re: Pastor being sued for anti gay stance here in the US.

From a govt. stance, Americans have never had "free speech". The fact is that govt. can't grant me rights anyway. I was born with the ability to speak and govt. didn't give me that ability, it can only curtail it. Many of the locals, like Ace Midnight, like to say that it is govt., and specifically the military , that grant us rights. In addition, there are many things that you are not allowed to say. Some of those things are legitimate (threats of violence, etc). Some of those things are limits on your speech (the example listed in the posted thread).