In What Countries are the Terms 'Mother and Father' Progressing Out of Existence - Not Russia

Thanks, but we’ll keep ‘mother’ & ‘father’:

Putin rejects politically correct ‘parent #1 & #2’ titles

©  Global Look Press / Tim Hall

Russia

During a discussion on Russian national identity, President Vladimir Putin made sure to politely but firmly reject any notion of replacing traditional family structures with more “progressive” examples implemented in the West.

“You said the word ‘mother’ cannot be replaced. Turns out maybe it can: they’ve replaced it in some countries with ‘parent number one’ and ‘parent number two.’ I hope that never happens here,” Putin said on Friday at the meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations, a Kremlin advisory body.

His remarks came in response to lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky, who talked about efforts to cultivate a unifying identity among Russia’s youth without infringing on any other ethnic, religious or group identities. The words “mother” and “parent” are functionally the same, but carried a very different emotional weight, Vodolatsky argued, just like “motherland” and “country.”

France

Smiling as he replied, Putin may as well have winked and nudged in the westerly direction. One notable place where motherhood and fatherhood had been replaced in the name of “social equality” is France, where in February school forms were updated to “parent 1” and “parent 2” in order to reflect new “family diversity.”

Certain families were finding themselves stuck in “rather old-fashioned social and family models,” Valerie Petit, an MP with President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party REM, said in February.

Italy

A similar measure was underway in Italy, but Deputy PM Matteo Salvini restored “mother” and “father” on government forms in April. It is unclear where the proposal may be on the agenda of the current government, which was put together in September to shut out Salvini without an election, in yet another display of EU democracy at its finest.

USA

Not surprisingly, it was the US that led the way in “progressive” bureaucrat-speak, with the State Department announcing that it would replace “mother” and “father” on passport applications in 2011, during the Obama administration. Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant secretary for passport services at the time, argued that this was due to “changes in medical science and reproductive technology.”

LGBT activist group Family Equality Council left no doubt about the move’s motives, however, cheering the change to a “more global term” that would allow “many different types of families” to feel recognized. This was four years before the US Supreme Court established same-sex marriages as a constitutional right, mind you.

To be fair, mothers and fathers weren’t entirely replaced on State Department forms. The current ones have two entries for “Mother/Father/Parent,” which is clearly unacceptable discrimination against children of throuples and other polyamorous relationships, who still remain unfairly illegal under oppressive US laws.

While Western “human rights” groups may be girding their loins to condemn Putin’s remarks as yet another example of “oppression” in Russia, they should hold their horses before cashing those lobbying checks. In the meeting, he also talked about welcoming and accepting immigrants, condemnation of “ignorance and extremism,” and support for Russia’s indigenous peoples – who live in better conditions and in far larger numbers than Native Americans, it should be said.

At least, according to RT...

‘Kill the Gays’: Uganda Resurrects Overturned Bill Introducing Death Penalty for Homosexuals

The Ugandan government has announced plans to reintroduce legislation paving the way for the execution of homosexual people, five years after the bill was thrown out by the constitutional court on a technicality.

The bill, dubbed ‘Kill the gays’ within Uganda, will be reintroduced within weeks, according to officials. Currently, Ugandans face life imprisonment if convicted of having sex with another person of the same gender.

Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo said the bill is being reintroduced because of allegedly “massive recruitment of gay people” and current laws are too limited in scope.

“We want it made clear that anyone who is even involved in promotion and recruitment has to be criminalised,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Those that do grave acts will be given the death sentence."

The minister said he’s confident the measure will get the backing of the two-thirds of parliamentary members required to pass a bill.

Several countries cut their financial support and aid to Uganda when the ‘Kill the gays’ bill was first brought forward in 2014, but Lokodo said the country is prepared to stand up to a fresh backlash over the legislation, adding “we don’t like blackmail.”

In March, Brunei introduced an amendment to its Islamic penal code that included stoning gay people to death, but suspended the measure following international outcry. 

Conservatism Emerging in Rural Sweden With Backlash Against #PCMadness

‘Tradition is important to us’: Swedish town rebels against

LGBT rainbow flag on city hall

A man holds a rainbow flag during the Gay Pride Parade on August 2, 2014, in Stockholm, Sweden.

© Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP

A municipality in Sweden decided to quit flying LGBT pride flags on public buildings, after conservative parties took over the city council.

The town of Solvesborg in southeastern Sweden has voted to stop hoisting the rainbow-colored flag on the city hall every August during Stockholm Pride, the annual LGBT-themed festival held in the nation’s capital. From now on, only local and national flags are allowed on public buildings.

The idea of flying the Pride colors was introduced in 2013, when the city council was led by the center-left Social Democrats. But now the city is controlled by conservative Swedish Democrats (SD) and three other right-leaning parties, who decided to revise the local flag code.

“Tradition is important to us, and I know many of our older residents share this view,” Mayor Louise Erixon (SD) explained the move to discard the Pride flag.

Not everyone is happy with the new flag policy, though. Politician and LGBT-themed event organizer Sophia Ahlin scolded her colleagues in the Moderate Party who sided with SD against the Pride Flag. “Their decision goes completely against what the Moderates stand for in terms of equality of all people,” she argued.

Having legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, Sweden is considered to be a largely liberal and LGBTQ-friendly country. However, Solvesborg with its population of around 9,000 is often described in the media as an example of conservatism becoming more popular in Sweden’s countryside. The leader of the Swedish Democrats, Jimmie Akesson, grew up in the town, while mayor Erixon is his partner. He wrote in an Instagram post that no flags of political significance would be hoisted on city hall.

