Actor Terrence Howard recently said he turned down the chance to star in a Marvin Gaye biopic because it might have required him to kiss another man.
The 56-year-old “Empire” star discussed his thoughts during an interview on “Club Random with Bill Maher.” 
Howard said he couldn’t sign on to play singer Smokey Robinson in the biopic because he was already considering playing Marvin Gaye in a different project. But then he changed his mind.
“I was over at Quincy Jones’ house and I’m asking Quincy, ‘I’m hearing rumors that Marvin was gay,’ and I’m like, ‘Was he gay?&#8217; And Quincy’s like, ‘Yes,&#8217;” he told Maher. 
“They would’ve wanted to do that, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” Howard explained. Maher replied, “You mean you couldn’t kiss a guy on screen in a movie?” prompting the actor to say, “No. Because I don’t fake it. That would f*** me. I would cut my lips off. If I kissed some man, I would cut my lips off.”
“I can’t play that character 100 percent. I can’t surrender myself to a place that I don’t understand,” he added, saying, &#8220;It does not make me homophobic to not want to kiss a man.”
Gaye was married to two women during his life and was not openly gay, but there has been speculation that he was attracted to men, and at least one of his marriages was an attempt to silence those accusations.
The recording artist had the nicknames &#8220;Prince of Motown&#8221; and &#8220;Prince of Soul&#8221; and is considered by some to be one of the greatest singers of all time. Gaye was born in 1939 and died in 1984 at the age of 44 after being shot and killed by his father while trying to break up a physical altercation between his parents.
Howard announced his second <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-the-end-terrence-howard-announces-second-retirement-from-acting">retirement from acting</a> in 2022. “I’ve been playing pretend for forever,” he shared at the time. “[There’s] no need to play pretend anymore. I’ve done my time.”
The actor was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 2006 for his role in “Hustle &amp; Flow.” He also appeared on the big screen in such movies as “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” “Dead Presidents,” “Who’s the Man,” and “Iron Man.”

Terrence Howard

Terrence Howard Turned Down Marvin Gaye Biopic Over The Possibility Of Having To Kiss A Man

Celebrities

Entertainment

Hollywood

Homosexuality

U.S.

A new documentary about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/abraham-lincoln">Abraham Lincoln</a> focuses on the former president’s sexuality, speculating that his private writings and certain actions prove he was most likely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/homosexuality">gay</a>.
“<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/documentary">Lover of Men</a>” argues that the 16th president likely had several male lovers even after marrying his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. Some historians have explored the subject, and it has become an urban legend in academic circles.
“We live in a homophobic society,” producer Rob Rosenheck said, per <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2024/09/06/abraham-lincoln-documentary-lover-of-men/75061112007/">USA Today</a>. “People keep talking about Lincoln&#8217;s queerness as a ‘theory’ or ‘myth,’ but you need to acknowledge the fact that it keeps coming up over and over and over again. The reason for that is because it&#8217;s part of our history and it won&#8217;t go away.”
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1724361346607000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1ZhyOQfEkxcMH_D1Ago3CQ">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
“Do we really need to get into his personal life?” director Shaun Peterson said. “To me, there’s always a homophonic tinge to that. There have been thousands of writings about Lincoln and Mary having this fractured marriage. People are fine writing about a heteronormative relationship, but when it comes to the possibility of his love of men, it’s like, ‘Well, we shouldn’t dig that deep.’”
The documentary, which hit theaters on Thursday, claims Lincoln may have had sexual relationships with several men he shared beds with in the 1800s despite that being a common practice for heterosexual men of the time. 
The main suspected love affair presented in the film was between the former president and one of those bedmates, Joshua Speed. The two friends shared a bed for four years, and Lincoln spoke fondly of him after he moved away. Speed got married and stayed in touch with Lincoln by exchanging letters.
“You can see the passion on the page,” Peterson says. “Lincoln would write things like, ‘I miss you’ and ‘I’m jealous of your new wife, Joshua.’ He pours his heart out in these letters. Nowhere else in any of Lincoln’s work have you seen anything quite like it.”
The documentary also makes much out of the fact that Lincoln fell into a “suicidal depression” when Speed moved away, <a href="https://people.com/abraham-lincoln-documentary-biggest-bombshells-8706767">writing</a>, &#8220;I&#8217;m now the most miserable man living. If what I am feeling were distributed to the whole human family, there would not be a cheerful face on the earth.&#8221;
Another argument in favor of Lincoln being gay or bisexual stems from him and his wife having separate bedrooms in the White House. The couple had four children together. 
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1724211156439000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2xQ8bdTcpfdrPBAzczIuck">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>
Presidential historian Tom Balcerski said Lincoln was likely “sexually fluid” and everyone needs to get on board with that concept. 
“This next generation of Americans that we call Gen Z, they’re more queer and fluid than ever. They get this argument,” he said, per the outlet. “But talk about hitting your head against the wall trying to have this conversation with older folks.”

