Free Republic

A student at Indiana University has been charged with recording women showering in dorm bathrooms, according to a WGNTV report. Police report that Donte Montague admitted to using his cell phone to record unaware women on campus.

The slaying of Xulhaz Mannan, editor of Bangladesh's first magazine for gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, has deeply shocked Bangladesh's embattled community of free-thinking intellectuals. Mannan, 35, was hacked to death in the capital Dhaka by a group of assailants posing as couriers. Islamist militants have targeted atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers in a series of killings. But the death of Mannan, who published gay rights journal Roopbaan and also worked for US aid agency USAID, has caused particular alarm because his links to a powerful Western government offered no guarantee of safety. Homosexuality is...

Oslo, April 23, 2016 People are leaving the Lutheran Church of Norway in droves after its Synod voted in favor of allowing gay people to be married in Church, reports RIA-Novosti. Nidaros Cathedral of the Church of Norway in Trondheim, Norway    The majority decision came in early April with 88 of 115 Synod members voting for the blessing of same-sex couples. In the resulting document it is noted that the Church should work out a special service which could be used for gay couples. Such a service could be approved already in early 2017. Representatives of the Church of...

<p>I have talked to a lot of friends of mine and their friends, most retired military and almost all of the men say that there is NO "F'n" way they could ever vote for Hillary. The FEW men I have encountered that say they are voting for Hillary are not what I would consider someone that I would want to have my back if the fhit ever hit the san. Most of these guys have no clue which end is the working end of a hammer.</p>

The woman who sparked a topless protest against gender discrimination because she claimed she didn’t identify as either male or female, seemingly had no problem committing to one sex when she starred in an all-female cast of the Vagina Monologues a year earlier. Cedar Brock claimed she “was scared” when she was allegedly “forced to put a shirt back on” by a security guard and responding police officers, after sunbathing nude in a city-owned park maintained by Russell Sage College in Troy, New York. Brock, whose real name is Tonya Brock, is a student at Sage. The security guard asked...

Bryan Adams, next it wasNick Jonas and Demi Lovato have canceled their upcoming tour dates in North Carolina in protest of North Carolina's controversial Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (HB2) law. Widely perceived as being anti-LGBTQ, the stars join artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and Boston as acts who have recently pulled the plug on North Carolina shows in response to the new law."After much thought and deliberation, we have decided to cancel our Honda Civic Tour: Future Now shows in Raleigh and Charlotte. One our our goals for the tour has always been to create an...

Gay rights activist, U.S. government employee one of two hacked to death by radical Islamists in Bangladesh THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Monday, April 25, 2016, 6:33 PM NEW DELHI — Unidentified assailants fatally stabbed two men in Bangladesh’s capital Monday night, including a gay rights activist who also worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, police said, in the latest in a series of attacks targeting atheists, moderates and foreigners. Police said they suspected radical Islamists in the attack, which occurred two days after a university professor was hacked to death. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Dozens of Methodist leaders are objecting to Mississippi’s new religious objections law, saying it violates their religious principles. More than 30 ministers from around the state and nation published an open letter Monday saying the so-called “religious freedom” law goes against Christian teachings to love and respect all people. The group joins major businesses, human rights groups and legal experts in opposing the incoming law, which they say discriminates against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. […] Pastor Bruce Case of Madison, Mississippi, was among those who signed the letter opposing the law. He said the law creates a...

On Friday, Caitlyn Jenner penned an op-ed for WhoSay lamenting new so-called “anti-LGBT” laws in places like North Carolina and Mississippi. The male Olympian turned Woman of the Year is upset that ordinances which would have mandated private and public entities statewide to open their bathrooms and locker-rooms up to individuals based on gender identity as opposed to biology have been blocked by laws like North Carolina’s HB 2. Jenner claims that such blockades and religious freedom legislation allows discrimination, particularly to “transgender youth,” and denies that allowing men into women's restrooms could in any way be harmful to women...