No Single 'Gay Gene' Contributes to Same-Sex Behaviour, Study Finds

There is a significant pro-gay slant to this article which
I attempt to temper with truth

'Effectively impossible' to predict sexual behaviour from one's genome, researcher says

The Associated Press 

Research published in the journal Science has identified five genetic variants not previously linked with gay or lesbian sexuality. (Ann Wang/Reuters)

The largest study of its kind found new evidence that genes contribute to same-sex sexual behaviour, but it echoes research that says there are no specific genes that make people gay.

The genome-wide research on DNA from nearly half a million U.S. and U.K. adults identified five genetic variants not previously linked with gay or lesbian sexuality. The variants were more common in people who reported ever having had a same-sex sexual partner. That includes people whose partners were exclusively of the same sex and those who mostly reported heterosexual behaviour.

None cause the behaviour; it cannot be predicted

The researchers said thousands more genetic variants likely are involved and interact with factors that aren't inherited, but that none of them cause the behaviour nor can predict whether someone will be gay.

The research "provides the clearest glimpse yet into the genetic underpinnings of same-sex sexual behaviour," said co-author Benjamin Neale, a psychiatric geneticist at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

Genetics - less than half the story

"We also found that it's effectively impossible to predict an individual's sexual behaviour from their genome. Genetics is less than half of this story for sexual behaviour but it's still a very important contributing factor," Neale said.

The study was released Thursday by the journal Science. Results are based on genetic testing and survey responses.

Some of the genetic variants found were present in both men and women. Two in men were located near genes involved in male-pattern baldness and sense of smell, raising intriguing questions about how regulation of sex hormones and smell may influence same-sex behaviour.

Importantly, most participants were asked about frequency of same-sex sexual behaviour but not if they self-identified as gay or lesbian. Fewer than five per cent of U.K. participants and about 19 per cent of U.S. participants reported ever having a same-sex sexual experience.

The researchers acknowledged that limitation and emphasized that the study's focus was on behaviour, not sexual identity or orientation. They also note that the study only involved people of European ancestry and can't answer whether similar results would be found in other groups.

Origins unknown

Origins of same-sex behaviour are uncertain. Some of the strongest evidence of a genetic link comes from studies in identical twins. Many scientists believe that social, cultural, family and other biological factors are also involved, while some religious groups and skeptics consider it a choice or behaviour that can be changed.

The father of sexual research in America, Alfred Kinsey, determined that 89% of gays could associate their behaviour, or preference, to specific events or environmental situations from their childhood. That was in the 1940s. The study was repeated in 1970 by the Kinsey Institute and found the same results.

Variants very weak

A Science commentary notes that the five identified variants had such a weak effect on behaviour that using the results "for prediction, intervention or a supposed 'cure' is wholly and unreservedly impossible."

"Future work should investigate how genetic predispositions are altered by environmental factors," University of Oxford sociologist Melinda Mills said in the commentary.

And, perhaps, how genes themselves are altered by environmental factors.

Other experts not involved in the study had varied reactions.

Dr. Kenneth Kendler a specialist in psychiatric genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University, called it "a very important paper that advances the study of the genetics of human sexual preference substantially. The results are broadly consistent with those obtained from the earlier technologies of twin and family studies suggesting that sexual orientation runs in families and is moderately heritable."

If that were so, then you would think that it would be moderately predictable, yet the study says, quite emphatically, that it is not.

Gay gene?

Former National Institutes of Health geneticist Dean Hamer said the study confirms "that sexuality is complex and there are a lot of genes involved," but it isn't really about gay people. "Having just a single same sex experience is completely different than actually being gay or lesbian," Hamer said. His research in the 1990s linked a marker on the X chromosome with male homosexuality. Some subsequent studies had similar results but the new one found no such link.

He didn't actually link them except in his mind. He stated he was on the verge of linking them and that was good enough for Science journal and mainstream media. He still hasn't found that link he was on the verge of finding in 1990.

This is the reason why homosexuality suddenly became quite acceptable in the early 1990s. Hamer's study, published as a cover story in the same Science journal, spread like lightening across the news media of the world and has never been brought into question by most in the 28 years since. 

The journal Science edition that published Hamer's study put the two words, "Gay Gene?" on the cover. The media appears to have not noticed the question mark, for they simply decided then that gays were born that way and there's nothing they can do about it. They never pursued Hamer to find out if the question mark had ever been removed. 

The very next year, Science published an article from an eminent geneticist, who, unlike Hamer, was not gay, in which he trashed Hamer's study as being completely false. Other geneticists agreed with him, but that made no difference to the news media who had heard what they wanted to hear.

Hamer, and other gay or pro-gay geneticists have been looking for a gay gene for more than 50 years. Hamer admits he has not found it, neither has anyone else.

May have little to do with homosexuality

Doug Vanderlaan, a University of Toronto psychologist who studies sexual orientation, said the absence of information on sexual orientation is a drawback and makes it unclear what the identified genetic links might signify. They "might be links to other traits, like openness to experience," Vanderlaan said.

In other words, the 5 weak variants may have almost nothing to do with sexual preference but rather reveal one's character traits which may make him more likely to act in a manner conducive to sexual experimentation.

The study was a collaboration among scientists including psychologists, sociologists and statisticians from the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Australia. They did entire human genome scanning, using blood samples from the U.K. Biobank and saliva samples from customers of the U.S.-based ancestry and biotech company 23andMe who had agreed to participate in research.

Fake science

There is a lot of garbage floating around the internet and 'science journals' on both sides of this issue. However, gay, or pro-gay researchers have a motive for finding a gay gene whether it is there or not. The journal Science, in Dec 2014 reported that 'one brief conversation with a gay rights canvasser could change someone's mind about same-sex marriage'. 

