A peculiar ritual has emerged on Sunday afternoons in online evangelical discourse. After the benediction, after the coffee, after lunch, some settle in to read David French at The New York Times. He is, after all, a self-proclaimed evangelical and political conservative (this, despite using his platform to repeatedly hector evangelicals for all their supposed shortcomings, namely, voting overwhelmingly for Donald Trump).
This past Sunday, French turned his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/opinion/james-talarico-christian-democrat-texas-primary.html">column</a> into something of a paean to James Talarico, the freshly minted Texas Democratic Senate nominee who has parlayed his Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary enrollment into a national brand. French called Talarico a “Christian X-ray” and reframed the country’s primary political divide not as Left versus Right but as decent versus indecent. The implication, apparently, is that a smiling seminarian who talks about love, who denies essential doctrines of the Christian faith, and who supports unfettered access to abortion and affirms gender ideology represents the decent side in opposition to “MAGA Christianity” that trades virtue for cruelty. In truth, Talarico is a walking caricature of the very worst elements of progressive Christianity, coupled with his Boy Scoutish looks and deep Southern folksiness.
To be fair to French, he does note his disagreements with Talarico. That caveat deserves acknowledgment. But a caveat buried in a column is not a serious engagement. It is a cover for a bait-and-switch that occurs later in the column. While espousing heresy is a grave error for Talarico, only slightly less severe is papering over doctrinal errors and legitimizing them on the pages of The New York Times, as French has done.
And French gets something else right before we can understand where he goes wrong. French has consistently and correctly argued that too many Christians have, at times, embraced a pragmatic ethic when evaluating Donald Trump. That is a real problem, and character defenses that are, in fact, indefensible can cheapen Christian witness. Paul’s instruction to Timothy is not optional: “Watch your life and doctrine closely” (1 Tim. 4:16). But in my estimate, I do not regard Donald Trump as a Christian (even while I maintain the importance of upholding good character for all politicians). The framing French relies upon is more acutely applied to Talarico than to Donald Trump. Doctrine and character go hand in glove. The Christian moral tradition has never treated them as divisible, even as we understand that on-the-ground politicians do not always neatly align with Christian desires. But what French is doing is far worse than the hypocrisy he accuses “MAGA Christians” of; he’s now embarking on a final phase of his transformation by downplaying doctrine and elevating practice, which is a historic trajectory seen in the journey toward theological progressivism.
And here is the difficulty. French is making, in his treatment of Talarico, the precise error he has spent years denouncing, an error that malforms Christianity as a packaged whole. He is accepting the appeal of a charming political figure while setting aside the doctrinal catastrophe underneath. He is doing with progressive Christianity exactly what he accuses MAGA Christians of doing with Donald Trump: trading away sound doctrine for the aesthetic satisfaction of a candidate who seems nicer, nay, “decent.” But consider: Talarico says, “God is non-binary.” He supports the dismemberment of unborn children in the name of reproductive freedom. He does all of this with the backing of Christian moralism. He publicly positions Christian faith as the engine for a progressive political program that would have been unrecognizable to any historic expression of the Christian tradition. This is not a candidate with some character flaws. This is a candidate whose stated theology repudiates the faith he claims to represent.
The Apostle Paul did not admonish his readers to focus solely on their ethics. He also admonished them to watch their doctrine, and to understand that the two cannot be disaggregated. Kindness is a genuine Christian virtue. It is not sufficient. A kind heretic is still a heretic. A man who speaks about Jesus with warmth while denying the moral order that Christ himself affirmed is not a Christian statesman. He is a wolf in a very well-pressed suit (Matt. 7:15). What French is doing in his column is making an unbiblical tradeoff—accepting the legitimacy of bankrupt doctrine under the ethics of character while accepting Talarico’s dubious, silver-tongued deceitfulness.
What is saddest about French’s column is not the argument itself, but what the argument reveals. There is a deep and corrosive bitterness driving it. His contempt for conservative Christians who have voted for Trump has mutated over time into something uglier: a reflexive and condescending derision of anyone who refuses to share his political judgments, dressed up as prophetic moral clarity. Let us all take a lesson that deep-seated rage at Donald Trump and his Christian supporters does not justify placating doctrinal error. When you begin describing a progressive politician who affirms abortion as a “Christian X-ray” that illuminates the failures of orthodox Christians, you have not elevated your commentary. You have descended into trollish editorializing with a more elite platform.
And here is the frustrating thing: none of this requires choosing between character and moral substance. Christians are perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum. We can and should refuse to excuse indefensible behavior from any politician, Republican or Democrat. We can acknowledge that character matters across the board. And we can simultaneously recognize that there are genuine, serious moral asymmetries between the two major party platforms on questions near and dear to evangelicals, namely abortion, human dignity, and religious liberty. Recognizing those asymmetries is not capitulation to MAGA Christianity. It is an honest moral assessment of less-than-ideal political realities.
Progressive Christianity is not Christianity. Any movement, and any thirty-something seminarian, that denies the core doctrines of the Christian faith has not offered a fresh reading of the tradition. It has departed from the tradition. The tradition has a word for that departure. It is called heresy. And anyone, including certain New York Times columnists, who aids and abets such departures by insisting they still count as authentic Christianity, is not offering serious commentary on the Christian faith. It is offering theological malpractice to a very large audience.
* * *
Andrew T. Walker is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Senate Candidate James Talarico Holds Primary Night Event

