Charlie Butts at OneNewsNow:
"News Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, is preparing to publish a magazine devoted to planning "gay" and lesbian weddings with the debut issue of Wedding Pride next month.
... when the New York Senate voted to legalize homosexual marriage, other news networks devoted considerable time to report on it, while Fox News devoted zero segments to the vote or to the governor signing the measure into law."
Adam Dickter for the New York Jewish Week:
We'll take a closer look at the campaign of Democrat Assemblyman David Weprin for Congress in this week's paper, but I'd be remiss in not blogging today about what I am hearing is a groundswell of anti-Weprin sentiment among the Orthodox in the district because of his vote in support of same-sex marriage in June. I am told that prominent haredi rabbis are urging a strong vote for Republican Bob Turner as a de facto protest vote against the marriage equality bill.
... Bundled with the tide of anti-Obama sentiment Weprin is saddled with, the likely low turnout among people who aren't strongly motivated and the fact that a meager six points separate the two candidates, this could be significant.
The owners of an inn that refused to host a same-sex wedding reception say they have no policy to discriminate against gay couples.
"We have never refused rooms or dining or employment to gays or lesbians," they said in a statement released in response to media inquiries. "Many of our guests have been same-sex couples. We welcome and treat all people with respect and dignity. We do not, however, feel that we can offer our personal services wholeheartedly to celebrate the marriage between same-sex couples because it goes against everything that we as Catholics believe in."
In their first court filing to answer the suit, the inn's owners insisted that applying Vermont's Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act would violate their right to free speech and freedom of association by forcing them to hold "expressive events."
... The ACLU and [Kate] Baker denounced it.
"The Wildflower Inn owners do not deny that they refused to host Kate and Ming's wedding reception," said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the ACLU chapter. "Instead, they continue to claim a right to discriminate against the couple, which is in violation of Vermont law. We are confident that the owners' claim that they have a First Amendment right to discriminate will be found meritless by the courts."
We've talked about New York Assemblyman David Weprin's rowdy town hall earlier this morning. Here's video of him being asked about his vote for gay marriage:
Dear Marriage Supporter,
We're 14 months away from the 2012 elections, but already the presidential race is well underway, with Senate, Congressional and state races soon to heat up. The future of marriage hangs on the outcome of this next election – protecting marriage in Minnesota, Iowa, New York, and in our nation's capital. With challenges to DOMA and Prop 8 headed to the Supreme Court, it's critical that our next president stand firm in defense of marriage.
We need your help today to build our grassroots networks into a powerful, nationwide army of marriage supporters ready and willing to stand up for marriage.
And for the next 7 days, a generous supporter will donate $1 for every new Facebook friend, Twitter follower, or text message signup, up to $100,000. Help us reach this goal today!
Here's what you can do. It's simple and easy!
Faithfully,
Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage
P.S.: Your gift of $100, $50, or even $25 will help to make our Summer Marriage Challenge even more successful! Click here to make a secure online donation today!
The gay marriage fight makes strange bedfellows. Orthodox Jews in New York City--a key Democrat constituency--are rebelling against their party in support of a core principle:
A prominent Orthodox Jewish Democratic lawmaker says he won't back fellow Dem David Weprin's candidacy -- and hinted he'll even cross party lines to endorse Republican Bob Turner in the Sept. 13 special election to replace disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner.
"I will not support David Weprin," said Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, particularly objecting to Weprin's outspoken support of gay marriage.
... Hikind, who represents neighborhoods on the Brooklyn side of the Queens-Brooklyn congressional district, criticized Weprin for citing his religion in voting for the gay-marriage law in June.
"Weprin basically used his Jewish orthodoxy to say gay marriage is OK. He used his orthodoxy to say gay marriage is kosher. That crossed the line," Hikind said. --NY Post
The local Patch reports (and includes a brief video):
The first debate in the Ninth District special election took place Monday night, and for one night only, the basement of Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills may as well have been the setting of a WWE cage match.
After the resignation of former Congressman Anthony Weiner, a special election in the Ninth District was set for Sept. 13.
As the date nears, things have percolated to a serious boil.
... [Assemblyman David Weprin, D-Little Neck] had a hard time getting his points across, thanks in large part to the near-constant shouting that greeted his every talking point. Geriatric screams of “stop the spending” could be heard as a response to the Democrat’s repeated suggestion that the federal government should tax millionaires and corporations.
Jason Lewis explains in the Star Tribune why Michele Bachmann and social conservatives won in Iowa, and why they are a potent force in American politics:
For those political pundits still scratching their heads over Michele Bachmann's victory in last weekend's Iowa straw poll, here's a piece of advice. You owe it to yourself to get out a little.
... Millions of Americans who have seen their social norms vanquished on the altar of an absurd political correctness. Their social conservatism is branded as bigoted, fringe and, of course, hateful, but they no longer care, they've had enough.
That's what Bachmann represents -- a leader who will make, if nothing else, a last stand for traditionalism. Someone willing to unapologetically declare that, all things being equal, children need both a mom and a dad.
... Agree with her or not, Bachmann is riding a potentially potent backlash that has emerged from those Americans who see an activist minority imposing its version of morality on the nation.
Pope Benedict XVI warned in a speech to more than one million pilgrims in Madrid that marriage is between a man and a woman and cannot be dissolved.
... "The Lord calls many people to marriage, in which a man and a woman, in becoming one flesh, find fulfilment in a profound life of communion," he told the young pilgrims.
A Vatican spokesman said on Sunday as many as 1.5 million pilgrims had gathered to hear the pope. Marriage was a project for true love, deepened by sharing joys and sorrows, and marked by "complete self-giving", said the pope.
