Liberty Counsel, the Christian hate group behind Kim Davis’s attempt to have the Supreme Court overturn its marriage equality decision, says their fight to end LGBTQ+ equality is far from over.
“I have no doubt that Davis’s resolve will serve as a catalyst to raise up many more challenges to the wrongly decided Obergefell opinion,” wrote Liberty Counsel President Mat Staver in a message on the group’s website. “Until then, we must pray, fight, and contend for when Obergefell is no longer the law of the land.”
The Supreme Court ruled in its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that people have a fundamental right to choose who to marry, regardless of their spouse’s gender. The decision legalized marriage equality in all 50 states.
A county clerk in Kentucky, Kim Davis, refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, which led to a lawsuit and ten years of legal fights.
This year, with help from the lawyers at Liberty Counsel, she filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn a judgment against her that required her to pay $360,000 to a gay couple whom she had illegally denied a marriage license. In that petition, she asked the Supreme Court to end marriage equality, arguing that her case proved that LGBTQ+ equality was inherently a threat to the rights of Christians like herself.
Last week, the Supreme Court rejected her appeal, leaving its decision in favor of marriage rights in place for at least another year.
Anti-LGBTQ+ activists, though, aren’t going to give up.
“This time, Kim Davis is the victim of religious animus and is being deprived of her constitutional freedom of religion,” Staver wrote. “Tomorrow, it could be you.”
“This may mark the end of an era in litigating Davis’s case, but the fight to overturn Obergefell and protect religious liberty has just begun.”
Staver’s argument is similar to an argument that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito made in 2020 that the mere existence of married same-sex couples is a violation of Christians’ religious freedom because seeing married same-sex couples encourages people to judge Christians “as bigots.” (That opinion was delivered in the context of a different appeal filed by Davis.)
“Since Obergefell, parties have continually attempted to label people of good will as bigots merely for refusing to alter their religious beliefs in the wake of prevailing orthodoxy,” Thomas wrote at the time.
As first reported by Manchester Evening News, at least two children were given leaflets that featured the logo of Grace Fellowship Manchester, a group “dedicated to Biblical Christianity” and based at St Stephen’s Church in the town of Middleton, which is five miles northeast of Manchester. Its website shows that it appears to be linked to Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas.
The one leaflet, a photograph of which was shared by a parent on social media, was headlined “ARE YOU A GOOD PERSON?”
Underneath the header was a graphic of a mobile phone with a mimic text exchange.
“Hey, I’ve got a question for you. Are you a good person?” the first mock text message reads.
“YES! I’m good! Not perfect… but I’ve never done anything that bad!” the reply reads.
In response, the next text states: “The Bible says; Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, no swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.”
“Is that really in the Bible?”
“Yes!” the text confirms. “It’s 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. But keep reading to find out how you can be forgiven and have eternal life.”
Surrounding the text exchange were the words including “Homosexuals”, “Drunkards”, “Idolators” and “Swindlers”.
“God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman”
Another leaflet including the statements: “God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman. And anyone who indulges in sex outside of marriage…. no such person will inherit the Kingdom of God. BE NOT DECEIVED!
“God isn’t being cruel in warning us. He shows us we’re in trouble so that we’ll realise how desperately we need his help to fix us.”
In Grace Fellowship Manchester’s Statement of Faith – which lists several pages of scripture from the Bible – whilst there are verses from Corinthians included, there is no direct citation from Corinthians 6:9-10.
The church says that its Statement of Faith was “written by the elders” of Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas, which does cite Corinthians 6:9-10 in its own Statement of Faith. A slightly differently worded version reads: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Grace Community Church’s views on LGBTQ+ issues are not particularly inclusive, stating that God only created male and female, “God intends for sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are so married to one another” and the “only acceptable alternative to marriage between one man and one woman is the faithful single life of celibacy”.
“Discriminatory and offensive”
Speaking to the Reach PLC outlet, mum Victoria Loop said she was “angry” with the content of the leaflets, saying it is “just not appropriate for young children”.
” I am not against people expressing their opinions for the most part but when it becomes discriminatory and offensive it is just wrong,” Loop said.
“There were other leaflets amongst the other children’s treats however they were more appropriately worded and not on this level. My views on the matter is that there was quite some degree of misjudgement when deciding to include this particular leaflet in treats to young children.
She added: “I have many friends and family that this would hurt very deeply and I am angry on their behalf as much as for my daughter having to ask questions as why some people haven’t yet got the message in this age that homophobia, no matter how benign this may seem to some, is not acceptable. Let alone giving this opinion to children with no consideration of their innocence or family circumstance.