As unlikely as that theory seems, the writer had data to back it up. However, the UCLA grad's dissertation adviser questioned him on his data and eventually confirmed that there were no data; none. He made it all up. Meanwhile NYT, WaPo, and other media outlets ran with the story. The retraction didn't get nearly as much coverage as the fake news. 

Media bias

That I have had to insert a half-dozen comments in order to bring some truth and reality to this article is an example of the far-left bias in the media today. Anything that is pro-LGBTQ2S is quickly, and without careful examination, shuffled to the top of the pile. Any news that is fervently anti-Christian is good news in most mainstream media newsrooms.

Mainstream media is into social engineering, and our children are the animals it's experimenting on. Their willful blindness to the truth is confirmation of that. A Christian man once said, "Morality dictates theology"! 

Catholic Archbishop Warns of ‘Rainbow Plague’ Threatening Poland

FILE PHOTO: People take part in the annual "Equality Parade" rally of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights supporters in Warsaw, Poland June 3, 2017. © Reuters / Agencja Gazeta/Slawomir Kaminski

The archbishop of Krakow in southern Poland is facing backlash for comparing the “red plague” of Communism to the gay rights movement, describing the latter as a “rainbow plague” brainwashing his countrymen.

"Our land is no longer affected by the red plague, which does not mean that there is no new one that wants to control our souls, hearts and minds," Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski said on Thursday, delivering a mass to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising against the Nazi occupation.

Jedraszewski argued that the communist ideology and the LGTB-championed ideas of equal rights for sexual minorities are effectively rooted in the same source.

"Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit, neo-Marxist," he said, calling the global gay rights campaign that has rolled down to Poland a “rainbow disease.”

The cleric’s outburst predictably drew ire from the liberal opposition to and critics of the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Robert Bierdon, Poland’s first openly gay politician and the leader of the pro-EU Spring party, called the archbishop “the devil incarnate” and accused him of crossing the red line “impassable in a democratic state.”

"I am gay, and I’ll let him say it to my face that I am the plague. I’d tell him about my childhood and how I wanted to commit suicide after I read that being gay is a disease,” the politician said, adding that he would be penning a letter to Pope Francis in hopes he would “intervene” in the situation.

A number of LGTB-related controversies have rattled Poland, a deeply Catholic country, this year. Last month, a conservative Polish newspaper sparked outrage after it introduced ‘LGTB-free zone’ stickers, which were immediately compared to the Nazi posters warning Jews to “keep out.”

In May, a Polish LGTB activist was arrested for offending religious beliefs after she printed out posters showing baby Jesus and Madonna with rainbow halos over their heads.

Gay rights events in Poland are often marred by violence. A pride march in the city of Bialystok in late July quickly descended into chaos after gay rights activists were confronted by a group of anti-LGTB protesters, who pelted them with rocks, bottles and firecrackers.

Why 'LGBT-Free Zones' are on the Rise in Poland

Far-left backlash in a far-right country

Nationalist ruling party calls 'LGBT ideology' a 'threat'

amid growing number of Pride marches

CBC Radio 

On stickers distributed in weekly conservative magazine, Gazeta Polska, this week, the phrase 'LGBT-free zone'

circles a rainbow with a cross through it. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Activists in Poland say so-called LGBT-free zones across the predominantly Catholic country point to efforts by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to stoke anti-LGBT sentiment ahead of a parliamentary election this fall.

Local media reports suggest that across Poland, more than two dozen cities and towns — some led by PiS members — have declared their regions LGBT-free zones in recent months. The majority are situated in the historically conservative southeastern part of the country.

While the declarations are not enforceable, activists say they signal a targeted effort to exclude LGBT residents.

"It's a statement saying that a specific kind of people is not welcome there," said Ola Kaczorek, co-president of the Warsaw-based Love Does Not Exclude Association.

The number of supposedly LGBT-free regions has grown since Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski signed a declaration in February supporting sexual and gender diverse communities in that city, Kaczorek said.

Ola Kaczorek, second from right, waves a flag during the pride parade in Warsaw,

representing Love Does Not Exclude Association. (Love Does Not Exclude Association)

Officials of the nationalist PiS party, which won a majority in 2015 running on an anti-immigration platform, have been vocal in their opposition to LGBT rights. Activists say that with migration to Poland slowing significantly since 2015, the party is looking for a new group to target.

Because a political party has to have people to demonize in order to win an election.

At a rally ahead of European Parliament elections in May, PiS president Jaroslaw Kacynski told a crowd that "LGBT ideology" was a "threat" to Polish society.

"They are not saying LGBT+ people are a threat, but they're saying that LGBT+ ideology is a threat," said Kaczorek. "Then people who are taking part [in pride marches] are not seen as humans, but as a part of some kind of ideology … [and] that is terrifying for some people."

Violence at pro-LGBT march

On July 20, advocates took to the streets of Białystok, a city in the Law and Justice party stronghold Podlasie Voivodeship, for the region's first-ever Pride march, and were met with violence from conservative and religious protesters. 

Białystok is considered an LGBT-free zone, according to a map plotted by LGBT advocacy group Lambda Warsaw.

Protesters chanted slogans, including 'God, honour, motherland', and burned a rainbow flag, at the first-ever

Pride march in Białystok, Poland on July 20. (Agnieszka Sadowska/Agencja Gazeta via Reuters)

Video from the event shows firecrackers exploding throughout the crowd and homophobic chanting from a group of men burning a rainbow flag.

"I have never seen anything like that before," said Małgorzata Mróz, a 20-year-old University of Warsaw student who travelled to join the march.

"People shouted at me that I'm a bitch, that I should die," she said adding that counter-protesters threw rocks and bottles at LGBT advocates. 

It's been just this great grassroots movement

that's been growing and expanding

- Ola Kaczorek

Both Mróz and Kaczorek told Day 6 there wasn't enough of a police presence.