Abraham Lincoln

New Documentary Probes Whether Abraham Lincoln Was A ‘Lover Of Men’

New Documentary Probes Whether Abraham Lincoln Was A 'Lover Of Men'

Documentaries

History

Movies

Politics

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/los-angeles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles</a> City Council members reportedly removed &#8220;no U-turn&#8221; signs from a gay neighborhood over concerns that they would be viewed as &#8220;homophobic,&#8221; and X — formerly Twitter — exploded with reactions to the move.
According to a Los Angeles <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/silver-lake-remove-no-u-turn-signs/3433130/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News affiliate</a>, the signs that were removed had been put up in 1997 after locals complained about gay men &#8220;cruising&#8221; in the residential areas near popular gay bars while looking for dates. Several &#8220;no cruising&#8221; signs were also put up around the same time, and were taken down after a Silver Lake Neighborhood Council vote in 2011.
A constituent brought the remaining &#8220;no U-turn&#8221; signs to Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, which she said got the bureaucratic ball rolling.
A &#8220;podcast mentioned that there had been &#8216;No Cruising&#8217; signs along Hyperion that had been removed in 2011, but that nine signs still remained on Griffith Park Boulevard. Our very own Silver Lake constituent, Donovan Daughtry, heard the episode, and in May of 2022 he reached out to our Silver Lake Field Deputy at the time,&#8221; she explained.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: LA City Council members have removed &#8220;No U-Turn&#8221; traffic signs in a gay neighborhood.
They say the signs were homophobic.
No, this is not satire. <a href="https://t.co/yadflyo588">pic.twitter.com/yadflyo588</a>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1801632184929030367?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Fellow Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez worked with Raman to have the signs removed, saying that he had not previously understood the impact of those signs.
&#8220;For me, growing up in South Central Los Angeles, cruising had a very different meaning. It usually meant folks in their lowriders or their cars, a lot of hip-hop music, just going up down Crenshaw Boulevard. But here in Silver Lake, cruising, of course, meant something very different. It meant an opportunity for the LGBT community to try to find human connection and intimacy and to be able to express themselves in a society at the time that was not very welcoming to the LGBT community. The last two no U-Turn signs remind us of that troubled past that we have here in this neighborhood.&#8221;
And as a number of people pointed out later, very few Americans were aware that such signs had any connection at all to the LGBTQ community — much less a discriminatory connection.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1712932862202000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0plT8RRdMy9XUpIhocnjQS">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;The best part of this is that literally *no one* would know &#8216;no u-turn&#8217; signs have ever meant anything other than no u-turn. I&#8217;ve never seen a group that so desperately WANTS to be &#8216;oppressed&#8217; or &#8216;marginalized,'&#8221; Riley Gaines posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The best part of this is that literally *no one* would know &#8216;no u-turn&#8217; signs have ever meant anything other than no u-turn.
I&#8217;ve never seen a group that so desperately WANTS to be &#8220;oppressed&#8221; or &#8220;marginalized&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/ElknwNy9MT">https://t.co/ElknwNy9MT</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1801926096138428621?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Got rid of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben &amp; replaced Dr Seuss with Billy Blows Bobby &amp; it’s still not enough. Congratulations on defeated the U-turn signs. Nothing will satisfy the left’s insatiable appetite for destruction,&#8221; another posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Got rid of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben &amp; replaced Dr Seuss with Billy Blows Bobby &amp; it’s still not enough. Congratulations on defeated the U-turn signs. Nothing will satisfy the left’s insatiable appetite for destruction. <a href="https://t.co/UenEPkgVjW">pic.twitter.com/UenEPkgVjW</a>
— 🇺🇸Scarlett Mayhem🇺🇸 (@ScarlettO66) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScarlettO66/status/1801798910580576701?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2024</a></blockquote>

Traffic sign no u turn allowed.