DENVER (CBS4)– The Colorado Supreme Court decided to let an appellate court ruling that a bakery violated the state’s anti-discrimination law when it turned away a gay couple stand by refusing to hear the case. On Monday, the state Supreme Court let the lower court ruling stand. Attorneys for Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, filed the appeal last fall. They argued the government shouldn’t force Phillips to violate his Christian beliefs.

Reuters data from April 22 finds that only about 40.9 percent of 1,753 respondents say "people should use public restrooms according to the gender which they identify." Meanwhile, about 45 percent of respondents said "people should use public restrooms according to their biological sex."The April 22 results represent an approximate 10 percentage-point increase in the number of people who believe everyone should use restrooms designated for their biological sex in just nine days. According to results obtained by Reuters on April 13, only about 35 percent of 331 respondents felt people should use bathrooms designated for their biological sex, while...

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — While visiting a shopping mall in Virginia over the weekend, an Alabama woman realized she was being filmed by a cross-dressing man who was attempting to slip a video camera under the bathroom stall she was occupying. InsideNoVa.com, the web hub for four northern Virginia newspapers, explains: A Fredericksburg man was arrested Monday at Potomac Mills Mall after, police say, he dressed in women’s clothes and attempted to film a woman through a bathroom stall – the third such incident since May.

There is simply no way to read this other than that they stand by what was told to Andy Park in the video. A man, dressed as a man, who does not claim to be a woman, and does not claim to identify as a woman, may use the restroom designated for women if he feels more comfortable there.

People have taken to social media to express disgust and outrage over Target’s decision to allow transgender people to use any bathroom or fitting room. The hashtag #BoycottTarget has dominated Facebook’s top ten trends for three days in a row. Almost 500,000 people have signed the American Family Association’s (AFA) petition to boycott the company. “We welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity,” the company said in a statement. “Everyone deserves to feel like they belong. And you’ll always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target.”

A black doctor who was fired for supposedly inflammatory sermons unrelated to his medical work filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia on Wednesday, claiming religious discrimination. This is particularly ironic, considering the governor of that state recently vetoed a religious liberty bill.Dr. Eric Walsh previously served on President Obama's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, was a board member of the Latino Health Collaborative, and started California's first city-run dental clinic for low-income families dealing with AIDS. Nevertheless, Walsh was fired only one week after being hired by Georgia's Department of Public Health. Right before Walsh was terminated, the...

DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a Lakewood baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The decision upholds a ruling by the Colorado Court of Appeals last summer that found Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips cannot cite religious beliefs or free-speech rights in refusing to make a wedding case for a same-sex couple.

Ted Cruz is a coward. He's other things — a GOP presidential candidate, a senator from Texas, possibly the Zodiac Killer (Google it) — but most of all, and most unquestionably, he's a coward. A coward mocks what he doesn't understand. A coward seeks political gain by maligning others. A coward talks about North Carolina's controversial bathroom law, which requires transgender people to use the restroom that matches the gender on their birth certificate, by saying this at a Sunday campaign event: "If Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he still can't go to the girl's bathroom." Hah! The...

President Barack Obama, speaking in Germany on Monday, said we’re fortunate to be living in the “most peaceful” era in human history. […] “That may surprise young people who are watching TV or looking at your phones,” he said, “and it seems like only bad news comes through every day, but consider it’s been decades since the last war between major powers.” […] “Around the world we’re more tolerant, with more opportunity for women and gays and lesbians as we push back on bigotry and prejudice,” he said. (He notably did not mention transgenders, a topic that is making headlines...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford announced Sunday that he is marrying a man 50 years his junior, almost 20 years after his wife died. Wofford, a Democrat who was also a top adviser to John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., announced his marriage to Matthew Charlton in a New York Times op-ed....

Nearly 20 years after the death of his wife, former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pennsylvania, penned a moving New York Times editorial Sunday, announcing his intention to marry a man 50 years his junior.