Free Republic

Target finally threw its corporate weight behind marriage equality Tuesday, with the Minneapolis-based retailer joining an amicus brief in a court case. "We believe that everyone -- all of our team members and guests -- deserve to be treated equally," Target executive vice president Jodee Kozlak said in a statement posted on the corporate blog. Yet in recent years, Target's official position on same-sex marriage had been a case study of mixed signals, causing the discount chain a great deal of grief. During the heated 2012 marriage amendment fight in Minnesota, Target remained firmly on the sidelines -- and remained...

As the late, great Eric Hoffer once said, "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." So it is with feminism. There was a time in America when women couldn't vote, when they weren't allowed to work in the same professions as men and when they weren't really considered the equal of a man. Feminism grew in response to that and even many men embraced it because they saw the inherent unfairness of society. These men also had capable women they loved and respected -- their mothers, their wives, their daughters –...

A transgender YouTube star has posted a video urging for people to accept everyone for who they are. The 13-year-old Jazz, who was thrust into the media  spotlight when she appeared on TV programme 20/20 aged just 6, says: “A lot of transgender people are treated unfairly. It’s upsetting to know there are still prejudiced people who don’t accept others. She talks about the prejudice she has experienced, saying: “When some people say we don’t appreciate God’s creation, or argue that the Bible doesn’t say LGBTQ people are ethical, I get confused. “It befuddles me how we have to undermine others...

As a child, Lindsay Leigh Bentley desperately wanted to be a boy. She refused to wear dresses and adored going hunting with her dad. She loved sticks, guns, motorcycles and monsters. She chopped the hair off her Barbies. Her parents had to cut her own hair short because she refused to let them brush it. Her best friends were boys. In childhood pictures, she looks fierce, and tough as nails. These days, her worried parents would probably hustle her off to the nearest gender-identity clinic. But Lindsay grew up in a more backward age, when such things did not exist....

There are plenty of concerning things about the Browns’ lives on Sister Wives that the average audience member wouldn’t be accustomed to — for example, just how do they afford four McMansions in Nevada? Perhaps the most unfamiliar thing about the Browns’ unusual lifestyle choice, however, is just how many children they have. Like the Duggars before them, the Browns are working in the high teens of offspring (17, to be exact), but unlike the Duggars, the Brown children have… mother-aunts? And if you’re at all curious about their parents’ polygamist lifestyle, then certainly you’ve wondered: Will their 17...

For white America, confronting its own racism is a lot like attitudes surrounding the virus that can lead to AIDS.Witnessing the death of Eric Garner, at the hands of uniformed police in New York City, got me to thinking about racism in America. This African-American man was confronted by police for selling single, probably-untaxed, cigarettes on the street. When the man resisted, he was held in a chokehold – a practice deemed unlawful for over 20 years – which was horrifyingly caught on tape. The man was obese and carried no firearm, yet he was wrestled to the ground and...

Marijuana joined roses and dahlias Friday in blue ribbon events at the nation’s first county fair to allow pot competitions. This weekend’s Denver County Fair includes a 21-and-over “Pot Pavilion” where winning entries for plants, bongs, edible treats and clothes made from hemp are on display. Organizers say the marijuana categories this year — which come with the debut of legal recreational marijuana in Colorado — add a fun twist on Denver’s already-quirky county fair, which includes a drag queen pageant and a contest for dioramas made with Peeps candies. “We’ve been selling tickets to people from all over the...

California lawmakers will consider updating family law and parental rights to keep up with the evolving nature of families when they return from summer break. Bitter, high-profile disputes have inspired legislators to modernize laws molded for “Leave it to Beaver”-era families. Jason Patric, star of “The Lost Boys,” has been seeking custody rights over a son he fathered through sperm donation. The children of radio personality Casey Kasem had been in a legal fight with their stepmother to visit their father in the last years of his life. Supporters of these bills say such cases demonstrate that laws are lagging...

One of the primary critiques of religion popular among New Atheists and secularists generally is that it is arrogant and close-minded for any group to claim a monopoly on Truth. The idea that a divine creator had a plan and ordered things a certain way, that he (or she, or it) revealed the Truth to an elect group and that all mankind will be judged by how closely they aligned their lives with the Truth... nothing could be more offensive to the secular progressive worldview. On the contrary, secular progressives claim the mantle of open-mindedness and tolerance. They understand that...

Children of same-sex parents enjoy better levels of health and wellbeing than their peers from traditional family units, new Australian research suggests. In what they described as the largest study of its type in the world, University of Melbourne researchers surveyed 315 same-sex parents and 500 children about their physical health and social wellbeing. Lead researcher Doctor Simon Crouch said children raised by same-sex partners scored an average of 6 per cent higher than the general population on measures of general health and family cohesion. . . . Ms Phillips also questioned the the objectivity of the study's lead researcher....