Police arrested 25 people following the attacks, according to a Reuters report.

While the Polish government did not respond to a question about accusations that they support anti-LGBT sentiment, they did address the violence in Białystok.

"In Poland, there is no acceptance of behaviours slighting the rights of other persons," said Elżbieta Witek, the minister of the interior and administration, in an emailed statement to Day 6.

Małgorzata Mróz, 20, covers her mouth after tear gas is dispersed during the first-ever Pride march in Białystok, Poland, on July 20. The protest became violent when conservative and religious counter-protesters intercepted the march. (Agata Kubis/Submitted by Malgorzata Mroz)

But while the country's Education Minister Dariusz Piontkowski told private broadcaster TVN on Sunday that LGBT people shouldn't be excluded in Poland, he questioned the intent of pride marches.

"These kinds of marches... awaken resistance"

Education Minister Dariusz Piontkowski

"These kinds of marches, initiated by groups that are trying to force through their non-standard sexual behaviours, awaken resistance ... it's worth considering if such events should be organized in the future," he said. 

Mróz, who grew up in Częstochowa, organized a pride march in the small, southern city last year. There was no violence like that in Białystok, but the march was unwelcomed.

"Częstochowa is also my city," she said. "I will be there because it's my place and I have a right to be there."

Church and state

Ahead of last weekend's events in Białystok, Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda opposed the march, in a statement, calling it "foreign" to the region. Wojda also expressed "gratitude" for those who "defend Christian values."

According to 2016 numbers from Statistics Poland, more than 90 per cent of Poles identify as Roman Catholic.

"The church has a huge influence on people and it's a great outlet if someone wants to use it — and the ruling party is using it because lots and lots of people are regularly going to the church," Kaczorek said.

Though Kaczorek believes the Law and Justice party will win a second term in an election to be likely held in October, she has hope the LGBT community's activism will pay off.

Participants attend the city's first Pride march in support of the LGBT community in Bialystok, Poland, on July 20. (Agnieszka Sadowska/Agencja Gazeta via Reuters)

When Gazeta Polska, a conservative weekly magazine, included stickers emblazoned with the words "LGBT-free zone" in Wednesday's issue, a Polish judge ordered a ban on distributing the stickers any further Thursday.

Kaczorek believes if the ruling party continues to oppose LGBT rights, it will encourage the community to fight back. 

This year, there were more than 20 pride marches across Poland's 16 voivodeships.

"It's been just this great grassroots movement that's been growing and expanding — and there are new young people in smaller towns that don't want to migrate to bigger cities," Kaczorek said.

"They want to show themselves in their local communities and do something to show that we are here; we are everywhere. We are normal everyday people."

Why do Catholics and most Christians have a problem with LGBTQ ideology? Is it because God called it an abomination? Is it because He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and a couple other small cities because of their sexual license? Does it have to do with their Pride Parades, which are often obscene and yet tolerated by police and parents of small children? Is it because God hates 'pride' in any form? 

There should be absolutely no tolerance for violence against gays and lesbians and trans. But neither should they be flaunting their stuff in the face of God and man. As the Education Minister said, 'These kinds of marches... awaken resistance.'

A little common sense and modesty would go a long way toward peace and coexistence.

British MPs Legalize Same-Sex Marriage in Northern Ireland

By Sommer Brokaw

(UPI) -- Members of parliament voted Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.

British lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 383-73 to permit same-sex marriage, which will change the law, effective by Oct. 21, unless the Northern Irish government, which collapsed in 2017, has been re-established by that time and repeals the measure.

Labor MP Conor McGinn, an advocate for marriage equality, who championed the amendment, thanked the Love Equality campaign for making it possible.

"Having been let down so many times before, LGBT people in Northern Ireland can now look forward to enjoying the same rights as everyone else in the rest of the UK and on the island of Ireland," McGinn tweeted. "I hope to see the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly restored and working," by Oct. 21 "so that they can take the decision to introduce equal marriage."

But if it "isn't functioning by then," McGinn added, "the LGBT community in Northern Ireland now know that Westminster will act to ensure equality and respect for all citizens, and finally give them the right to marry the person they love."

Lawmakers also voted 332-99 soon afterward to extend access to abortion in Northern Ireland through an amendment by Labor MP Stella Creasy.

Extension of both of these rights to Northern Ireland makes the country fall in line with the rest of the region.

The Republic of Ireland to the south legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 and legalized abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy last year.

"Thank you for everyone who today stood up for equality in Northern Ireland -- whether for same-sex marriage or abortion, today we have said everyone in the UK deserves to be treated as an equal," Creasy tweeted. "There's a road to go yet but today a big step forward."

The changes were made through amendments to a government bill also tied to budgets and elections for the devolved assembly. The MPs said the government's argument that only the devolved Northern Irish government could make the changes was defunct because of it's political deadlock since 2017.

Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, has been without a functioning elected government since power sharing between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein collapsed in January 2017.

Gender-Neutral Passports Rejected as Court Rules Specifying Sex is Not Discrimination

Unexpected anti-politically correct ruling in UK

© Britta Pedersen/ Global Look Press

The UK High Court has rejected a bid to introduce gender-neutral passports. The litigant had suggested that asking passport holders to specify their gender is “inherently discriminatory.”

Christie Elan-Cane, who has been campaigning with the backing of Human Rights Watch for so-called “gender-X” passports since 1995, said: “I am bitterly disappointed that my case for the judicial review of the UK government’s discriminatory passport policy was not upheld – not just for myself but for everyone who is compromised by this policy.

“I was not seeking special treatment. I was seeking to be treated as a human being,” she said, the BBC reports.