“I am aware that this may be an unpopular stance from many different religious groups, however the method of delivery of their rhetoric and beliefs in this case needs questioning and scrutinising. We have age restrictions on many things such as films and television and restrictions on products and publications for the protection of children.”
“Blatantly homophobic literature”
Local councillor Dylan Williams, who is a gay man that attends church, criticised the leaflets for both their homophobic and sexually explicit content.
“I believe most Christians will be upset by this blatantly homophobic literature and would condemn it. I am also concerned that people think it acceptable to give literature on it with adult words and sexually explicit language to Children as young as six,” Williams told Manchester Evening News.
“Homophobia seems to be becoming more and more prevalent leading some members of the community to feel unsafe and this is and should not be acceptable in our society. We must say no to hate.”
PinkNews has approached Grace Fellowship Manchester for comment.
The Church of Norway apologized on Thursday to the country’s LGBTQ+ community for decades of discrimination, Reuters reports.
Presiding Bishop Olav Fykse Tveit acknowledged the church’s regret at the London Pub in Oslo, site of a shooting during Pride celebrations in June 2022. Two people died in the homophobic attack.
Tveit said the Evangelical Lutheran church, the largest denomination in Norway, had caused harm to gay people and thanked those who campaigned for change.
“The church in Norway has imposed shame, great harm, and pain,” the bishop said. “This should not have happened, and that is why I apologize today.”
A similar acknowledgment by the church’s bishops in 2022 addressed past discrimination, including a description of gay people by the Norwegian Bishops’ Conference in the 1950s as a “social danger of global dimensions.”
Seventy years later, same-sex couples can marry in the Church of Norway.
A service was scheduled to follow the bishop’s remarks at the Oslo Cathedral on Thursday evening.
The church’s acknowledgement of institutional discrimination follows several over recent years by other Christian denominations.
In 2023, the Church of England apologized for “shameful” treatment of the LGBTQ+ community. The Protestant church represents 85 million Anglicans worldwide.
“We want to apologize for the ways in which the Church of England has treated LGBTQI+ people — both those who worship in our churches and those who do not,” the bishops said in a statement.
“For the times we have rejected or excluded you, and those you love, we are deeply sorry. The occasions on which you have received a hostile and homophobic response in our churches are shameful, and for this we repent.”
At the same time, bishops have refused to allow same-sex marriages in Anglican churches. Just this week, bishops turned back plans to officiate discrete blessings for same-sex couples, although these can take place within routine church services.
In August, the United Church of Canada, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, acknowledged harms to the two spirit and LGBTQ+ communities in Canada.
“We have failed to celebrate and delight in all of your beautiful Creation. We have wounded people instead of seeking wholeness. We are sorry,” said the Rev. Michael Blair, the church’s General Secretary, in a message accompanying the official apology.
“We, The United Church of Canada, express our deepest apologies to all those who have experienced homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia within The United Church of Canada,” it read in part.
Those institutional expressions of regret have been accompanied by recent individual apologies by church leaders, many in the Catholic Church.
In January, Catholic Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., issued a personal apology from the pulpit.
“I apologize for my own failure to emulate Christ’s compassion,” he said. “The way that we have treated our LGBTQ brothers and sisters has brought them tears, and to many of us, disgrace.”
“I apologize from the heart for the hurt that has resulted in the loss of so many of our family members who belong to God no less than I do,” he said.
Last year, a Catholic bishop in Germany apologized for the church’s mistreatment of LGBTQ+ people, encouraging congregants to be more supportive of equality and inclusion.
“We want to be a diocese that values diversity,” Bishop Stephan Ackermann said during what he called a “public confession.” The next month, Archbishop Heiner Koch of Berlin also apologized, labelling homophobia an “unholy line of tradition.”
In 2016, Pope Francis said in a gaggle with reporters aboard the papal plane that Christians owe apologies to gay people and others who have been offended or exploited by the church.
“I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally,” Francis said.
“The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times – when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy, we are sinners!”
A formal apology from the Catholic Church has not been forthcoming.
Juan Viana recalls having a happy childhood in a Christian community in Bogotá but when he came out as gay at age 18, that all changed.
“Unfortunately, that community of support became a place of deep repudiation of who I really was,” said Viana, now 48.
His family took him to a center for ‘conversion therapy’ — aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity — on the advice of a psychologist.
“I was told that homosexuality was a disease, that it was caused by a demonic force that was going to destroy my family,” Viana said.
He said he went to the center willingly and stayed for months, thinking he was protecting his loved ones from destruction but found himself living in a nightmare.
“They break you in all senses: physically, mentally,” he said.