A Kind Heretic Is Still A Heretic

Abortion

Bible

Christianity

Homosexuality

Opinion

Progressivism

Religion

Transgender

“Gay” sheep made their fashion debut on the runway in NYC as the “I Wool Survive” collection premiered, featuring pieces made from the wool of alleged male sexually-oriented sheep.
The event aims to promote a German farmer and his plight to rescue “homosexual” sheep. Michael Stücke, who is gay, oversees a flock of these rescued rams at an organization he dubbed Rainbow Wool. The rescue’s website claims that as many as 8% of rams are sexually oriented toward other males, which leads to them being slaughtered for being non-procreative.
“Sadly, gay rams are often sent to slaughter because they can’t fulfill a farm’s ‘breeding role.’ We rescue them before that happens, giving them a safe home where they can live and love freely,” the Rainbow Wool <a href="https://rainbow-wool.com/">website</a> says, touting their inhabitants as “the world’s first gay flock of sheep.”
The “I Wool Survive” fashion collection was created to advance this cause and bring more attention to the issue. Celebrity designer Michael Schmidt teamed up with the gay dating app, Grindr, to create the collection and host a fashion show at the Altman Building in Manhattan on November 13. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Rainbow Wool | Launch EN" width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0doFeaBRtZo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Stücke said in a press release that the 36-piece collection “proves that being gay is part of nature itself.”
“The wool from these rams isn’t just material — it’s a message spun from animals who live freely and are loved,” he added. 
Grindr’s senior vice president of brand marketing, Tristan Pineiro, explained why the company was interested in attaching its name to the collection.
“It’s a great, feel-good story, but there’s also a message at the heart of it,” the marketing exec said, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/fashion/2025/11/20/grindr-fashion-show-gay-sheep-wool/">per</a> The Washington Post. “It’s not just a fluffy story.”
“The sheep are a kind of metaphor for all of us,” Pineiro went on. “Because they’re gay, they get discarded. They get thrown aside because they don’t conform to what they’re supposed to.”

