Free Republic

Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.... Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social...

England’s National Health Service banned the use of puberty blockers for children seeking treatment for gender dysphoria, citing limited research. Puberty blockers, or gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues (GnRHa), is a class of drugs that suppresses sex hormones in adolescents by continually stimulating the pituitary gland. It will now only be available to children in limited ways, such as clinical trials. The NHS’s website said, “Puberty blockers (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) are not available to children and young people for gender incongruence or gender dysphoria because there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness.” NHS England had previously ordered the London-based...

[Catholic Caucus] Disgraced homosexual priest attends Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence drag ‘ordination’ in GermanyFather Wolfgang Rothe, a former seminary vice-rector who resigned in disgrace after a homosexual and child pornography scandal, has become notorious for his LGBT activism, though Cardinal Reinhard Marx and the Vatican have refused to punish him.Fr. Wolfgang RotheA scandal-plagued homosexual priest known for his LGBT activism has promoted the anti-Catholic hate group “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Father Wolfgang Rothe thanked the drag queen group for inviting him to a sacrilegious mock “ordination” of a man in drag who calls himself...

A Nevada college oversight leader is facing calls to resign after referring to trans athletes as 'men masquerading as women.' Patrick Boylan has been slammed for making the comments during a meeting of the Nevada System of Higher Education's Board of Regents on Friday. He said he had 'one simple question' for the athletic directors who were presenting to the board before asking, 'Do we have any men masquerading as women playing in any of our teams and hurting any of the women?' The question was shut down by board attorney Michael Wixom, who advised it was against federal privacy...

The UK’s first transgender national news anchor has reported “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling to the police for “misgendering” her as a “man” on social media. India Willoughby, 58, reported having “contacted Northumbria Constabulary” over a series of X posts Sunday by the outspoken author. Rowling, also 58, called Willoughby “just a man reveling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks ‘woman’ means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist.” Rowling had “definitely committed a crime,” Willoughby alleged to Byline TV Wednesday, claiming the best-selling author was guilty of a “cut-and-dry offense.”

Parents aren't just fighting to uncover the influence of gender ideology activists in their children's public schools, but their influence with federal policymakers who stand to upend 50 years of policy on sex discrimination in schools by redefining it to include gender identity. The Biden administration has neither turned over its communications with activists related to the development of its proposed Title IX regulations in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, nor given any meaningful update in more than a year and a half, a new FOIA lawsuit alleges. Parents Defending Education said it asked the Department of...

Is it possible to speak obvious truths without being chastised? It depends entirely on whether that truth supports The Narrative™ or challenges it. The most powerful tool to enforce compliance with the dominant Elite ideology is the requirement that the language we use be chosen and defined by that Elite. Legally and common sensically everybody knows that men do not belong in women's sports and women's spaces. So for those who want to make that happen the answer is to redefine the word "women" to include everyone who wants to be one. Hollow out words and pour in whatever meaning...

Mack Allen, 18, attends a rally for LGBTQ+ youth at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan., on Jan. 31. A Kansas law enacted last year ended the state’s legal recognition of transgender identities and now other states are considering such laws. (John Hanna / Associated Press) TOPEKA, Kan. — Mack Allen, an 18-year-old high school senior from Kansas, braces for sideways glances, questioning looks and snide comments whenever he has to hand over his driver’s license, which still identifies him as female. They’ve come from a police officer responding to a car accident. They’ve come from an urgent care employee...

A Christian school in Maine must adhere to the state's LGBT antidiscrimination policy to qualify for a state tuition assistance program while the lawsuit against the state continues, a federal judge has ruled.U.S. District Judge John Woodcock, a George W. Bush appointee, denied a preliminary injunction Tuesday requested by Bangor Christian Schools run by Crosspoint Church, concluding that the church's lawsuit against assorted state officials is not likely to succeed.He ruled that Bangor Christian Schools must follow all the Maine Human Rights Act provisions."The Court determines that the educational antidiscrimination provisions do not violate the Free Exercise Clause because they...

<p>On 21 February, Reverend Francisco Gordalina performed a [pseudo] blessing over the Uruguayan television presenter Carlos Perciavalle and his homosexual concubine Jimmy Castilhos, 47, both rich.</p><p>Two days earlier, the couple had registered a "civil union".</p><p>A party following the [pseudo] blessing was attended by 400 accomplices. The whole was publicised as "the first religious homosexual [pseudo] wedding in the world".</p>

The Republican-led Tennessee House passed a bill that would ban pride flags from being displayed in school classrooms. The House passed the bill in a 70-24 vote on Monday that sent the legislation to the Senate, where a final vote could happen as early as this week. Known as House Bill 1605, it states schools 'shall not display any flag other than the United States flag and the official Tennessee state flag on or in a public school.'