Several times he thought of taking his own life and tried once, he said.
“They were the darkest moments of my life,” he said.
Such traumatic experiences could become illegal in Colombia, where an estimated one in five LGBTQ people have undergone conversion therapy, according to the government’s Ombudsman’s Office.
Lawmakers are considering a bill to ban conversion therapy in the South American nation. Other countries where it is permitted include China, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
An unknown number of unlicensed rehabilitation clinics in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America offer such therapy based on the idea that homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender identities are a mental illness that needs to be cured, rights groups said.
The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses in 1990.
In Colombia, LGBTQ advocates have documented a range of conversion therapy practices that include humiliation, exorcism, food deprivation, electroshocks, waterboarding and rape of lesbian women.
The new legislation aims to criminalize the therapy in the conservative and Catholic country, where activists say faith is often used to mask the practices.
“We hope that more and more Colombians will understand that this is what the right to liberty, the right to intimacy and the right to having an identity looks like,” said Carolina Giraldo, a lawmaker for the center-left Green Alliance and a proponent of the bill.
Third time’s the charm?
Two previous proposed bans were defeated after conservative lawmakers and evangelical and Catholic groups mobilized in opposition.
They argued that a ban on conversion therapy could land priests and parents in prison, and some said LGBTQ groups wanted to turn children gay and trans.
Such a ban “infringes upon family autonomy by preventing parents from guiding their children,” said conservative senator Maria Fernanda Cabal after voting against last year’s bill.
From Brazil and Mexico to Spain and Vietnam, at least 17 countries have nationwide legislation in the works targeting the practice, according to ILGA-World, an international LGBTQ rights group.
LGBTQ activists in Colombia hope the third time is the charm.
“When we first started to talk about these practices, people just didn’t believe something like this could still happen in Colombia,” said Danne Belmont, executive director at GAAT, a Bogota-based trans rights group.
Belmont, a trans woman, said she was given testosterone as a child and underwent exorcisms in efforts to change who she was.
Advocates have altered their approach since the first bill was introduced in 2022, trying to broaden its appeal.
In the current rendition, the campaign is not only that LGBTQ people have “nothing to heal” but it asks their parents to “always love them,” Belmont said.
“This bill is aimed at Colombia’s families, at offering safe spaces where people can ask questions about their sexual orientation and gender identity,” she said.
Contrary to claims made by some Catholic lawmakers and ultra-Catholic groups, Father Carlos Guillermo Arias Jimenez of Colombia’s Bishop’s Conference said the latest bill does not contradict religious freedom.
“The church could not accept, nor has it ever taught, the practice of actions aimed at changing or reversing people’s sexual orientation,” he said.
Colombia’s Evangelical Confederation did not reply to several requests for comment.
In Congress, the bill passed its first reading in April with support from members of various political parties, but it must pass two more readings before next year’s elections.
Survivors, not victims
Belmont said trauma often prevents many LGBTQ people from realizing they have undergone conversion therapy until they hear stories from their peers.
A national network was set up in May of more than 50 people who have undergone conversion therapy to share their stories on social media and at events in hopes they will help others.
“Sometimes conversion therapy is a gradual, sophisticated process that mixes religion, spirituality and psychology that lays the ground,” David Zuluaga, 27, who was raised in the small town of Antioquia.
What started as manipulation and social isolation at age 12 turned into being hit in the stomach at age 14 to make him “vomit the spirit of homosexuality,” he said.
The conversion therapy lasted until he was 17, but it took him far longer to understand what had happened, let alone speak about it.
“Fear has to change sides. We used to be ashamed of having gone through this,” said Zuluaga, now an out gay man.
“But they should be the ones who are ashamed of having done this, of still doing this — mistreating, abusing and torturing people.”
According to research by the United Nations’ independent expert on LGBTQ rights, which has documented conversion therapy in at least 100 countries including Uganda, the Philippines and the United States, the practices leave deep physical and psychological traces.
“It broke my relationship with my family, with spirituality, with my body,” said Viana, who added that it has taken decades to rebuild bonds with his family, trust people and find love.
“Darkness needs to be total to exist. For light to exist, a single spark is enough,” he said.
“The work we’re doing is to multiply these sparks along the way… which we all light up together.”
A couple from Woburn, Massachusetts has lost their license to foster children after they refused to sign a gender affirming policy form from the Department of Children and Families (DCF).
Lydia and Heath Marvin have three kids in their teens, but they have fostered eight different children under the age of 4 since 2020. Their most recent foster child was a baby with complex medical needs who stayed with them for 15 months.
“Our Christian faith, it really drives us toward that. James says that true undefiled religion is to care for the fatherless,” said Heath.