Urban Outfitters Pinpoints Hairroin Salons With Free Hypodermic Pens Urban Outfitters has teamed up with the NYC Hairroin Salon in glamorizing drug use at a time when heroin has devastated the city. Pinpointing Hairroin Salons in their stores that give away free hypodermic needle pens, it’s clear that Urban Outfitters has failed to learn their lesson. After previously pulling shot glasses designed as prescription medication bottles from its shelves after an uproar, the teen-focused store has actually teamed up with a hair salon with the name Hairroin in its latest New York City location. The so-called cutting edge salon glamorizes...

Image credit: Jimmy Demello Artworks[/caption] The last time I was in Houston, I had to change the fuse in my paradox meter after meeting a self-described pro-choice Republican woman, who was also a lawyer.  I told her at least she was better than Wendy Davis, to which no response was offered.  I said it a second time, and with a puff of white smoke, the paradox-meter died. Dang, the fuse just blew again, reading Time’s August 4 issue, Religion section article “Atheist “Churches” Gain Popularity—Even in the Bible Belt” (behind a paywall).  Yup, the “Atheist Church” they wrote about...

Making controversial statements is nothing new for me. Neither is the reaction that usually follows. But perhaps no other issue causes as much discussion, debate, and condemnation from others than when I present my position on the issue of homosexuality. As a known Christian, I have been told that I MUST think a certain way and that I MUST believe a certain way regarding not only people who are gay, but regarding their entire lifestyle as well.

[...]The constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure is based on the psychological need to maintain control over personal information and behavior. The involuntary loss of privacy and dignity regarding sex is a central aspect of the psychopathology of American sex totalitarianism. And it has been inflicting itself on the American mind from the highest offices of government. Sexually oriented feminists can be divided into two generations. The central purpose of the first generation was to legalize abortion and normalize sex outside marriage. Gloria Steinem is still the leader of that generation. She, who is often seen...

Abortion activists claim pro-lifers are engaging in a “war on women:” by passing legislation to protect women and unborn children from abortion. But a new expose’ video catches a Planned Parenthood staffer engaging in her own war on women. The pro-life group Live Action released the third installment today in its “SexEd” investigative series, showing a Planned Parenthood staffer in Portland, Oregon offering disturbing sex counseling to someone she thinks is a fifteen-year-old girl. The video clearly shows the counselor encouraging the young girl to allow herself to be victimized in violent sexual encounters with her partner. The staffer tells...

In the Hobby Lobby decision handed down last month, the Supreme Court was asked to strike a balance between women’s rights and religious freedom. But the major conflict that has erupted in the wake of that decision has been between religious freedom and gay rights. The resulting controversy has split gay-rights and faith groups on the left, with wide-ranging political fallout that some now fear could hurt both causes. One chapter of the controversy is set to close on Monday, when President Obama plans to sign a long-awaited executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against gays and lesbians, according...

In the early hours of Thursday morning, “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” on CBS featured a guest musical performance with vehemently anti-religious lyrics, including a line wishing the mother of Jesus “would’ve had an abortion.” Kristeen Young was host Craig Ferguson’s guest, performing her song, “Pearl of a Girl,” which takes all three of the world’s major, monotheistic religions to task for allegedly repressing women. “I never knew I was a girl until they stooped to tell me,” Young sang in the first verse of her song. “I never knew I was disturbed until they dropped three volumes...

Virginity pledges, alongside abstinence-focused sex ed in general, are a favorite punching bag of those who favor comprehensive sex ed. In addition to being unrealistic, say their detractors, abstinence pledges promote an "all or nothing" approach to sex that may well lead to unhealthier behaviors. A new study in the Journal of Child and Family Studies bolsters these critiques by taking a nuanced look at how people with different levels of religious commitment react to purity pledges. The researchers had 1,380 students at a "large, public Southeastern state univeristy" fill out a survey about their behavior. More than a quarter...

People who disagree with same-sex marriage and birth-control use have been met with accusations of bigotry. Are some Christians being unfairly shamed out of the public sphere? Is evangelical Christian morality still viable in American public life? This is the question lurking in recent debates over religious-liberty issues, from the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision to the Christian bakers who object to baking cakes for gay weddings. In discussions of these cases, objections to same-sex marriage and contraception are described as a retreat from “secular society.” And in some cases, evangelicals actually have retreated: Since the Boy Scouts of America...

WASHINGTON — Tensions between Girl Scouts’ messaging and Catholic teaching have led to a national boycott of Girl Scout cookies, the ousting of Girl Scouts from parishes, and a significant drop in Catholic membership in the Girl Scouts. Now a panel of U.S. bishops has released the results of a two-year investigation into Girl Scouts’ problematic messaging, ties to Planned Parenthood, and continued advocacy of so-called reproductive rights by the organization’s international affiliate, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). Their findings indicate that the concerns continue to persist, regarding the problematic connections between the Girl Scouts...