In second grade, California students will learn about families with two moms or two dads. Two years later, while studying how immigrants have shaped the Golden State, they will hear how New York native Harvey Milk became a pioneering gay politician in San Francisco.
In the News
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July 15th, 2016
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July 15th, 2016
The government was scrambling last night to win support for its civic forum on abortion amid fears that it could be voted down in the Seanad today.
Enda Kenny could be forced to speed up his plan or face having it fail in a vote. Several pro-choice and anti-abortion senators told The Times that they could vote against the motion as they believed the civic forum was undemocratic. It would be the second time this month that the government has faced a serious challenge over Ireland’s strict anti-abortion legislation.
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July 14th, 2016
A church that has been caught up in the craze over an augmented reality game hopes to use its new-found fame to spread the message of Jesus.
City Road Methodist Church in Birmingham is one of the real-life locations used as 'gyms' in Pokemon Go, where users can train virtual monsters.
It has put up a sign proclaiming "Jesus Cares About Pokemon Gamers".
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July 14th, 2016
A five-year study of pornography viewing among adolescents and young adults has found that youth who go to church watch less porn.
The study, entitled “How Does Religious Attendance Shape Trajectories of Pornography Use Across Adolescence?,” shows that porn use increases dramatically as youth grow into adulthood, but a significantly lower increase in porn use is seen among youth who attend religious services.
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July 14th, 2016
After a whirlwind three weeks in British politics, the country has a new prime minister in Theresa May, formerly the Home Secretary.
Naturally, many people will now be wondering whether May's new government can be expected to take a different direction on pro-life issues such as abortion, euthanasia and sex education.
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July 14th, 2016
We have just received the surprising news, to mixed reception, that Jeremy Hunt has been spared his job and will remain Secretary of State for Health.
In response, this afternoon, we have launched an open letter to Jeremy Hunt demanding that his department stop ignoring the concerns of people with Down’s syndrome, their families and the wider community and to start consulting them on proposals that are projected to lead to a profound increase in the number of children with Down’s syndrome screened out by termination.
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July 14th, 2016
On Tuesday the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG) hosted the first ever meeting in Parliament on non-religious pastoral support. The meeting heard from humanist pastoral support volunteers in hospital, prison and armed forces settings, as well as Mike Kavanagh, the Head of Chaplaincy of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), and Michael Burleigh, the Head of Chaplaincy at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The British Humanist Association (BHA), which provides the secretariat to the APPHG, has increasingly focused its work on pastoral support over the last few years, hiring its first Head of Pastoral Support earlier this year.
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July 14th, 2016
Seven evangelical lay Christians and a pastor who were detained and allegedly mistreated in Nepal after being caught handing out Bibles to children have been released but could face a trial for "proselytizing", church sources told BosNewsLife.
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July 14th, 2016
Faith-based colleges—and religious liberty broadly—face an uncertain future in California. State legislators in Sacramento are considering a bill called the Equity in Higher Education Act, ostensibly to prohibit religious schools from discriminating against students. Yet it would actually create legal ambiguity, forcing judges to wade into the murky waters of theology to disentangle true religious belief from discriminatory animus.
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July 14th, 2016
The First Amendment Defence Act (FADA) has a deceiving title. It is essentially a back-tracking of rights for LGBT people and will allow businesses to deny service to LGBT people based on their identity, in the name of religion.
The Human Rights Campaign has set about informing people of the destructive nature of this legislation. They have said that under FADA, the federal spousal benefits of same sex couples can be ignored by individual businesses. Basically, the legal rights of a married couple can be bypassed by businesses and this discrimination would be protected by law.