L.A. Removes ‘Homophobic’ U-Turn Signs And The Jokes Write Themselves

Homophobia

Los Angeles

Social Issues

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pope-francis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pope Francis</a> reportedly railed against the number of gay priests-in-training during a private address to Catholic bishops last week that leaked to Italian news organizations this week.
Francis, 87, allegedly made the remarks in the context of proposals that were being made from Italian bishops about changes they want to see made on guidelines determining the candidates that seminaries accept.
He reportedly said that he was opposed to letting in candidates who were leading a “double life” by claiming to be celibate while secretly being gay, The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/27/pope-francis-reported-derogatory-phrase-homosexuals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
He said that there was “already too much fa***try” in seminaries, according to numerous translations of his speech, which was in Italian.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/27/europe/pope-francis-accused-homophobic-slur-intl-latam/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that Francis in 2016 upheld the Vatican&#8217;s ruling in 2005 that the Catholic church cannot allow the ordination of gay men. In 2018, he told Italian bishops &#8220;not to accept gay candidates for the priesthood,&#8221; the report added.
However, the Vatican backtracked on his comments from last week after they were leaked to the press and some backlash ensued online.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716990157394000&amp;usg=AOvVaw33qQydjIo8bet419amChif">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he extends his apologies to those who felt offended by the use of a term, as reported by others,” the Vatican said in a Tuesday statement. “As he (Pope Francis) has said on several occasions, ‘in the Church there is room for everyone, everyone! No one is useless, no one is superfluous, there is room for everyone. Just as we are, everyone.’”

Pope Francis

Vatican Apologizes After Pope Francis Says There’s ‘Too Much Fa***try’ In Seminaries

Catholicism

LGBTQ

Religion

World

This is a portion of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kids-are-not-commodities-knowles-at-clemson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> delivered by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Knowles</a> at Clemson University on Wednesday, December 6, 2023.  
Kids are not commodities to be bought and sold. People are not property and children have rights.
This issue has come up recently because same-sex couples have begun to purchase children through surrogacy and in vitro fertilization. Liberals celebrate this novelty. Most conservatives find it instinctively abhorrent. But even some self-styled conservatives celebrate it too. The reason for this unusual degree of confusion and controversy is that the issue is entirely new. Nothing like this has ever happened before in human history. 
And the reason for that is two-fold: first, our political order has, for the first time in the history of our civilization, denied the necessity of sexual difference to marriage — that is, our system of law has, for the first time ever, denied the difference between men and women. The second reason is technological: For the first time in the history of the world, we can create and gestate human life outside of the conjugal act. For the first time ever, we can make babies without sex.
Unfortunately, technology and ideology have outpaced bioethical inquiry. To quote Jeff Goldblum’s character in &#8220;Jurassic Park,&#8221; “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn&#8217;t stop to think if they should.” The full quote from that scene is even more apt. Goldblum’s character says, “The lack of humility before nature that&#8217;s being displayed here staggers me.” He describes the scientists’ actions as “a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores.”
Entirely true. And in the case of surrogacy and IVF, what the discovery — both technologically and politically — explores and scars is people, specifically, innocent little babies.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-michael-knowles-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Michael Knowles Show</a></h4>
The case of homosexual men purchasing children through surrogacy is particularly and most obviously egregious because it involves creating babies with the express intent of denying them their mothers. The bond between babies and their mothers is the most intimate bond human beings ever experience. The mother is the very environment in which a baby forms. The mother’s voice is the first voice the baby ever hears. Mother and child share the nutrients that sustain them, both before and after birth.
Many children grow up without mothers. For all of history, motherlessness has been a rare and unfortunate event in a fallen world that leaves a wound to be healed as best it can be. Today, motherlessness is an intentional political program undertaken with the blessing of the law, which now holds the presumed right of men to children trumps the actual right of children to their mothers.
Sadly, this phenomenon, though recent, has now occurred for long enough we can read the accounts of children who lament the trials that accompany this unnecessary hardship. The writer Katy Faust has <a href="https://thefederalist.com/author/katyfaust/">detailed such anecdotes</a> in The Federalist. The biological hardships: Children conceived through surrogacy and IVF face more health problems and they tend to be born premature and underweight. Worse still, there are the psychological and spiritual hardships: Envy of their friends with mothers, the hatred of Mother’s Day, the pressure not to express their anguish because it might make the men who raised them sad. The social adjustment issues. The difficulties bonding with the non-biological father. The identity issues. The constant wondering about half-siblings, the existence of whom they are legally barred from knowing. The increased risk of depression. The increased likelihood of being prescribed antidepressant drugs. The total neglect of their reasonable suffering by a society more concerned with stamping out imaginary phobias than with protecting the natural rights of children. The basic, universal longing of children for their mothers because moms and dads are different.
It&#8217;s ghastly, absolutely horrific. It is just about as rotten a thing as a society can possibly do to a child. But unlike many who have opined on this issue, I don’t even really blame the homosexuals. It’s easy to look at the situation and accuse these adult men of selfishness. And they are selfish — obviously. They put their own desires — their natural desire to have children along with their disordered desire to exclude women from the process — ahead of the rights and interests of their prospective children. But I suspect most of them don’t know it. In their defense, they’ve been told by the culture for some 60 years now that men and women really aren’t different. And if men and women aren’t different, then moms and dads aren’t different. And if moms and dads aren’t different, then why would anyone need or even want to have both? What’s the difference between a family and a couple of fellas?
I don’t mention these harsh truths to make the men who have fallen for this lie and temptation feel bad. I don’t suggest we take away their children, though we might endeavor as best we can to introduce these children to their mothers. But this is a fallen world. There is no way to undo the terrible crime that has been perpetrated on many people — the children, most of all, but even the men who were told they were doing nothing wrong. The men who sincerely believed that and who might now be listening to this speech thinking in horror, wondering, “What have I done?” It’s a terrible feeling. We’ve all made mistakes — some, of course, more egregious than others. But there’s no sense in trying to undo the past. There’s no sense in dwelling on past sins after we’ve seen the error of our ways. The reason I mention all of this is to stop this crime from spreading. To prevent it from happening again in the future.
I don’t primarily blame the homosexual men for the growing evil of surrogacy and IVF. I don’t blame the women either. We all know the statistics about children who grow up in fatherless households: the significantly higher risk of behavioral problems, of going to prison, of abuse and neglect, of drug and alcohol abuse, and so on. Kids need their fathers. It isn’t complicated, and, at some level at least, we all know it.
I don’t primarily blame the homosexuals of either sex for this awful situation. They are simply following a 60-year series of delusions our culture and politics have promoted to their logical conclusion. The primary culprit will likely surprise my critics: The culprit is capitalism. More precisely, capitalism unconstrained by morality. More precisely still, the commodification of people. And the Left loves the commodification of people. 
The socialists don’t actually hate capitalism. It was Karl Marx himself who popularized the word “capitalism.” Ironically, the socialists who pretend to hate capitalism actually love it, inasmuch as capitalism makes everything, including people, about money. And just as ironically, the conservatives who purport to love capitalism actually hate it, inasmuch as we know that life is about much more than money. The Left might worship mammon, but we don’t. What we actually love is morality, which entails the protection of things like property rights, but which crucially recognizes that people aren’t property.
<h4><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></h4>
We outlaw slavery because we recognize that people are more than property to be traded. We outlaw the sale of organs for the same reason. A true free market absolutist — the most extreme capitalist — might endorse the organ trade. Reasonable people, however, recognize that it is wrong to harvest the organs of the poor. This is the same reason we outlaw prostitution. The true free-market absolutist has no problem with prostitution. Most people, however, recognize that it’s wrong to entice poor women in terrible circumstances to sell their bodies as meat. We recognize that people are more than property.
Free markets can be a wonderful thing. In the words of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/03/world/papal-encyclical-urges-capitalism-to-shed-injustices.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pope John Paul II</a>, “The free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs.” But efficiency is not morality, and human beings are not mere “resources” to be “utilized”: human beings are the subjects for whom resources are utilized. Capitalism circumscribed by morality is as fine a method for producing material prosperity as has ever been discovered; capitalism unconstrained by morality is a monstrosity — as efficient an instrument as ever, but efficient in the degradation of people by denying their very humanity and the rights that go along with it.
This, ultimately, is the problem with IVF and surrogacy. The chief problem with IVF and surrogacy is not that the icky gays use it, as some selectively outraged critics would seem to suggest. The chief problem with IVF and surrogacy is that it commoditizes human life.