Gay sheep

‘I Wool Survive’: Garments Spun From ‘Gay Sheep’ Receive An NYC Fashion Debut

'I Wool Survive': Garments Spun From 'Gay Sheep' Get An NYC Fashion Debut

Animals

Fashion

Germany

LGBT

New York City

You can tell a lot about the strength of a particular argument or world view by how long it lasts before reality ends up discrediting it. There are some debates that don&#8217;t need to be settled by consulting with dozens of experts or asking ten different AI models and then comparing notes. Instead, certain events take place, and they resolve the disagreement right away. A catastrophic nuclear meltdown ended any discussion about how effective Chernobyl&#8217;s emergency shutdown mechanism was. An iceberg convinced everyone that, despite all of the marketing hype, the Titanic could in fact sink. There are limits to the ability of liars and charlatans to deceive the population, in other words. Even the most convincing fraudsters face the risk of exposure if their deception is simply too absurd to be compatible with reality. The more absurd the deception is, the faster it falls apart.
By that standard, there are few lies that are more flagrant — and obviously so — than the fiction that gay men should be allowed to adopt children, or to acquire them by paying for a woman to serve as a &#8220;surrogate.&#8221; As we saw recently, a journalist named Glenn Greenwald personally <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/glenn-greenwald-called-me-morally-deranged-then-this-happened">attacked</a> me for holding the position that children should be raised by a mother and a father. He maintained, in a very public and vitriolic fashion, that I was a terrible person for suggesting that gay adoption isn&#8217;t an ideal outcome. He presented himself as infinitely more virtuous than I am because of his decision to acquire young children. And then, within a matter of weeks, Greenwald himself demonstrated through his own conduct — on camera — why my position was correct.
That was back in June. And now, just a month later, it&#8217;s happened again. Reality has caused yet another major problem for the Left&#8217;s narrative about homosexuals who adopt children. Only this time, reality reared its head even faster — as in, within 24 hours. And the implications here are somehow even more disturbing and grotesque than they were with Glenn Greenwald&#8217;s debauchery. This is a story that makes it very clear that laws need to change, and they need to change immediately. And then people need to go to prison.
It all began on Sunday, when an Irish political activist named Derek Blighe discovered some videos that had been posted on a gay couple&#8217;s social media feeds. The videos show the two gay men, both of whom are overweight, marking monthly anniversaries with a child they&#8217;ve obtained. In every video, they blow out a candle on the cupcake. And the videos keep going, as the men seem to somehow get fatter each time. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Gay Couple" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sYxqkeV2XRQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
In response to these videos, on Sunday, Derek Blighe posted simply, &#8220;Unless a miracle happens, this child has almost no chance at a normal life.&#8221;
And he was right, of course.
At a visceral level, this footage is repulsive. Everyone understands that, whether they&#8217;ll admit it or not. When a child is deprived of his mother and father, it isn&#8217;t something to celebrate. It&#8217;s a tragedy that&#8217;s inflicted on someone who cannot possibly deserve it, and who may never recover from it. And that&#8217;s especially true when, in lieu of a mother and a father, a child is obtained by two men who belong to a demographic whose behavior, in a very disproportionate number of cases, is completely incompatible with raising children, to put things as mildly as possible. It&#8217;s also a demographic that&#8217;s disproportionately interested in adopting male children. And again, everyone understands what&#8217;s going on there, though nobody will say it.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1631-the-matt-walsh-show?elementPosition=0&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=The+Matt+Walsh+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
And yet, when Blighe made this simple and straightforward observation, hundreds of thousands of Left-wing activists pretended to be shocked and horrified by what he had written. They also claimed that, in fact, it&#8217;s *better* for the child to be raised by two gay men, than by his own mother and father.
Here&#8217;s <a href="https://x.com/LouiseScot51918/status/1949441171085799511">one representative post</a>, which has more than 6 million views and 220,000 &#8220;likes&#8221; on X:
<blockquote>Makes me happy. That baby is going to be raised not to hate people and will be loved.</blockquote>
Here&#8217;s another post, from someone named &#8220;Bev Jackson&#8221; of a group called &#8220;Alliance LGB.&#8221; This came in response to Derek&#8217;s post expressing disgust at the footage: 
<blockquote>That is homophobic. If the child has two loving male parents, there is no evidence whatsoever that he or she will not prosper.</blockquote>
But Bev Jackson&#8217;s response didn&#8217;t last very long. Just a few hours later, Bev <a href="https://x.com/BevJacksonAuth/status/1949907957203751331">deleted</a> it. And a lot of people like Bev deleted their reactions, too. That&#8217;s because, in record-breaking time, the narrative took an extremely dark turn. The journalists at Reduxx decided to take a closer look at the two gay men in the video with that toddler. <a href="https://reduxx.info/gay-man-who-crowdfunded-surrogacy-journey-with-husband-revealed-as-child-sex-offender/">Here&#8217;s</a> what they found:
<blockquote>A widely circulated video showcasing a gay couple’s &#8216;surrogacy journey&#8217; has revealed that a baby boy is currently in the custody of a registered child sex offender. &#8230; Brandon Keith Mitchell is a Tier 1 sex offender in the state of Pennsylvania, and was arrested in 2016 after attempting to solicit a 16-year-old boy for sexual abuse. The victim in the case was a student at Downingtown West High School, where Mitchell had worked as a chemistry teacher. He was 30 years old at the time.</blockquote>
Here&#8217;s an image of Brandon Mitchell when he was teaching:
<div id="attachment_953911" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-953911" class="wp-image-953911 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-01-40-PM-9665-432x576.jpg" alt="Chester County District Attorney’s office." width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-01-40-PM-9665-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-01-40-PM-9665-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-01-40-PM-9665-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-01-40-PM-9665-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-01-40-PM-9665-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MixCollage-29-Jul-2025-01-40-PM-9665-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" />Chester County District Attorney’s office.</div>
According to local news reports, Mitchell was, &#8220;charged with texting obscene images and texts to a student, [and] asking for nude images of the underage student.&#8221;
Mitchell taught at this school from 2010 to 2015. And during this period, he reportedly sent more than 12,000 text messages to this student. He ended up pleading guilty to &#8220;felony child pornography possession and one count of Corruption of Minors&#8221; — because police found sexually explicit videos of the child on his personal computer — and was sentenced to nearly two years of incarceration. But he didn&#8217;t serve anywhere near that sentence. Just two months after his conviction, Reduxx reports, he was granted parole. For a crime that should&#8217;ve resulted in life imprisonment, at a minimum, he barely spent any time in jail.
The Reduxx article <a href="https://reduxx.info/gay-man-who-crowdfunded-surrogacy-journey-with-husband-revealed-as-child-sex-offender/">continues</a>:
<blockquote>Part of his conditions included that he have no unsupervised contact with minors and that he surrender his teaching license. He quickly moved on to obtain a job as a chemist at Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing in Lancaster, where he has worked for the past 9 years. &#8230; In 2021, Mitchell married Logan Riley, a second-grade teacher from Maryland, and moved to Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania. In 2023, the two launched a GoFundMe to raise money for a surrogate.</blockquote>
Of course, the GoFundMe didn&#8217;t mention the whole &#8220;convicted sex offender” thing.
In any event, the fundraiser has since been taken down. But it reportedly had a goal of $50,000, and raised just over $2,000, so it wasn&#8217;t exactly a success. Nevertheless, Riley — the husband of the convicted sex offender — reported that, in November of 2023, they had found a surrogate.
<blockquote>Our surrogate went through extensive medical and social worker evaluations in order to be approved for surrogacy. Once approved, the lengthy legal and financial process began. We are so excited that our amazing surrogate will carry one of our embryos for us, helping to expand our family.</blockquote>
It&#8217;s hard to miss the irony here. According to these two gay men, there was an &#8220;extensive&#8221; screening process for their &#8220;surrogate&#8221; — meaning, the woman whose body they were going to rent, so that she would bear a child for them, so that they could pretend to be parents. Social workers, doctors and lawyers were all involved. And yet, evidently, there was no screening process whatsoever for these two gay men. No one in the federal government, or the state of Pennsylvania, saw any problem with creating a new human life, for the sole purposes of handing the child off to a convicted sexual predator. And not just any convicted sexual predator. We&#8217;re talking about a convicted <a href="https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1949915000589443072">sexual predator</a> who specifically preyed on a child.
At first, you might think — well, there must have been some massive, very unfortunate mistake here. Surely, you&#8217;d assume, there must be a thorough vetting process for the parents of children who are born through surrogacy. And somehow, in this particular case, someone must have fallen asleep on the job. Maybe they ran a criminal records check under the wrong name or something like that.
But that&#8217;s not remotely what happened. As it turns out, there is no legal bar in the state of Pennsylvania — or many other states — for convicted sexual predators to obtain children through surrogacy. It&#8217;s completely legal. There are no roadblocks whatsoever.
Again, this is from <a href="https://reduxx.info/gay-man-who-crowdfunded-surrogacy-journey-with-husband-revealed-as-child-sex-offender/">Reduxx</a>:
<blockquote>Reduxx reached out to the division Pennsylvania State Police responsible for maintaining Mitchell’s registration, and was informed that the state does not automatically forbid individuals convicted of sex crimes from having children, gaining custody, or exercising parental rights. While Pennsylvania’s adoption law does prohibit sex offenders from adopting or fostering children, gestational surrogacy circumvents any such laws through pre-birth parentage orders.</blockquote>