In a move aimed at curbing the spread of what it terms “online hate,” the Liberal government of Canada has revealed its plan, including hefty fines for online speech and stringent punishment including up to life imprisonment for hate crimes. The centrepiece of this initiative is the proposed Online Harms Act, details of which were unveiled during a technical briefing released to reporters on Monday. Among the categories of harmful content identified in the act are materials that incite violent extremism or terrorism, promote violence, or foment hatred. The bill will include amendments to the Criminal Code aimed at addressing...

A recently-introduced bill in the state of Illinois would change the definition of “abused child” to include minors whose parents object to their children receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, transgender surgeries, and abortions. House Bill 4876, which was introduced in early February, also shields doctors from liability if they prescribe such treatments to minors who do not have parental consent — and empowers the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to step in and, if they deem it necessary, remove children from their biological parents based on the new definition of an “abused child.” According to the legislation,...

[Catholic Caucus] Belgian bishops renew push for ‘women deacons,’ married priests ahead of fall Synod session e Ahead of the October session of the Synod on Synodality, the Belgian bishops have renewed their call to open Holy Orders to married men and for the creation of a female deaconate.The bishops of Belgium have proposed female deacons and married priests as top priorities they wish to see discussed at the upcoming session of the Synod on Synodality this coming fall in Rome. The proposals, which are nothing new among liberal bishops, are widely understood among faithful bishops as capitulations to a...

[Catholic Caucus] Former papal confidant says prelates who ‘criticize’ Pope Francis are a threat to Church ‘unity’Abp. Bruno Forte accused bishops who publicly oppose Pope Francis of usurping papal authority, lacking the Pope's supposed comprehensive perspective, and risking Church unity.A prominent Italian prelate has hit back at fellow bishops who “publicly criticize” Pope Francis, saying that they are “wrong” to do so, since they break the “unity of the Church.” In an interview published February 22 by Religion Digital, Archbishop Bruno Forte of the Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto in eastern Italy issued a strong critique of what the interviewer described as...

Hours after a county executive on Long Island announced an order prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, the New York State Attorney General publicly denounced the motion.On Thursday, Feb. 22, just hours after Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed his executive order, Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office would look into the next steps to protect transgender athletes from the ban, which she called “dangerous.” “This executive order is transphobic,” she said in a statement. “In New York, we have laws that protect our beautifully diverse communities from hate and discrimination of any and every kind...We...

Our neighbors to the North continue to be the Ghosts of Legislative Future if we don’t get our act together. During the first session of the 44th parliament, Bloc Québécois party leader Yves-François Blanchet, introduced a private members bill that would remove religious exceptions to the law that criminalizes hate speech. If someone is charged with hate speech in Canada, they can defend themselves in court by arguing they were, in good faith, making an argument based on their religious beliefs. At present, in Canadian Criminal Code, the “religious exemption” in Section 319 states: “No person shall be convicted of...

A Texas college has reinstated a professor who was reportedly terminated for teaching about the traditional, biological definition of gender. In a statement published Tuesday, the law firm First Liberty Institute announced that St. Philip's College adjunct professor Johnson Varkey has been reinstated after he was fired in January 2023 for rejecting aspects of LGBT ideology.The law firm filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after the San Antonio, Texas-based historically black community college fired Varkey because the biology professor told his students that sex is determined by an individual's chromosomes. The professor was accused of...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal McElroy: Synod could end link between diaconate and priesthood to allow ‘female deacons’McElroy said Synod members discussed ‘perhaps ending the transitional diaconate,’ which he claimed ‘could make it easier’ to introduce so-called ‘women deacons,’ according to Crux.San Diego’s Cardinal Robert McElroy has revealed that participants of the Synod on Synodality discussed ending the so-called “transitional diaconate” in order to more easily accommodate having “female deacons.”Addressing the annual Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Religious Education Congress last week, McElroy renewed his previous calls for the promotion of women to the diaconate. His talk – only segments of which have...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Hollerich voices support for blessings of same-sex ‘couples,’ questions priestly celibacy'I am absolutely on the same line as the Pope' on blessing same-sex 'couples,' Cdl. Jean-Claude Hollerich said, adding, 'Why only care about below-the-belt morality?'Papal confidant Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg, has voiced his support for the heterodox blessing of same-sex “couples” proposed by the Vatican’s December Declaration Fiducia Supplicans. In an interview with L’essentiel, Hollerich was asked about the mounting criticisms Pope Franics is facing for his approval of such blessings from bishops and bishops’ conferences – an approval he has doubled down on in...