Michael Knowles head shot

Why Humans Are Not Commodities

Adoption

Children

Michael Knowles

Readers Pass

The late <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">Cary Grant</a>’s daughter insists that her father wasn’t secretly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/homosexuality">gay</a>.
Jennifer Grant, 57, was the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hollywood">actor</a>’s only daughter. She discussed her thoughts on the rumor that her dad was only pretending to be straight or was bisexual during an interview with Fox News Digital published Sunday.
“I suppose the [misconception about my father] that comes to mind is the question of, ‘Was he straight? Was he gay?’” Jennifer told the outlet.
“When I wrote my book [in 2011], I got hate mail saying, ‘Why aren’t you standing up for the fact that your father was homosexual,&#8217;” she continued. “But the truth of the matter is, I never saw anything to indicate that.”
Grant went on to say that she wouldn’t have had a problem with her father being gay. She just doesn’t think the rumors are true.
“Had he been homosexual, I absolutely would’ve stood up for it. He had gay friends and there’s just absolutely nothing to be ashamed of there,” the former “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress went on. 
“But I had to speak the truth, which was I saw a very straight male who watched women, was married to women, had me. Did he have affairs earlier in life? Perhaps. I don’t know. I wasn’t there to see it. So, I think it might not be a common misconception, but it’s certainly a rumor out there.”
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Grant was one of classic Hollywood’s quintessential leading men known for his good looks and charm. The actor was made famous by starring in “Bringing Up Baby” (1938), “His Girl Friday” (1940), and “The Philadelphia Story” (1940). In the 1940s and 50s, he worked on several Alfred Hitchcock films, including “Suspicion” (1941), “Notorious” (1946), “To Catch a Thief” (1955), and “North by Northwest” (1959).
The English-American actor was named the <a href="https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-stars/">second greatest</a> male star of the Golden Age of Hollywood by the American Film Institute in 1999, second only to Humphrey Bogart.
Grant was married five times before he died in 1986 at the age of 82. Jennifer’s mother was the actor’s fourth wife, Dyan Cannon.
Jennifer made the same remarks to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jul/05/jennifer-grant-on-her-dad-cary-grant">The Guardian</a> earlier this year regarding those rumors about her dad being gay. 
“If you’re around your parents a lot, you see them in ways that almost no one else does. And I never saw a hint of that,” she told the outlet.
“I think I would have picked up on it — not that I would’ve cared. But I have to speak the truth of the matter: Dad was charming, and he had great friendships, but he wasn’t flirtatious with men.”