You heard that correctly. Individuals who are convicted of sex crimes, including sex crimes involving children — crimes so severe that the guilty party had to agree to have &#8220;no unsupervised contact with minors&#8221; for a certain period of time — are allowed to obtain children in Pennsylvania. The only restriction is that, instead of adopting a child, they have to pay for a woman to give birth to a child. This is a policy that&#8217;s so incomprehensible, and so evil, that it&#8217;s hard to even talk about. And it&#8217;s also a policy that, evidently, a lot of officials in Pennsylvania aren&#8217;t even aware of.
One of Reduxx&#8217;s writers <a href="https://x.com/Slatzism/status/1949926492651024812">posted this</a> on social media, as she was working on this story:
<blockquote>While I was talking to the state police sex offender division, the agent actually stopped for a moment when I mentioned it was a surrogate baby and said, &#8216;But surely … there’s a vetting process for this kind of thing?&#8217;</blockquote>
Well, actually, no. There&#8217;s no vetting process for &#8220;this kind of thing,&#8221; as it turns out.
If someone is a pedophile in the state of Pennsylvania, and they’ve been convicted for &#8220;corrupting minors&#8221; and possessing child pornography, they are still completely free to obtain a child through surrogacy. And not just any child — a newborn with no known relatives, no next of kin to check in on him. And then, once they have this defenseless child in their home, he is entirely at their mercy and helpless, and no one can see what they’re doing, and there is no one who actually knows the child or cares for him. Even his mother isn&#8217;t allowed to speak to him. It&#8217;s almost as if the state went out of its way to create a loophole for pedophiles. There are no words for how dark this is.
And by the way, this is one of the many fundamental, fatal problems with relying on &#8220;statistics&#8221; and &#8220;experts&#8221; who tell you that gay adoption is completely fine and appropriate. Every single mainstream expert will tell you that gay men are just as capable as straight couples to raise children, if not more so. They&#8217;ll tell you to suspend all of your intuitions and common sense, and they&#8217;ll call you a bigot if you disagree. But the truth is, none of these experts actually knows what goes on inside these households where men are raising children that aren&#8217;t theirs.
None of the statistics can capture the reality of what&#8217;s happening, because only the parents who are caught abusing their children will actually be reflected in those statistics.
That&#8217;s why we have intuition and basic morality. And it&#8217;s why we should always pay close attention whenever activists on the other side, in a demonic kind of rage, attempt to claim the moral high ground — only for it to crumble immediately in a matter of days (or hours, in this case). There are some lies that are simply too evil and unsustainable to survive contact with reality. The fiction that gay men are appropriate foster parents for other people&#8217;s children is one of them. In recent months, we&#8217;ve repeatedly seen <a href="https://people.com/ga-couple-adopted-young-boys-filmed-sexual-abuse-house-of-horrors-8766348">glimpses</a> into the horrors that many of these children are enduring behind closed doors. The recent case of William and Zachary Zulock in Georgia is an example of two men who were sexually abusing their two adopted children. They probably would never have been caught, if they hadn&#8217;t bragged about their behavior to others.
Especially in light of stories like this, it shouldn&#8217;t be remotely controversial to say that the safety of children is infinitely more important than any gay man&#8217;s desire to become a parent. Nature has already decided that gay couples will be childless by definition. The law should follow suit. Starting with the state of Pennsylvania — which should immediately change its law and remove this particular child from this household — this very straightforward principle needs to become law. Any society that doesn&#8217;t protect its own children does not deserve to exist. Under the guise of helping children, a system has been created that allows for children to be abused in the most horrific ways imaginable. That system must be dismantled. The abusers should go to prison for the rest of their lives. And no child, no matter the circumstances, should ever be forcibly prevented from having a mother and a father ever again in this country.

Rear view of son with arm around fathers sitting on fence in yard

Gay Sex Offender Buys A Baby Through Surrogacy. How Is This Legal?

Adoption

LGBTQ

Matt Walsh

Pennsylvania

Same-Sex Marriage

Sex Offender

04-Jun-2025-05-00-PM-4422

LGBT Activists Have Found Their Next Hate Crime Hoax And It’s The Most Insane One Yet

actors

Celebrities

Murder

Texas

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

Entertainment

Hollywood

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.
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&#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.
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“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

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.
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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

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.”
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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

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. 
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“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)

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.
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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>

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