Justice Baker rejected claims that the current policy, which requires putting ‘male’ or ‘female’ on passports, is in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

“At present I am not satisfied, for the reasons which I have set out, that the current policy of HM Passport Office is unlawful,” the judge said.

Elan-Cane’s lawyer argued in the High Court last April that the policy breached two fundamental rights: the respect for a private life and the right to not be discriminated against on the basis of gender and sex.

LGBT charity Stonewall also expressed disappointment at the High Court’s dismissal, saying: “Many trans people are afraid to travel abroad for fear of intrusive questioning or difficulties at passport control.

“Non-binary people are also not recognized under law, and it's unclear whether they are protected by anti-discrimination legislation,” said Laura Russell, Stonewall's head of policy, the BBC reports.

Supreme Court Sides with No-Cakes-for-Gays Baker, Noting Anti-Religion ‘Hostility’

A married gay man carries the US and rainbow flags © Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Christian baker from Colorado who, on religious grounds, had refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. It declared that the case against the baker violated his religious rights.

In a 7-2 decision, the justices said that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had shown “impermissible hostility” toward religion when it found that the baker, Jack Phillips, violated anti-discrimination laws by refusing to bake the requested cake.

The justices did not, however, clarify whether a cake is the type of expressive act protected as free speech by the First Amendment. Nor did they issue a ruling on the specific circumstances under which people may seek exemption from anti-discrimination laws.

The ruling was authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who also authored the 2015 ruling to legalize gay marriage nationwide. Despite his pro-gay marriage judicial work, Kennedy is a staunch advocate for free speech and religious freedom.

Two of the Supreme Court’s four liberal justices sided with their five conservative colleagues to deliver the verdict. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor were the two dissenting voices.

The gay couple at the center of the story, David Mullins and Charlie Craig, were married legally in Massachusetts, but wanted the cake baked for their wedding reception in Colorado in 2012. While gay marriage was not legal in Colorado at the time, the state’s anti-discrimination laws included sexual orientation as a protected category, allowing the couple to file a complaint.

While the justices ruled 7-2 in favor of Phillips, some media outlets downplayed the clarity of the decision. NBC, Reuters, Politico and NPR all called the court’s decision “narrow.” While this may technically be in reference to the fact that the judges’ decision was specific to this particular case, conservatives saw it as proof of a biased media working against them.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) meanwhile called the decision “a major victory for religious liberty.”

That could be an overstatement, but at least the decision was right and the insight into anti-Christian hostility is right-on. It is obvious in so many areas, such as the comments below, and in the media bias that all except those hostile to Christianity can see, which includes MainStream Media (MSM). 

This is obvious from the very title of this article out of RT. The 'No-Cakes-for-Gays Baker' line is completely false as the bakers did not refuse the customers because they were gay, but because they wanted to celebrate a gay wedding. Had there been another theme to the cake, there would have been no problem. 

This is typical of the 'slant' MSM puts on things in order to dress-up their far-left ideologies and make-fun of Christian values. They don't realize they are making fun of God. Of course, they don't believe in God, as though that makes any difference in His existence, or His pending judgment.

Some progressives, on the other hand, were unhappy with the ruling. Wisconsin Democrat Cathy Myers said that the decision will only embolden other “bigoted bakers,” (Hmmm. No hostility there.) while writer Robert Sandy said that the decision gave Phillips license to be a “homophobic a**hole.”

If he didn't have that right, Mr Sandy, you might not have the right to call him such immature names.

Anyway, congratulations SCOTUS on getting it right.

French TV Show Calls Transgender Man ‘Mom,’ Divides Social Media

The New Normal - Gender Dysphoria

The French Twittersphere is abuzz over a TV show that invited on a couple of transgender men and their child, calling the one who gave birth “a mother.” Some have slammed the show as intolerant.

The now hotly-discussed show called ‘Hello, earthlings!’ was aired on Saturday. It featured an American transgender couple, Biff Chaplow and Trystan Reese, who were both born women. The latter chose to keep his uterus to bear their child, who was also present on the show.

During the show a banner reading “Mom is on the left” appeared on the screen, referring to the 34-year-old, causing an uproar on social media and splitting it into two camps.

The first half believed that calling a transgender man “a mother” could be offensive for those who wish to change, or have changed, their gender. They immediately accused the TV show of intolerance. “What the hell is it? Mom? It’s a joke?!” one angry person tweeted.

Another person said he thought that the biological mother was somewhere on the left. But when he realized that the banner pointed to Reese, he was furious.

Others believe the controversy is a bit exaggerated. After all, Reese decided to keep his female reproductive organs, the ‘pro-Maman’ front argued.

“The guy on the left of the screen was a woman and gave birth to a child, so yes technically he is the child’s ‘Mom’, even if she changed sex,” one person said.

“He carried a child,”“But it is not a man! It’s a woman who took hormones to get hair!” were among the other arguments.

Meanwhile, Chaplow and Reese hope that the TV show will apologize for the inappropriate ‘Maman’ banner. “We know they will issue an apology for calling me a “mother,” and hope they will remember that many, many other men have given birth before I did,” Reese wrote with a kissing face emoji.

However, the TV show has so far remained silent on Twitter.

Oh, God! How long?

Bermuda Becomes First Country to Repeal Same-Sex Marriage

By Susan McFarland 

The Bermuda flag flies in May 2017. The territory's governor has signed an act that repeals citizens' right to same-sex marriage. Instead, same-sex couples can only enter into domestic partnerships.

File photo by EPA-EFE/CJ Gunther

UPI -- Despite a Supreme Court ruling last year authorizing same-sex marriages, Bermuda's governor approved a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry.

Governor John Rankin announced Wednesday that he signed into assent the Domestic Partnership Act, which was passed in December in the British territory's House of Assembly and Senate.