Cary Grant

Cary Grant’s Daughter Denies Rumors He Was Secretly Gay: ‘Never Saw Anything To Indicate That’

Cary Grant's Daughter Denies Rumors He Was Secretly Gay

actors

The member of the Finnish parliament facing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/christian-politician-in-finland-grandmother-of-six-on-trial-after-posting-bible-tweet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prosecution over her religious beliefs</a> was back in court this week, facing a trial for expressing her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christianity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christian</a> views on marriage and sexuality.
Parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen <a href="https://adfinternational.org/trial-about-censorship-of-finnish-politicians-bible-tweet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> before the Helsinki Court of Appeal on Thursday and Friday to defend her beliefs after she was charged with “hate speech” violations, including for a 2019 tweet that included pictures of Bible verses and a pamphlet she wrote on marriage back in 2004.
“Everyone should be able to share their beliefs without fearing censorship by state-authorities. I know that the prosecution is trying to make an example of me to scare others into silence. Yet, you do not have to align with my views to agree that everyone should be able to speak freely. With God’s help I will remain steadfast and continue defending everyone’s human right to free speech,” Räsänen said on the first day of her new trial, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is supporting the parliamentarian’s defense. 
She was unanimously acquitted by the District Court of Helsinki for the same charges back in March 2022.
Bishop Juhana Pohjola is also being prosecuted for publishing the pamphlet under charges related to “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the criminal code of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/finland" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Finland</a>. 
Prosecutors have argued that they “can limit freedom of expression in the outward expression of religion.” They also said that the 2019 tweet was criminal because of Räsänen&#8217;s interpretation of the verse. “You can cite the Bible, but it is Räsänen’s interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that are criminal,” the prosecutor said. 
Paul Coleman, the executive director of ADF International and a member of Räsänen’s legal team, said that Finland’s hate speech laws were a danger to democratic societies. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1690455510071000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0zc8zwWGoXeRzcNJLiJVWI">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“In a democratic society, everyone should be free to share their beliefs without fear of state prosecution. Criminalizing speech through so-called ‘hate-speech’ laws shuts down important public debates and endangers democracy. Cases like Päivi’s create a culture of fear and censorship and are becoming increasingly common worldwide. We hope the Helsinki Court of Appeal will uphold the fundamental right to freedom of speech and clear Päivi Räsänen of these baseless charges,” he said. 
The case has garnered international attention <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republican-lawmakers-slam-prosecution-of-finnish-politician-over-religious-beliefs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">with Republicans urging</a> State Department Officials to step in and support Räsänen. Earlier this month, Republican representatives sent a letter to Douglas Hickey, America’s ambassador to Finland, and Rashad Hussain, the ambassador for the U.S. Office of Religious Freedom, in her defense.

