RELIGION HEADLINES FRI 9-12-25

Audio By Carbonatix

(SRN NEWS)-

(  )  A federal appeals court has reversed previous court rulings that found a Georgia county illegally discriminated against a sheriff’s deputy by failing to pay for his sex-change operation.  In its ruling, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Houston County’s policy did not violate the civil rights of the male officer.  The decision relies heavily on a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld Tennessee’s ban on sex-change operations for children.  That ruling focused on the right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same.

(  )  Conservative Catholics around the world are unhappy with the new pope’s decision to allow more than 1,000 LGBT activists to participate in a Holy Year pilgrimage to the Vatican this month.  Several LGBT groups were involved in the pilgrimage, which was listed in the Vatican’s official calendar of events for the Holy Year — a once-every-quarter century celebration of Catholicism.  Vatican organizers claim that the listing in the calendar didn’t signal endorsement or sponsorship, but Pope Leo did address the gathering.  His predecessor, Pope Francis, is accused of weakening the church’s traditional opposition to homosexuality.

(  )  Missouri voters and the lawmakers they elect could be headed for a clash at the ballot box over the power to set public policy.  Citizen activists have kicked off a petition drive for a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it harder for state lawmakers to reverse or revise citizen-led initiatives approved by voters.  In many states, divisive social issues such as abortion and transgenderism are dealt with via initiatives and referendums.  Meanwhile, Missouri lawmakers are proposing their own constitutional amendment that would make it harder for citizen-initiated amendments to pass.  Both measures could make the 2026 ballot.

(  )  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office says one of the first doctors accused of illegally providing so-called “gender affirming care” to children did not break the law.  This comes nearly a year after a state lawsuit accused Dr. Hector Granados of falsifying medical records and violating a Texas ban on sex-change operations for kids that took effect in 2023. More than two dozen states have prohibitions on such procedures for transgender youth, but Texas was the first to bring cases against doctors, filing lawsuits against Granados and two other providers.  The cases against the other doctors, both in Dallas, remain ongoing.