The new act defines "domestic partnerships," instead of marriages, for same-sex couples, though Rankin said the rights of couples in domestic partnerships won't differ from those who are married.

"The Domestic Partnership Act permits any couple (heterosexual or homosexual) to enter into a domestic partnership and gives same-sex couples rights equivalent to those enjoyed by heterosexual married couples; rights that were not guaranteed before the passage of this Act," Rankin said.

Included in the act is the right to inherit in the case of no will, the right to a partner's pensions, access to property rights, the right to make medical decisions on behalf of one's partner and the right to live and work in Bermuda as the domestic partner of a Bermudian.

"The Act is intended to strike a fair balance between two currently irreconcilable groups in Bermuda, by restating that marriage must be between a male and a female while at the same time recognizing and protecting the rights of same-sex couples," Rankin said.

Same-sex couples previously married under Bermuda law will continue to be recognized as being married and overseas same-sex marriages taking place before and during the transitional period will be recognized as marriages in Bermuda, Rankin said.

Critics say it is unprecedented that a jurisdiction would take away the legal right to marriage after it has been granted.

"Governor Rankin and the Bermuda Parliament have shamefully made Bermuda the first national territory in the world to repeal marriage equality," said Ty Cobb, director of Human Rights Campaign Global. "This decision strips loving same-sex couples of the right to marry and jeopardizes Bermuda's international reputation and economy."

The Bermuda Tourism Authority has said the tourism industry would have an economic fallout if the law goes into effect.

"At the Bermuda Tourism Authority, we work hard to keep our research and commentary on this issue restricted to economics," Kevin Dallas, Bermuda Tourism Authority CEO, said in a December letter to lawmakers. "The Bermuda tourism economy, and the workers and businesses who make it thrive, deserve their fair share of the LGBT market as we all continue the uphill climb toward tourism resurgence."

‘Volcano of Homosexuality’: Egypt’s Coptic Christians Organise Conference to ‘Treat’ Gays

An act of moral terrorism?

FILE PHOTO © Jamal Saidi / Reuters

The Coptic Church in Egypt has reportedly organized a conference entitled "The Volcano of Homosexuality" which will offer a variety of ways to "treat" homosexuality.

St. Mark's Orthodox Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria will set up the event to increase awareness about "treatments" for homosexuality and how best to ensure a "speedy recovery," reports The New Arab.

A date for the conference has yet to be confirmed but early reports indicate that a number of workshops will be provided at the event by a "homosexuality healing specialist" who will provide instruction on gay conversion therapy.

The Coptic church has previously described same-sex relationships as "immoral" and a "threat" to family stability.

"Therefore this marriage is completely refused from the Christian faith," head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, said when asked about gay marriage, as cited by Step Feed.  

"When God created man and woman and for them the first family was made by man and woman. [gay marriage] is not acceptable and it is considered as a sin. It's sin," he added.  

Homosexuality is taboo in Egypt among the nation's Muslim majority and Christians alike. The country has roughly 77 million Muslims and four million Christians, the vast majority of whom are Coptic.

Seven people were detained for flying the rainbow flag at a concert in Cairo on Monday.

Declaring yourself as a homosexual is not a human right,

Egyptian MP Shadia Thabit

"What happened at the concert cannot be accepted by society. Declaring yourself as a homosexual is not a human right," lawmaker and Egyptian Member of Parliament Shadia Thabit said, as cited by The New Arab.

"How can they openly announce their sins? Don't talk to me about human rights. They should go, get lost far away from us," she said.

Abbas Shouman of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo described the incident as an "act of moral terrorism," as cited by Egyptian Streets.

At a 2003 meeting of all Christian churches in Egypt, chaired by the former Pope of the Coptic Church, Shenouda III, leaders opposed attempts to legalize homosexual marriage, reports Egypt Independent.

Police in Egypt use decades-old laws to arrest members of the LGBT community including an anti-prostitution law established in 1950 and a 1961 law against "debauchery" which have been pretexts for raids on gay clubs and events in the country.

Gender Omitted for First Time on Canadian Baby's Birth Certificate

Extreme-left ideology is making its way into government policy and practice in Canada at an astonishing pace.

Far-left governments in Ontario, Alberta, and now British Columbia as well as in Ottawa make for a breath-taking descent into extreme-left ideology.

By Ray Downs 

UPI -- Canada's health department did not identify a baby's gender on birth documents because the parent wants the baby to decide which gender to identify with.

The Gender Free I.D. Coalition said Searyl Atli Doty did not undergo a gender inspection at the time of their birth. The coalition's stated vision is "to remove all gender/sex designations from identity documents."

The group says Searyl is the first baby to officially skip the process of getting a government-designated gender at birth.

God have mercy on that poor child. What a horrible thing 'their' parent has done to it. What a crazy world when a baby is referred to in the plural and the parent in the singular!

"It is up to Searyl to decide how they identify, when they are old enough to develop their own gender identity," Kori Doty, the child's parent, said in the statement. "I am not going to foreclose their choices based on an arbitrary assignment of gender at birth based on an inspection of their genitals."

Arbitrary - based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system. Here is where common sense is completely deserted. An inspection of the genitals is a factual method of determining one's sex. To deny that one's sex is determined by their genitals is arbitrary. It is also idiotic, if not outright insane.

Whopping big law-suits coming

Furthermore, the state doesn't assign gender designation, the baby's own body does. Does the state have a right to assign a gender that runs opposite to the obvious physical attributes of a child? Do you see some whopping big law-suits down the road when a state assigns a gender designation to a child in defiance of the child's physical attributes, who then grows up to be a person who wants to be the gender he was actually born with but can't because he's had gender reassignment surgeries, hormones and psychological counseling to convince him that he is not what he is?

