Shane Ryan, creator of classics like Amateur Porn Star Killer and Sex, Kids, Party, says that the film will handle her story with care: "We're trying to figure out a way to do that so it's not exploitative." • Prosecutors have decided that a 59-year-old man from the UK probably did murder his wife in her sleep, as his defense has claimed. Brian Thomas dreamt that his wife was an intruder, and strangled her to death. Prosecutors, persuaded by expert testimony about automatism and sleep disorders, are now arguing for a ruling of not guilty by reason of mental insanity - the alternative being a "simple verdict of not guilty." • Back in June, New York State decided to allow researchers to pay women for their eggs for stem cell research. But many fear that this policy will take advantage of underprivileged women, since donating eggs is not without risks. • The March of Dimes' Premature Birth Card has graded the U.S. a "D" when it comes to preterm birth rate. Not a single state was awarded an A, and only Vermont was given a B. • Government researchers report black women are twice as likely as white or Hispanic women to suffer a stillbirth, partly due to higher pregnancy rates and because African-American women are more at risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, and pregnancy complications like uterine bleeding and premature rupture of the sac surrounding the fetus. The racial gap is even wider between more-educated women. Higher education is linked to a 30 percent reduction in stillbirths among white women, but no reduction in risk among African-Americans. • An interesting new study from the University of Pennsylvania found that children who are insensitive to fear are more likely to grow up to be criminals. Researchers examined toddlers, measuring their sweat output to determine fear. Years later they pulled the records of participants, and found that toddlers who did not sweat in response to a loud noise were more likely to have a criminal record. •  A government watchdog group has asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether Michele Bachmann violated house rules by organizing the November 5th Tea Party rally. • Wanda Eileen Barzee, the woman accused of helping her then-husband kidnap Elizabeth Smart, has plead guilty to charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor. The terms of her plea agreement have not yet been made public. • According to a children's charity, Britain lacks the resources to protect thousands of young girls vulnerable to being forced into sexual slavery. Only 20% of local authorities have the specialist sources to intervene, said the chief executive of Bernardo. • A 21-year-old Army mom may face criminal charges after she skipped a deployment flight to Afghanistan in order to stay home and care for her infant son. Alexis Hutchinson's attorney says her superiors ordered her to place the child in foster care and resume service. •  Several organizations are trying to get more British girls to ride bikes, but the campaigns focus too much on looking good while cycling, according to an editorial in The Guardian. One site called Bike Belles actually advises girls to, "Use waterproof mascara when it's raining on your bike, and take a powder compact for a quick refresher on arrival." • Burkittsville, Maryland, the town where The Blair Witch Project was filmed, had to design new welcome signs because people keep stealing the ones that were shown in the movie. • Hooters Las Vegas lost millions of dollars this year and now the company has received a notice of default from its lenders. The company is trying to restructure, but maybe frat boys just don't have as much money to throw around these days? • A New Jersey high school student is suing her school because administrators wouldn't let her participate in the Pro Life Day of Silent Solidarity, an annual worldwide protest. She wanted to remain silent on October 20, except when called on in class, wear an armband with the word "life" on it, and hand out anti-abortion pamphlets. "The school district basically held that there is no religion allowed in school, which violates the students' First Amendment rights," said her lawyer. • On Saturday, a French woman was allowed to marry the father of her two children nearly a year after his death in a car accident. She stood next to his picture while she recited her vows. "I'm not really in the mood to celebrate," she said afterwards. "We're going to drink a cup of coffee and I will thank those who have supported me." •

The writer of the LA Times piece, Mark D. Stern, cites a number of legal cases in which no argument privileging gay rights over religious rights have actually, you know, won, but he's afraid they might and thus his freedom to discriminate in the name of his religion might be trumped by the freedom of gay people not to be discriminated against under the equal protection clause. In addition, according to Stern, freedom to practice one's discriminatory religion as one sees fit should also extend to the religion institution's right to benefit from government monies in providing services to a larger community while still engaging in practices determined to be against the equal protection clause. Thus, since a religious hospital benefiting from government largess might have to treat gay people for, like, cock ring accidents or whatever "those" people do, religious institutions will be forced to accept gay people into their congregations and perform gay ceremonies in violation of their constitutional right to discriminate as they see fit under their interpretation of religious texts and thus in one fell swoop the gays will have corrupted not only all of Marriage but all Religion and the end of the world will be at hand.

I was actually going to sit and debunk his arguments once I'd mocked them, but I basically think it's not really necessary. He can't come up with a single court decision that supports his claim that the right to freedom of religion is being eroded by the courts and the LGBT community's legitimate equal protection claims. He argues that some instances (also unsupported by documentation) of religion-sponsored organizations that provide non-religious services (with government support) to a larger community being told not to discriminate against the LGBT community is tantamount to forcing the Catholic church to perform gay weddings in violation of papal doctrine. His arguments are so specious on their face that I realized I don't have to debunk them. Anyone reading will just know that they are simply in service of his (let's be charitable and call it ) religious belief that homosexuality is bad and the government should do what it can to not allow "those" people equal protection under the law. Fuck that guy.

Will Gay Rights Trample Religious Freedom? [LA Times]