with their wives to The Post, readily admit that they are sexually attracted to other men, yet deny ever acting on those impulses. It’s an aspect of their personalities they term “same sex attraction,” or SSA, rather than gay or bisexual.
Their wives stand by them 100 percent, claiming their marriages — all of which have produced kids and involve plenty of action in the bedroom — are much stronger because they acknowledge the issue, rather than sweep it under the carpet.m/2015/01/05/these-women-married-men-who-like-men-and-theyre-all-ok-with-it.

Read the entire article at: http://nypost.com/2015/01/05/these-women-married-men-who-like-men-and-theyre-all-ok-with-it/

Monday, December 15, 2014

Gay Rights Activists Outraged Over Billboard’s Message About Homosexuality and Genetics



NOTE:  the gay community has declared that anyone who claims homosexuality is not genetic is hateful.  This story illustrates the automatic reaction when a group makes a bold move in placing their belief on a billboard.  Certainly a new definition of hate.  It's easy for the emotional reaction to sway viewers, but take a minute and realize that it is just that - an emotional reaction.  Read Peter Sprigs on teen suicide rates for an interesting view.

A controversial billboard proclaiming that “nobody is born gay” has sparked a great deal of controversy in Richmond, Virginia, where it was recently put on display.
Paid for by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays — an organization aimed at helping so-called “ex-gays” gain acceptance — the ad features a picture of male twins and reads, “Identical twins. One gay. One not. We believe twins research studies show nobody is born gay.”
While the billboard is offending local gay and lesbian advocates, Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, believes that critics aren’t looking at the facts, specifically when it comes to analyzing how same-sex attraction pertains to twins.
“Identical twins have the same genes or DNA. They are nurtured in equal prenatal conditions.  If homosexuality is caused by genetics or prenatal conditions and one twin is gay, the co-twin should also be gay,” she said, according to WVUE-TV. “Because identical twins are always genetically identical, homosexuality cannot be genetically dictated. No one is born gay.”  **
See article online at: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/11/nobody-is-born-gay-activists-outraged-by-billboards-message-about-homosexuality-and-genetics/

**Read Peter Sprigs on teen suicide rates for an interesting view.
FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports

Griggs went on in her statement to say that “change is possible” and that people deserve to know the truth about same-sex attraction, claiming that her organization seeks to help people “seeking positive life change.”
But the leader of Rosby, a group that offers resources to gay youths, said that the billboard is simply unacceptable in the modern era.
“I am shocked and really disappointed that at the end of 2014, we have a billboard in the middle of our city that says that kind of hate,” Beth Panilaitis, the organization’s executive director, told WVUE-TV.
Richmond Gay Community Foundation executive director Bill Harrison agreed.
“We do not know why people are heterosexual. Maybe when we figure that out, we can determine why some people are not,” he said in an interview with WWBT-TV. “What we do know is that this type of therapy has caused many people to commit suicide."  

Christian Printer Was Punished After Refusing to Print Gay Pride T-Shirts — and Now He’s Fighting Back

A Christian printer who was found guilty of discrimination by a civil rights commission and told that his employees would need to attend diversity training after he refused to print shirts for a gay pride parade is fighting back, appealing the ruling in Kentucky state court.
Blaine Adamson, owner of Hands on Originals, a Lexington-based T-shirt company, filed the appeal through his attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm, arguing that the messages he was asked to print violated his deeply held religious beliefs.
The challenge comes after Greg Munson of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission announced in October that Hands on Originals discriminated against the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization of Lexington when it refused to print the shirts back in 2012.


The civil rights commission subsequently officially adopted this sentiment in November, finding that Adamson — who regularly does business with and employs gays and lesbians — violated the local non-discrimination ordinance, according to a Alliance Defending Freedom press release.
“No one should be forced by the government to endorse or promote ideas with which they disagree. Laws that do that are fundamentally unjust,” senior legal counsel Jim Campbell said in a statement. “We are appealing the commission’s decision because the First Amendment protects the freedom of every American to decline to speak on any issue without fear of punishment.”
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