Screen Shot 2023-09-01 at 8.04.37 AM

Finnish Politician Back In Court For ‘Criminal’ Interpretation Of Bible Verses

Finnish Politician Back In Court For 'Criminal' Interpretation Of Bible Verses

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Bible

Christianity

Finland

Religious Liberty

The &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-is-the-worst-film-ive-never-seen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Barbie</a>&#8221; movie has been banned in Algeria, which slammed the film&#8217;s &#8220;damaging morals&#8221; and promotion of &#8220;homosexuality&#8221; after it had initially opened in the north African country.
The Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling-led film opened three weeks ago in the country, bringing in about 40,000 viewers, but the movie has since been pulled from theaters after the country&#8217;s Ministry of Culture and Arts asked for its withdrawal, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/algeria-bans-barbie-movie-media-official-source-say-2023-08-14/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a> reported.
The movie was reportedly taken down because it was deeemed to &#8220;promote homosexuality and did not comply with Algeria&#8217;s religious and cultural beliefs,&#8221; an &#8220;official source&#8221; told the outlet.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&#39;Barbie&#39; Banned in Algeria for Promoting Homosexuality <a href="https://t.co/LZ5DoMExlj">https://t.co/LZ5DoMExlj</a>
&mdash; Variety (@Variety) <a href="https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1691459330594529280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 15, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The government informed the local distributor MD Ciné and leading cinemas that the film was being pulled for &#8220;damaging morals,&#8221; according to the private news site 24H Algérie, which was first to report the ban, the outlet noted.
The move comes after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-banned-in-kuwait-and-lebanon-could-be-next-as-govt-official-says-it-promotes-homosexuality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kuwait announced</a> on August 9 that the Greta Gerwig-directed feminist fantasy and the supernatural horror film &#8220;Talk to Me&#8221; was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-banned-in-kuwait-and-lebanon-could-be-next-as-govt-official-says-it-promotes-homosexuality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banned</a> in the country to protect &#8220;public ethics and social traditions,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-minister-moves-ban-barbie-film-promoting-homosexuality-2023-08-09/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a>.
The chairman of Kuwait&#8217;s film censorship committee, Lafi Al-Subaie, accused &#8220;Barbie&#8221; of &#8220;carrying ideas that encourage unacceptable behavior and distort society&#8217;s values,&#8221; local media outlets reported.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Last week, Lebanon’s cultural minister, Mohammad Mortada, also moved to ban the film, stating that it promotes &#8220;homosexuality and sexual transformation&#8221; and &#8220;contradicts values of faith and morality&#8221; by diminishing the importance of the family unit, according to the outlet.
Based on Mortada&#8217;s comments, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi asked General Security&#8217;s censorship committee to review the film and give its recommendation, with it widely believed it will also be banned, the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barbie-banned-kuwait-homosexuality-1235560252/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hollywood Reporter</a> noted.
Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were also reportedly &#8220;considering&#8221; a ban, but the film ended up opening on August 10. However, it remains unclear if the film was edited, per requests by the censors, before its release, THR noted.
Last month, the film was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vietnam-bans-barbie-movie-due-to-south-china-sea-map-depiction-in-film" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banned</a> in Vietnam due to content that government officials found offensive.
It has to do with the film&#8217;s imagery of a South China Sea map. This region has been a point of contention between Vietnam and China for years, and a map in the movie shows a U-shaped &#8220;nine-dash line&#8221; in the South China Sea.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-banned-in-kuwait-and-lebanon-could-be-next-as-govt-official-says-it-promotes-homosexuality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8216;Barbie&#8217; Banned In Kuwait, And Lebanon Could Be Next As Govt Official Says It &#8216;Promotes Homosexuality&#8217;</a>

Press Junket And Photo Call For “Barbie”

Another Country Bans ‘Barbie’ Over ‘Damaging Morals’

Another Country Bans 'Barbie' Over 'Damaging Morals'

Barbie

Lebanon

Middle East

Some redacted parts of former President Barack Obama&#8217;s letter to his ex-girlfriend were revealed over the weekend, in which he reportedly said that he fantasized about men on a daily basis.
The news comes after historian David Garrow — who wrote Obama’s 2017 biography “Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama” — during a recent interview with journalist David Samuels <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/obama-fantasized-about-making-love-to-men-in-letter-to-his-girlfriend-his-biographer-says">talked</a> about various aspects of the president&#8217;s life, both politically and personally. Garrow said the letter was the most surprising thing he learned about Obama.
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/08/12/barack-obama-told-ex-i-make-love-to-men-daily-but-in-the-imagination">reported</a> that the redacted portion of the 1982 letter — which is owned by Emory University and no one is allowed to photograph — was transcribed by Garrow&#8217;s friend Harvey Klehr and sent to Garrow.
&#8220;In regard to homosexuality, I must say that I believe this is an attempt to remove oneself from the present, a refusal perhaps to perpetuate the endless farce of earthly life,&#8221; Obama wrote in 1982. &#8220;You see, I make love to men daily, but in the imagination.&#8221;
Obama, 21 years old at the time, said in the letter to Alex McNear that his mind was part male and part female.
&#8220;My mind is androgynous to a great extent and I hope to make it more so until I can think in terms of people, not women as opposed to men,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But, in returning to the body, I see that I have been made a man, and physically in life, I choose to accept that contingency.&#8221;
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-3961">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Garrow said that when he read Obama&#8217;s book, &#8220;Dreams from My Father,&#8221; he found the entire work to be &#8220;a crock.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s not history,” he said. “It’s all make-believe. Who knows what the real story is?”
Garrow said that the first time he met Obama at the White House in the Oval Office, Obama had “this big pile of all his journals over the years.”
“And he’s arranged it this way on purpose—to show me that he has them, and so he can tell me that I can’t see them,” he said. “He’s got this big sack, I want to call it a cloth sack or a canvas sack, in the bottom of which are the journals. And then on the top of it is the typescript printout of my manuscript. So he’s carrying them around together.”
Garrow said that the materials Obama had included were his letters to and from one of his girlfriends and that they would likely never be made public. “I wouldn’t be astonished if he burns them,” he said.
When asked why Obama did not want anyone to see his journals and letters, Garrow said, “He wants people to believe his story. For me to conclude that Dreams from My Father was historical fiction—oh God, did that infuriate him.”