Doty, a non-binary transgender person who prefers the "they" pronoun, said the decision to let Searyl decide their own gender was based on Doty's own experience.

"When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life," Doty told the CBC. "Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then."

Doty added: "I'm raising Searyl in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I'm recognizing them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be the most whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box."

The Gender Free I.D. Coalition said one way to help prevent problems regarding self-determining one's gender in the future is to remove gender identities from government identification from the beginning.

"Everybody's gendered identification starts with a birth certificate. The state ascribes a sex/gender marker at birth, and then 'certifies' that gender. But no one knows a baby's gender at birth since gender identity takes years to be known," the group says on its website, adding: "The only acceptable solution is to remove gender altogether, from all identity documents."

Good grief! And we Canadians think America has gone nuts! The Gender Free I.D. Coalition has the right to say what they believe, but for government officials to actually employ extreme-left ideology into policy and practice is outright insanity.

Justice Ministry to Appeal ECHR Ruling on Russian ‘Gay Propaganda Law’

The European Court of Human Rights - neo-liberal instrument

for the promotion of LGBTQI rights?

© Bogdan Cristel / Reuters

The Russian Justice Ministry has announced plans to appeal a ruling that found Russia’s ban on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors discriminatory and awarded damages to several activists previously convicted under the act.

According to the statement published on the ministry’s website on Tuesday, the ban does not contradict international practices and the sole purpose of the law was to protect children’s morals and health.

The statement was released soon after the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that the law, often described in the mass media as a ‘gay propaganda ban’, was discriminatory and encouraged homophobia. The court took the side of three Russian activists who were convicted in Russia for violating the ban between 2009 and 2012, and ordered the Russian state to pay compensation for damages.

One of the main sponsors of the original Russian bill, State Duma MP Vitaly Milonov (United Russia) called the ECHR ruling a “propaganda stunt” and a “bludgeon” used by neo-liberals to destroy their opponents.

“This court became an information propaganda dump quite some time ago and everyone should stop calling it a court. Because a court is something independent and important,” Milonov told RT.

“The ECHR [European Court of Human Rights] is nothing more than a branch of the propaganda machine servicing the European neoliberal circles. It has already stopped protecting the human rights and liberties, now they use it as a bludgeon for making threats,” he added.

The lawmaker also said that the ruling can be easily ignored in Russia.

The head of the Upper House committee for constitutional law, Senator Andrey Klishas, said on Tuesday that in his view, the Justice Ministry should have sent an enquiry to the Constitutional Court to check whether the potential execution of the ECHR ruling is in line with the Russian Constitution.

According to the senator’s press service, he believes that following the ECHR orders could violate the constitution, which states that the exercising of one’s rights must not infringe upon the rights and freedoms of others, as well as banning public promotion of social, racial, ethnic, or religious hatred.

“The current legislation matches public morals as they are traditionally understood in Russian society. As any legislative solution to a public request lies within the powers of the national legislative bodies, the senator’s opinion is that European entities should abstain from interfering in the internal affairs of our state,” the press service’s statement reads, as quoted by Interfax.

In 2013, Russia introduced the law banning any promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to persons under 18. Before being approved nationwide, the law had been passed at a municipal level in the city of St. Petersburg.

The law ordered fines for breaches of the ban, including in the media, on the internet and via viral advertisements. Holding LGBT rallies was also prohibited as well as distribution of information aimed at forming non-traditional sexual concepts in children, describing such relations as attractive, promoting a distorted understanding of a social equality between traditional and non-traditional relations, and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest in such relations.

In late 2015, two Communist Party lawmakers proposed an additional ban on any public demonstration of “non-traditional” sexual orientation, however this bill has not been passed by the parliament.

Ontario Passes ‘Totalitarian’ Bill Allowing Gov’t to Take Kids from Christian Homes

TORONTO, June 1, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne (far left) Liberals have passed what critics describe as “totalitarian” Bill 89 by a vote of 63 to 23 on the last day before Queen’s Park adjourns for the summer.

Pro-family advocates warn Bill 89 gives the state more power to seize children from families that oppose the LGBTQI and gender ideology agenda, and allows government agencies to effectively ban couples who disagree with that agenda from fostering or adopting children.

Bill 89, or the Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act, 2017, repeals and replaces the former Child and Family Services Act that governs child protection services, and adoption and foster care services.

It adds “gender identity” and “gender expression” as factors to be considered “in the best interests of the child.”

At the same time, it deletes the religious faith in which the parents are raising the child as a factor to be considered, and mandates child protection services consider only the child’s own “creed” or “religion” when assessing the best interests of the child.

“With the passage of Bill 89, we’ve entered an era of totalitarian power by the state, such as never witnessed before in Canada’s history,” says Jack Fonseca, senior political strategist for Campaign Life Coalition.

“Make no mistake, Bill 89 is a grave threat to Christians and all people of faith who have children, or who hope to grow their family through adoption.”

“Disappointed as I am with this result, I am not surprised,” commented Tanya Granic Allen, president of Parents As First Educators (PAFE). “The Kathleen Wynne Liberals have for years been pursuing their anti-parent and anti-family agenda and Bill 89 is the latest installment.”

Conservative MPPs present at Queen’s Park for the vote opposed the bill, which was in stark contrast to their position at second reading in March, when 83 of Ontario’s 107 MPPs passed Bill 89 unanimously.

The Conservatives who voted June 1 against Bill 89 included Monte McNaughton, Jeff Yurek, Bob Bailey, Gila Martow, Todd Smith, Michael Harris, and Steve Clark.

PC leader Patrick Brown was not in the house for the vote.

Trillium Party MPP Jack MacLaren also voted against the bill.

A source present at a Tory caucus meeting two weeks ago told LifeSiteNews the Conservative members were swayed by “three or four” MPPs who said they could not in conscience vote for what the source described as a bill that is “fundamentally and morally wrong.”

