The heartbreaking callousness of bureaucracy.

We at the Moorfield Storey Institute have been involved in a situation that just breaks our hearts. The picture you see is Samuel Ghilain, a two year boy who literally has been sentenced to life in a loveless orphanage by callous bureaucrats, even though he has loving parents and a home waiting for him. We are trying to change this situation so Samuel can go home.

This story began when Laurent Ghilain, and his husband, Peter Meurrens decided they wanted a child. The couple, who are legally married, considered adoption but Belgian adoption laws, while saying it was possible, made it difficult. After some thought they decided on surrogacy.

How the Religious Right Blew it with Proposition 8

The Right-wing anti-gay crowd really blew their case with Proposition 8. By this I mean the legal case. If you followed the Prop 8 story you would know that it narrowly passed at the election booth, after the Mormon Church pumped millions of dollars into a campaign based almost entirely on falsehoods and distortions.

Then a unique team of conservative Ted Olson, and leftist David Boies, took the case in the federal courts. Judge Vaughn Walker, appointed by President George H. Bush appointed to the US District Court was asked to rule on the constitutionality of the proposition. Walker was first appointed by Reagan, and is believed to have libertarian sentiments—which conservatives will call socialist no doubt. Walker decided that the Proposition has violated constitutional protections and said it was invalid.

This is where the Religious Right placed a sucker bet, that is, a bet they can't win. They are appealing that decision to the Supreme Court. Why is this a sucker bet? Simple, what ever happens they are screwed.

TV Liberty: One-stop shop for videos on individual rights

TV Liberty is a project of the Moorfield Storey Institute.  We have over 230 different videos ranging from the humorous to the serious, across an array of topics. Adding up to several hundred hours of video, we have a convenient index on each page so that you can see what is available on specific topics. This is a true libertarian collection that includes pro-peace material with items about economic freedom. You will find the reasons that libertarians support marriage equality, drug legalization and deregulation. We don't shy away from defending property rights, sexual rights, and immigration.

If you have spent countless hours searching through various websites to see what videos they have available, stop searching. We accumulate in one spot the best videos from dozens of sources. Typically a search on YouTube brings forth hundreds of hits, most of them NOT what you are looking for. Here we gather just those videos that ought to interest libertarians.

10 Commandments for Libertarians

It was once said: "I have met the enemy and he is us."

Truer words were never said.

I think the libertarian vision is a noble one. It respects people. It sees each individual as an end in himself, and not the means to the ends of others.

With any such set of ideas there is the message and there is the messenger. And rationally it behooves us to keep the two separate. In reality though people often judge the message by the messenger.

The libertarian movement worldwide has some really decent, hardworking, caring individuals at its helm. It also has some kooks, nuts, weirdoes, cultists and certifiable lunatics out there. In other words it's pretty much like the rest of the world.

Zach Wahls on the Last Word

A few days ago we posted a video of Zach Wahls defending his family, which is under attack by the Republican Party in Iowa, because the parents are both women. Zach gave a coherent response to the incoherent rhetoric that the Republicans throw around. Yesterday, we published a guest essay by Zach. Here is an interview with Zach, his mothers, and his sister.

What I find interesting is that Zach, as a high school student, wrote an essay for the Des Moines Register advocating that the state get out of marriage. Now many libertarians propose this, but seem to think it can mean that the state ends all legal recognitions. That is naive given the complex web of laws that are all tied to the marriage status. But Zach's proposal is one that comes close to the "radical" libertarian position and yet recognizes the legal realities. (More below the video.)

The gay marriage "catastrophe"

Note: This is a guest commentary by Zach Wahls, of Iowa, printed here with Zach's consent. You may remember he spoke out at Republican-sponsored anti-gay hearings to strip gay relationships of any and all legal recognition. Zach was raised by two gay women and spoke of his experience and his family, a family Republicans try to demonize. Zach spoke passionately and clearly about this and that video can be watched here.  Our comments will be below.

A recent study on same-sex marriage confirmed my already strident pro-equality view on the issue.

The nonprofit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, led by University of Iowa journalism Associate Professor Stephen Berry, found that nearly a year and a half after the unanimous Iowa Supreme Court ruling — surprise! — marriage in Iowa remains strong. In fact, since the Varnum v. Brien decision, divorces have declined to their lowest level since 1968, at 7,286.

I'm just going to take a moment to revel in that.

Are Families Really that Different?

Zach Wahls is a 19-year-old university student in Iowa. Republicans are beginning a campaign to strip gay couples of the right to marry. One reason, sometimes given, is that gay people can't be good parents, at least not as good as heterosexual parents. Zach was raised by a lesbian couple and he addresses that issue.






I knew a young man who worked for one of the political parties in a British Commonwealth country. He worked in parliament with one of the parties there. A debate arose whether to allow gay couples to have civil unions or not. Conservatives opposed the measure, while both modern and classical liberals supported that right. Most of the members of his party supported the move but a couple of conservatives opposed it.