Barack Obama Speaks At His Foundation’s Democracy Forum In New York City

Obama’s Letter To Ex-GF Unredacted: ‘I Make Love To Men Daily, But In The Imagination’

Barack Obama

New York Post

The &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-is-the-worst-film-ive-never-seen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Barbie</a>&#8221; movie has been banned in Kuwait and could soon be forbidden in other parts of the Middle East because the film &#8220;promotes homosexuality&#8221; and carries &#8220;ideas that encourage unacceptable behavior,&#8221; according to government officials.
The Greta Gerwig-directed &#8220;preachy, man-hating&#8221; film, per <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bill-maher-destroys-preachy-man-hating-barbie-film" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Maher</a>, will not appear in theaters in Kuwait and could also soon be banned in Lebanon, per The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barbie-banned-kuwait-homosexuality-1235560252/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hollywood Reporter</a>.
Kuwait announced it had banned &#8220;Barbie&#8221; and the supernatural horror film &#8220;Talk to Me&#8221; to protect &#8220;public ethics and social traditions,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-minister-moves-ban-barbie-film-promoting-homosexuality-2023-08-09/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a>.
The chairman of Kuwait&#8217;s film censorship committee, Lafi Al-Subaie, accused the film of &#8220;carrying ideas that encourage unacceptable behavior and distort society&#8217;s values,&#8221; local media outlets reported.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
‘Barbie’ Banned in Kuwait, Accused of “Promoting Homosexuality” in Lebanon <a href="https://t.co/NbDWywd6fH">https://t.co/NbDWywd6fH</a>
&mdash; The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) <a href="https://twitter.com/THR/status/1689384891454996480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Lebanon&#8217;s cultural minister, Mohammad Mortada, also moved to ban the film, stating that it promotes &#8220;homosexuality and sexual transformation&#8221; and &#8220;contradicts values of faith and morality&#8221; by diminishing the importance of the family unit, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/lebanon-minister-moves-ban-barbie-film-promoting-homosexuality-2023-08-09/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a>.
Based on Mortada&#8217;s comments, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi asked General Security&#8217;s censorship committee to review the film and give its recommendation, with it widely believed it will also be banned, THR noted.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-20622">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Despite earlier reports that the movie, about a Barbie doll coming to life, would be banned in larger markets like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it was announced this week the film would hit theaters on August 10 in those countries.
Last month, the feminist fantasy film was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vietnam-bans-barbie-movie-due-to-south-china-sea-map-depiction-in-film">banned</a> in Vietnam due to content that government officials found offensive.
It has to do with the film&#8217;s imagery of a South China Sea map. This region has been a point of contention between Vietnam and China for years, and a map in the movie shows a U-shaped &#8220;nine-dash line&#8221; in the South China Sea.
&#8220;We do not grant license for the American movie &#8216;Barbie&#8217; to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,&#8221; Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films, was quoted as saying in the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiro-shreds-barbie-in-epic-full-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Shapiro Shreds &#8216;Barbie&#8217; In Epic Full Review</a>

‘Barbie’ Banned In Kuwait, And Lebanon Could Be Next As Govt Official Says It ‘Promotes Homosexuality’