The couple said they were prepared to care for more foster children until DCF pulled their license to foster in April.
Foster parents cite religious beliefs
That’s because the Marvins refused to sign the agency’s LGBTQIA+ Non-Discrimination Policy because of their Christian faith. Starting in 2022, the policy said that foster families must affirm the LGBTQIA+ identity of foster children.
“We asked, is there any sort of accommodation, can you waive this at all? We will absolutely love and support and care for any child in our home but we simply can’t agree to go against our Christian faith in this area. And, were ultimately told you must sign the form as is or you will be delicensed,” Lydia said.
The Marvins appealed the loss of their license, but lost. They’re considering their options but two other Christian foster families are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts Family Institute and Alliance Defending Freedom against DCF.
The lawsuit alleges the policy forces parents to “accept[ ] a child’s assertion of their LGBTQIA+ identity”, “address[ ] children by their names and pronouns,” and “support[ ] gender-neutral practices regarding clothes and physical appearance.”
“There is a speech component and also a religious liberty component to the lawsuit,” said Sam Whiting, an attorney with the Massachusetts Family Institute.
Letter from Trump administration
Last week, the Trump administration sent a letter to DCF, addressing the lawsuit and specifically mentioning the Marvins.
“These policies and developments are deeply troubling, clearly contrary to the purpose of child welfare programs, and in direct violation of First Amendment protections,” wrote Andrew Gradison, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families.
LGBTQ+ advocates argue the policy was developed to protect kids. Massachusetts foster parents also receive a monthly stipend.
“The state has an obligation to children to make sure that they’re safe and well protected. And foster parents, they’re not parents. Foster parents are temporary. They’re a stop gap to make sure children can safely go back to their families of origin,” said Polly Crozier, Director of Family Advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders.
Data collection by DCF is poor but a report by the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ youth suggests that roughly 30 percent of foster children in the state could identify as LGBTQ, similar to data collected in California and New York.
The Marvins argue that DCF has been flexible about child placements in the past for a number of reasons.
“We would love and care and support any child but if there was an issue where we knew that we would have a different position than DCF, we would just be open and talk to them about it,” Heath said.
A DCF spokesperson said in a statement to WBZ-TV, “The Department does not comment on matters related to pending litigation.”
Indiana’s Republican lieutenant governor appears interested in attending a service at a hate church that called for murdering LGBTQ+ people.
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith (R) shared a post from Indianapolis Sure Foundation Baptist Church leader Justin Zhong inviting him to a church service, appearing to approve of the invitation. The repost has since been deleted.
The Sure Foundation Baptist Church made national headlines recently when lay pastor Stephen Falco used slurs and called for murdering gay people during a Men’s Preaching Night.
“There’s nothing good to be proud about being a f*g. You ought to blow yourself in the head in the back of the head. You’re so disgusting,” he said. “Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f*gs? Because they attack children, they’re coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools in public places, and they’re proud about it!”
The sermon was posted to YouTube, which removed the video, but the church’s leadership defended the sermon.
“The Bible is crystal clear that sodomites – homosexuals – deserve the death penalty carried out by a government that actually cares about the law of God,” Zhong said at the time. “I will not apologize for preaching the Word of God. I will not apologize for stating facts. I will not negotiate with terrorists, among whom the LGBTHIV crowd is full of domestic terrorists.”
Beckwith himself has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ extremism. He said in June that LGBTQ+ people in “ancient history and all the way up to today” have a “demonic spirit” associated with the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar.
That same month, he sent an “alert” to his followers on social media that Pride Month is a sign of “Pagan Conquest” that will bring “ritual child sacrifice – with glitter and hashtags.” He claimed that Pride Month is part of a “state-corporate-pagan alliance to reprogram society” that forced people to listen to “Harvey Milk sermons” and support “government-sanctioned grooming.” Grooming is a word for tactics used by child molesters.
When running for lieutenant governor in 2024, he referred to pro-choice voters as “demonic.”
He said that Democrats had the “Jezebel spirit” and “a boldness for immorality” during a podcast interview last year. The host of the podcast said that the Jezebel spirit was “ultimately about control, which is the spirit of witchcraft, as we know. That’s what Jezebel operated in.” Beckwith nodded along.
A church leader in Indianapolis is doubling down on a sermon delivered at the Sure Foundation Baptist Church in the state’s capital city last week that called on gay people to “blow yourself in the back of the head,” among other incendiary statements.