The PC caucus, now at 28 members, thereupon decided to vote as a block against Bill 89, according to the source.

Fonseca lauded those PC MPPs who “came to their senses, stopped listening to that propagandist for Kathleen Wynne’s policies, and I do mean Patrick Brown, and chose to finally vote against tyranny.”

“And thank God they did, because it serves as a symbol of resistance,” he said.

“CLC had been directly lobbying MPPs to oppose the bill, and we believe that may have been a factor in why the PCs ended up voting en masse against it.”

Parents As First Educators and the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) have also been at the forefront of relentless lobbying against the bill.

But despite these efforts, no Liberal broke ranks to vote on behalf of concerned parents, and a number of New Democratic Party MPPs voted for the bill as well.

Bill 89 retains the provision in current law that a child who is suffering or “at risk of suffering” mental or emotional harm and whose parents do not provide “treatment or access to treatment” is in need of protection under the law.

But while the former law said the Children’s Aid Society should take the “least disruptive course of action,” Bill 89 adds “including the provision of prevention services, early intervention services and community support services," according to an ARPA analysis.

“The implication is that intervention should not be presumed to be more disruptive than non-intervention,” the ARPA report adds.

Statements by Minister of Child and Family Services Michael Coteau clearly signaled the pro-LGBTQ, gender ideology Liberal agenda, critics warned.

Coteau, who introduced the bill, told QP Briefing he sees questioning teenagers’ self-identification as LGBTQI or telling them to change as abuse.

“I would consider that a form of abuse, when a child identifies one way and a caregiver is saying no, you need to do this differently,” he said.

“If it’s abuse, and if it’s within the definition, a child can be removed from that environment and placed into protection where the abuse stops.”

Children’s Aid agencies now have “a type of police power to bust down your door, and seize your biological children if you are known to oppose LGBT ideology and the fraudulent theory of ‘gender identity', if for instance, some claim is made that your child may be same-sex attracted or confused about their ‘gender,’” according to Fonseca.

“We already see similar tyranny happening in other jurisdictions, such as Norway, where the main child protection service there, Barnevernet, has been involved in numerous high profile seizures of children from traditionally-principled families,” he added.

Fonseca pointed out the Liberal bill gives legal cover for government workers to discriminate against Christians who want to adopt or foster children.

“Even before Bill 89 was passed, but immediately after its introduction in December,  I learned of several Christian couples who were turned down for adoption on account of their deeply held religious beliefs about traditional marriage and human sexuality,” he told LifeSiteNews.

This reveals the “stunning hypocrisy and anti-Christian bigotry” of the left, Fonseca said.

The Ontario court in 1995 ruled “for the first time in Canadian history that it was ‘discriminatory’ of the Child and Family Services Act to not allow homosexual couples to bring a joint application for adoption.”

But the “same activists who cried discrimination in 1995 [are] now actively legislating the same discrimination upon Bible-believing Christians, by banning them from having children through adoption,” Fonseca said.

“Will the left never feel ashamed of its hypocrisy?”

Fonseca also issued a plea to Christian leaders, particularly the Catholic bishops.

“Why has the most powerful spiritual body in this province, the Catholic hierarchy, not lifted a finger nor raised a voice to oppose this tyranny against Christian families, and those from other faiths?” Fonseca questioned.

“The lack of spiritual leadership is killing us. Every single time that Liberals, either federally or provincially, roll out the LGBT juggernaut to take away our rights, or to demonize us as bigots, we hear nothing but silence from the Church. This has to stop.”

MPPs who voted against Bill 89:

PC Party: Ted Arnott; Bob Bailey; Toby Barrett; Steve Clark; Lorne Coe; Vic Fedeli; Ernie Hardeman; Michael Harris; Lisa MacLeod; Gila Martow; Jim McDonell; Monte McNaughton; Julia Munro; Rick Nicholls; Sam Oosterhoff; Randy Pettapiece; Todd Smith; Lisa Thompson; Bill Walker; Jim Wilson;

Trillium Party: Jack MacLaren

PC MPPs absent for vote:

Patrick Brown, Raymond Cho, Randy Hillier; Sylvia Jones; Norm Miller; Laurie Scott.

 John Yakabuski; Jeff Yurek.

MPPs who voted for Bill 89:

Liberal Party: Laura Albanese; Granville Anderson; Yvan Baker; Chris Ballard; Lorenzo Berardinetti; James Bradley; Michael Chan; Bob Chiarelli; Mike Colle; Michael Coteau; Grant Crack; Steven Del Duca; Bob Delaney; Nathalie Des Rosiers; Vic Dhillon; Joe Dickson; Han Dong; Brad Duguid; Kevin Daniel Flynn; John Fraser; Jennifer French; Ann Hoggarth; Eric Hoskins; Mitzie Hunter; Helena Jaczek; Sophie Kiwala; Marie-France Lalonde; Jeff Leal; Tracy MacCharles; Harinder Malhi; Amrit Mangat; Cristina Martins; Deborah Matthews; Bill Mauro; Kathryn McGarry; Eleanor McMahon; Ted McMeekin; Peter Milczyn; Reza Moridi; Glen Murray; Indira Naidoo-Harris; Yasir Naqvi; Arthur Potts; Shafiq Qaadri; Lou Rinaldi; Liz Sandals; Charles Sousa; Harinder Takhar; Glenn Thibeault; Daiene Vernile; Soo Wong; Kathleen Wynne; David Zimmer.

ND Party: Gilles Bisson; Sarah Campbell; Catherine Fife; France Gélinas; Percy Hatfield; Paul Miller; Peggy Sattler; Peter Tabuns; Monique Taylor; John Vanthof.