"For this reason, to acknowledge the beauty and goodness of marriage is to realize that only a setting of fidelity and indissolubility, along with an openness to God's gift of live, is adequate to the grandeur and dignity of marital love."
Today NOM Chairman Maggie Gallagher participates in a 2012 Election Symposium hosted by The Public Discourse. She argues for the importance of marriage and outlines what a president can do to defend and promote it:
The mainstream media have labeled marriage the “hottest front in the culture war.” Much to the media’s surprise, several of the GOP candidates have already signed the National Organization of Marriage’s (NOM) Marriage Pledge. They were surprised by major candidates’ willingness to sign NOM’s pledge because this was supposed to be the year the social issues did not matter.
Presidential candidates for the 2012 election need to know that marriage is not only an essential issue in this race; it is a winning issue.
Elites have sounded the death knell on the marriage debate again and again, but popular support for traditional marriage refuses to die. Americans at the ballot box have repeatedly shocked elite opinion by demonstrating that even in deeply blue states a majority of Americans continues to oppose same-sex marriage. [Continue reading...]
From the American Principles Project press release:
Texas Governor Rick Perry, Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN), Rep. Ron Paul (TX), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and businessman Herman Cain will attend the “American Principles Project Palmetto Freedom Forum” in Columbia, S.C. on Monday, September 5 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. The forum will provide a unique opportunity for candidates to drill down on their policy positions. It will be broadcast on SC Educational Television.
Candidates will be on the stage one-at-a-time and will participate in a question and answer session with three panelists: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), and Dr. Robert George, founder of American Principles Project and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. The event will be moderated by David Stanton, a veteran of South Carolina presidential events and respected former local news anchor.
“With the candidates being questioned one-on-one by panelists closely in touch with the grassroots, we think this event will go to the heart of the issues that concern the American people,” said Frank Cannon, president of the American Principles Project.
An interesting fantasy drummed up in the media to protect Shirley Huntley. Josh sounds like a great little guy, but New York has second-parent adoption. And stepparents (the relationship created by marriage to non-biological parents) do not necessarily have the same legal rights as parents.
If Jeff wanted to be Josh's dad he's had a lot of opportunity before gay marriage to do the paperwork. And gay marriage won't change anything.
But I'm sure they aren't telling Josh that.
When [Jeff Friedman and Andy Zwerin] started lobbying senators, they brought Josh along. One of the senators they spoke with was Shirley Huntley, a Queens Democrat who voted against same-sex marriage in 2009 and told The New York Times, “If they gave me a million dollars, tax free, I just wouldn’t vote for it.”
Last winter, though, she decided she was undecided. And when Friedman and Zwerin brought Josh to Albany one day, the 73-year-old grandmother met with them with an open mind.
... Josh was the tipping point, Huntley said later. Though she kept her new position a secret for weeks, she made up her mind that spring day.
“You say, ‘What the hell,’ ” Huntley said, throwing up her hands. “It’s wonderful.” --New York Capital News
Back in July we noted Joe Carter's essay in First Things on five steps to destroy a marriage culture:
If the goal [is] to undermine cultural institutions [such as marriage], the process for getting from Unthinkable to Policy would follow these five easy steps:
Step #1: From Unthinkable to Radical
Step #2: From Radical to Acceptable
Step #3: From Acceptable to Sensible
Step #4: From Sensible to Popular
Step #5: From Popular to Policy
This week he notes how the recent academic symposium in Baltimore to normalize pedophilia follows this same pattern:
Back in June I outlined how to destroy a culture in 5 easy steps.
An academic symposium in Baltimore comprised of just such a cluster of professoriate and perverts is meeting today to shift the acceptance of pedophilia from “unthinkable” to merely “radical”...
With the euphemism “minor-attracted persons” they are also including Step #2: “From Radical to Acceptable — This shift requires the creation and employment of euphemism.”
... Remember when conservatives were mocked and derided for claiming that Lawrence would lead to the normalization [of] polygamy and pedophilia? Now some of those same people who sneered at us are using the decision to promote . . . polygamy and pedophilia.
Miranda Devine is an Australian journalist commenting in the Herald Sun on the national debate over same-sex marriage taking place in that country now:
...On ABC-TV's Q&A on Monday night came an extraordinary question from an audience member who said: "The criticism of Senator Wong is based on the homophobic idea that a child is entitled to having both a father and a mother."
So there you have it. It is homophobic to say a child is entitled to a mother and a father.
Yet not one person on the panel could find the courage to knock the assertion on the head.
On Facebook someone published a list of my Facebook friends on a page called: "Stopping psychotic extremists who want to kill minorities". Inviting people to bully and harass my Facebook friends is this person's way of trying to silence an opinion he (or she) doesn't like.
A cursory glance at these rage-flecked responses offers an insight into the illiberal mindset of those who pretend to demand tolerance. Or rather ram it down our throats. This is not tolerance but jackboot totalitarianism, the tyranny of the minority.
Jackie Stricker, the lesbian partner of Dr Kerryn Phelps, wrote a letter to this newspaper calling for me to receive "urgent counselling" and saying my columns shouldn't be published.
That's right. Let's censor the unfashionable opinions, especially those held by the mainstream.
Herman Cain’s lambasting of President Barack Obama for no longer defending a federal ban on gay marriage is rhetoric unless the GOP presidential candidate commits to concrete actions, said the National Organization for Marriage.
... “President Obama claimed he supported traditional marriage but then failed to follow through. If Herman Cain wants to distinguish his position from President Obama, he should commit to concrete actions, not just rhetoric in support of marriage.”
The NOM statement came after Cain last week criticized the Obama administration’s decision not to defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage and protects other states from having to recognize such unions from another state. Cain, former chairman and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, called the president’s move an impeachable offense.
