A new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals that a record number of Americans (19.3%) have abandoned faith and now consider themselves unaffiliated with any particular religion.

According to USA Today:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Several well-known LGBT activists will appear this weekend in Sacramento to dispute the scientifically disproved myth that gays can be turned straight.

Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, will give a multimedia presentation on the subject as a new “gays can be cured” group launches in the Sacramento area.

Besen will speak at an event running from 6 to 8:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 22, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral’s International Hall in Sacramento.

When I first heard that a gunman shot a teenage lesbian couple in Portland, Texas, I pictured a small, backward town reminiscent of the one in the movie “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” The crime scene, however, did not match the picture I had conjured on the plane ride from Vermont to Texas.

There are two things we know about the religious right: They have no faith in science, and they

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