The city known for country music and hospitality can now boast a new “gay friendly” business atmosphere. By a vote of 21-15 the Nashville City Council passed an “anti-discrimination” ordinance on April 5 making it illegal for companies that do business with the city to discriminate in their hiring policies based sexual orientation or gender identity.

In what an abortion research group has called a first in the United States, pro-life Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed legislation outlawing abortion based on the race or gender of a baby.

On March 29 the Indiana State Senate overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage. The 40-to-10 vote came on the heels of passage of the amendment in the state House by a 70 to 26 margin. “The basic unit of our society is a family, and I think the cornerstone of a family is a marriage, a man and a woman having children,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican State Senator Dennis Kruse.

A recent survey supposedly showing that Catholics are increasingly supportive of homosexual marriage was actually funded in part by a homosexual activist group, charged a prominent Catholic writer and cultural observer.

A recent report from American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns that teens who spend too much time texting and surfing social media websites may be placing themselves at greater risk for depression. While Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and other social media sites can help young people keep in touch with friends and relatives, the report in the April issue of Pediatrics noted that too much time on such sites, along with other online activities such as texting and instant messaging, can keep young people isolated and may lead to depression.

The founder of the creationist group Answers in Genesis (AIG) and one of the chief architects of the planned “Ark Encounter” creationist museum in Kentucky, has been un-invited from two important home school conferences because of controversial comments he made about another conference speaker. As reported by OneNewsNow.com, the sponsor of the conferences, Great Homeschool Conventions, e-mailed noted creationist Dr. Ken Ham to inform him that he was no longer welcome at scheduled or future events because of “ungodly” and “mean-spirited” statements he had made about the convention and other speakers.

Skeptics, it seems, have been trying to kill religion for the past several decades. Back in 1966, playing off the famous declaration by unhinged German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, a Time magazine cover story asked the rhetorical question, “Is God Dead Yet?” In the ensuing years, He has proven Himself very much alive, with a continuing interest in the affairs of men. But humanity’s apparent interest in Him has waxed and waned depending on its collective mood at any given time — with enthusiasm for all things divine being at a sufficiently low ebb for three American researchers to predict recently that religion itself may actually become extinct, or close to it, in nine nations over the next several years.

On March 22, the Obama Administration raised yet another rainbow flag in political concession to the “gay” lobby, calling on the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to take up the global campaign for homosexual rights. “Human rights are the inalienable right of every person, no matter who they are or who they love,” said Chamberlain Donahoe, U.S. Ambassador to the Human Rights Council, in a statement released with the delivery of the U.S declaration, which has the approval of more than 80 other nations. “The U.S. government is firmly committed to supporting the right of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals to lead productive and dignified lives, free from fear and violence.”

The New York Times reported on March 19 that final approval has been completed to make way for the creation of a new “red light district on the Web“—a “Triple-X” domain reserved exclusively for pornographic websites of all kinds. While some 200,000 dot-xxx domain names have been reserved over the past year in anticipation of the new pornographic Internet suffix, the authorization by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has drawn heavy criticism from both pro-family groups concerned about increased sexual content on the web and entrenched businesses in the pornography industry worried about an influx of new porn sites cutting into their business.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling ordering a home schooled girl to attend public school, overriding the desire of the girl’s mother that she be educated at home. The March 16 decision came following an extended conflict between the divorced parents of the girl, who were at odds over whether she should be taught at home, as her mother wished, or attend public school, which was her father’s desire.