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/christianity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anglican</a> ministers met in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">African</a> nation of Rwanda this week to issue a rebuke against the Church of England’s recent commitment to endorse so-called <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/homosexuality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">same-sex</a> marriages.
The Church of England’s General Synod approved a <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/media-and-news/press-releases/prayers-gods-blessing-same-sex-couples-take-step-forward-after-synod" target="_blank" rel="noopener">motion</a> earlier this year to “publicly, unreservedly, and joyfully” welcome same-sex couples into their congregations, where they can “receive God’s blessing” after a civil marriage or civil partnership, even as ministers remain unable to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies. Members of the General Synod also voted to “lament and repent” the Anglican Communion’s failure to “welcome LGBTQI+ people.”
Bishops and clergy members from the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, an alliance of conservative Anglican churches also known as GAFCON, assembled in the Rwandan capital city of Kigali this week and released a <a href="https://www.gafcon.org/news/gafcon-iv-the-kigali-commitment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> against the decision. They rejected Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the “first among equals” for bishops in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a body rooted in the traditions of the English Reformation, which spread across the globe amid the spread of the British Empire.
“Since the Lord does not bless same-sex unions, it is pastorally deceptive and blasphemous to craft prayers that invoke blessing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” the document said. “Refusal to follow the biblical teaching that the only appropriate context for sexual activity is the exclusive lifelong union of a man and a woman in marriage violates the created order.”
GAFCON attendees also endorsed a previous <a href="https://twitter.com/GafconGBE/status/1627622610388324355" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, also known as the GSFA, which said that the Church of England has “disqualified herself” from serving as the Anglican Communion’s mother church.
“The Church of England has chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith expressed in the Anglican formularies,” the statement read. “Our calling to be ‘a holy remnant’ does not allow us to be ‘in communion’ with those provinces that have departed from the historic faith and taken the path of false teaching.”
Christian self-identification in the United Kingdom and other European nations has declined over the past several decades as more residents profess agnostic or atheistic beliefs. Bishops who align with GAFCON and the GSFA now represent 85% of Anglicans across the world.
The secularization of the West has forced ministers in various denominations to clarify their stances on biblical sexual ethics. Pastors in the conservative evangelical Presbyterian Church in America, also known as the PCA, narrowly approved a <a href="https://pcaga.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Overture-15-Westminster-amend-BCO-7-self-identified-homosexuals.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">measure</a> last summer affirming that “identification as a ‘homosexual’ is sinful and against nature itself, is something God detests, and is not fitting for an officer of the Church of Christ” after some contended that one could self-identify as a homosexual and serve as a pastor while remaining celibate.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Christians in some Western nations have meanwhile faced increasing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/christians-against-the-abuse-of-power-theologians-around-the-world-sign-statement-rejecting-government-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backlash</a> from government officials over their stances on homosexuality and transgenderism. Officials in Canada <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/revival-and-reformation-is-needed-canadian-pastors-sound-off-on-new-law-that-threatens-to-criminalize-evangelism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enacted</a> a statute at the beginning of last year which called teaching on sexual ethics a “myth” and threatened pastors with up to five years of prison time if they called others to leave sexual lifestyle choices which conflict with biblical principles.

St Peter & St Pauls Parish Church

Conservative Anglicans Rebuke English Communion’s Approval Of Same-Sex Marriage

Africa

Christianity Today

The hard-Left Associated Press blared the &#8220;news&#8221; from the rooftops: &#8220;Pope says homosexuality not a crime,&#8221; screamed the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212?utm_source=apnews&amp;utm_medium=relatedcontentmodule">headline</a> on Wednesday.
&#8220;Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as &#8216;unjust,&#8217; saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church,&#8221; said the lead.
&#8220;&#8216;Being homosexual isn’t a crime,&#8217; Francis said during an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.&#8221;
The AP went further, saying: &#8220;Francis’ comments, which were hailed by gay rights advocates as a milestone, are the first uttered by a pope about such laws. But they are also consistent with his overall approach to LGBTQ people and belief that the Catholic Church should welcome everyone and not discriminate.&#8221;
But toward the end of the lengthy story, the wire service added this quote from the pope, saying he &#8220;articulated the position&#8221;:
&#8220;It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime,&#8221; the pontiff said.
So, as President Joe Biden said last week about all those classified documents being found in his properties, &#8220;there&#8217;s no there there.&#8221;
Pope Francis has long said that the Catholic Church is open to all. Jesus Christ famously preached tolerance and understanding for all of God&#8217;s children.
The pope said discriminating against others was sinful: &#8220;It&#8217;s also a sin to lack charity with one another, so what about that?&#8221;
And for the record, the church views all sex outside of Catholic marriage as sinful, not just homosexual sex. So the pope really wasn&#8217;t saying anything new &#8212; let alone newsworthy.
What&#8217;s more, the Catholic Church doctrine says gay people must be welcomed into the church and treated with respect, even if their homosexual acts are considered &#8220;intrinsically disordered.&#8221;
The church has said this before. In 2021, the Vatican&#8217;s doctrinal office decreed that the church could not bless same-sex unions because &#8220;God cannot bless sin.&#8221;
And back in 2020, Francis did express support for making some sort of mechanism for same-sex unions. &#8220;What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” Francis said in the documentary, “Francesco,” which debuted at the Rome Film Festival, noting he views gay people as children of God. “I stood up for that,&#8221; The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/world/europe/pope-francis-same-sex-civil-unions.html">reported</a>.
Even his declaration that homosexuality is not a crime is not new. The pope has condemned laws in some nations that deem homosexuality a crime, saying bishops from those countries should undergo a process of &#8220;conversion&#8221; to help them welcome LGBTQ people into their ministry &#8220;with tenderness.&#8221;
We should note, however, that it is unclear which reboot of the &#8220;Spiderman&#8221; series the pope prefers. We&#8217;ll bring that to you promptly when we find out because that will be news.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Pope Francis Holds His Weekly Audience

Woke Pope? Nope. Francis Made No News With Gay Declaration.

Woke Pope? Nope. Pope Francis Made No News With Gay Declaration.

Media

Menu