Church leader Justin Zhong endorsed the remarks delivered by lay pastor Stephen Falco during a Men’s Preaching Night service on June 29, including his assertion that, “There’s nothing good to be proud about being a f*g. You ought to blow yourself in the head in the back of the head. You’re so disgusting.”
The church posted the sermon to YouTube, and it was widely denounced by members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies who called the hate-filled screed “theologically irresponsible” and “pastorally dangerous.”
YouTube has since removed the video for violating its terms of service. A portion of the sermon was reposted by radio station 93 WIBC Indianapolis.
“Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f*gs? Because they attack children, they’re coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools in public places, and they’re proud about it!” Falco said during the Pride month sermon titled “Pray the gay away.”
Another man identified in the same video as “Brother Wayne” followed Falco at the pulpit with a sermon he called “Worthy of Being Beaten,” according to the Indianapolis Star. He blamed society’s moral decline on a lack of discipline and physical punishment, calling beatings a deterrent that have been lost in American culture, while aiming his harshest rhetoric at immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.
“I don’t even understand why we’re deporting these illegal criminals who are murderers, who are doing drug trafficking, sex trafficking, human trafficking. They’re putting them on a plane, and they’re sending them over to a prison in another country,” he said. “I say we put them to death right here. I say we beat them right here.”
Brother Wayne said of gay people, “I think they should be put to death. You know what, I’ll go further. I think they should be beaten in public first for all their sick and demented, just [slur] and the things they’re doing to our schools, to our government, to our institutions, to our churches. These people should be beaten and stomped in the mud, and then they should take a gun and blow the back of their heads off.”
While not officially associated with the notorious New Independent Fundamental Baptist Church, which has long espoused the death penalty for gay people, Sure Foundation Baptist Church says their pastor, Aaron Thompson, is a new IFB church member from Vancouver, Washington.
Both churches are “KJV only”, referring to their literal interpretation of the gospel from the King James Bible.
“The Bible is crystal clear that sodomites – homosexuals – deserve the death penalty carried out by a government that actually cares about the law of God,” said church leader Zhong in Falco’s defense.
“I will not apologize for preaching the Word of God. I will not apologize for stating facts. I will not negotiate with terrorists, among whom the LGBTHIV crowd is full of domestic terrorists,” Zhong said, before citing multiple verses from the Bible to make his church’s case on Facebook.
A sermon by Falco in March even directed ire at Donald Trump for appearing religious to secure political support while having a life of pride, perversion, blasphemy, and mockery of Jesus Christ.
He cited Trump’s declaration that he would date his own daughter if they weren’t related.
“Unless Donald Trump gets saved, which I hope he does … God will judge him for it and he will go to hell.”
In his June sermon, Falco also wished death on former President Joe Biden, whom he described as “a wicked reprobate.”
“I have prayed for the death of former President Biden many times,” he boasted.
But Falco’s most outlandish and threatening rhetoric was reserved for the LGBTQ+ community, which he shouted down as “evil” and “disgusting”.
Allies and activists rallied in the community’s defense, including an association of Black churches and activists.
“Such messages are not only theologically irresponsible but pastorally dangerous,” faith-based civil rights group Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis said in a statement. “The pulpit must never be used as a weapon to dehumanize, isolate, or incite fear.”
Equality Indiana called Falco’s sermon inflammatory and extremist, saying it could inspire violence against the community.
The Texas House of Representatives today (Friday, May 23) passed Senate Bill 11 mandating a daily period set aside in Texas public schools for prayer and reading the Bible. Having passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature, the measure is now headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for his signature.
Texas Freedom Network Political Director Rocío Fierro-Pérez criticized the vote in a written statement, warning that the bill “allows politicians to impose their preferred religion on millions of Texas families,” and noting that it is “a blatant violation of the First Amendment and an escalation in the ongoing effort to turn public schools into tools of government-endorsed religion.
“Coercing students into state-sanctioned prayer disrespects the religious and nonreligious beliefs of families across our state,” she said.
Fierro Pérez added, “This bill undermines parental rights and places public educators in the impossible position of enforcing deeply personal and spiritual practices. We are outraged that lawmakers are wasting time serving their self-interests while ignoring urgent problems in our schools.
“Texas needs leaders who fight for the freedom of all families, not just those who share their religious views. Texans deserve leadership that defends liberty, not legislation that tramples it.”
SB 11 will, no doubt, face legal challenge, and established precedent would seem to be against it.
In its landmark 1962 decision Engel v. Vitale, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory, state-sponsored prayer in public schools violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, therefore public schools cannot require or sponsor religious activities, even if participation is voluntary. The following year, in Abington School District v. Schempp, SCOTUS ruled that school-sponsored Bible reading before class is unconstitutional.
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