Free Republic

The assumption is that someone whose label is “Libertarian” has libertarian values and would promote them in office. In the case of Johnson, that notion is absurd. When Johnson took the tiller in New Mexico in 1995, the budget stood at $4.397 billion. When he left in 2003, it had grown to $7.721, an increase of 7.29 percent a year. Of the eleven governors who filed to run for president this year (two Democrats, Johnson, and eight Republicans), only one had a worse record on spending growth.... On civil liberties as with fiscal issues, Johnson’s record is less libertarian than...

Gary Johnson, the likely Libertarian candidate for president, is blasting Donald Trump's policy on immigration as "insanity," and positioned himself as a helping hand to those who came here illegally. Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, is expected to emerge this weekend as the Libertarian standard-bearer. "Is my door going to be knocked down because I'm going to get checked for papers?" Johnson said while praising undocumented immigrants who are leaders in their communities. "We're going to now come in and knock down doors and they're going to be deported? It'd be like putting them on the...

Individuals living in New York City can choose from a minimum of 31 different gender identities, many of which allow them to fluctuate between some version or combination of male or female identities. Businesses that don’t respect and accommodate an individual’s chosen gender identity risk incurring six-figure fines under rules implemented by the city’s Commission on Human Rights. The list of protected gender identities is available online and includes options such as “gender bender,” “two spirit,” “third sex,” “androgynous,” “gender gifted,” and “pangender.” A city official speaking on background confirmed to The Daily Caller that all of the listed identities...

A transgender rights organization is calling out Hillary Clinton for failing to complete a trans-focused questionnaire it distributed to the presidential candidates. Trans United Fund, the first tax-exempt political advocacy group to focus specifically on transgender issues, announced Monday that both Clinton and Bernie Sanders had committed to completing the survey, but that only Sanders' campaign had filled it out. They also sent presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign the questionnaire, but did not receive a response. The Clinton campaign called the TUF to say that the survey was too long and the campaign couldn't complete it on time. The...

PJ Media published the Every Single One series in 2011. The series documented the Obama administration’s hiring of radical lawyers to fill the career ranks in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Every single one of the new attorney hires were radical leftists or partisans . Since 2011, the situation has only gotten worse. Much worse. The Civil Rights Division exercises enormous power over the everyday lives of Americans: they are involved in employment, education, housing, religious liberty, abortion, prisons, policing, and much, much more. The radical beliefs of these radical lawyers have turned into radical administration policies....

Update: Metro PD confirmed to The Daily Caller that they are treating the incident as a “suspected hate crime.” A female security guard working at a Washington, D.C. grocery store was arrested Monday afternoon for physically escorting a man out of the women’s restroom after he refused to leave because he identifies as a woman. The shopper — a young, African-American male who identified himself as Ebony Belcher to local news outlets — reportedly passed the security guard on his way into the women’s restroom at a Giant grocery store in Northeast D.C. After seeing Belcher walk into the women’s...

Dave Matthews Band will donate the proceeds from their upcoming concert in Charlotte to five organizations fighting North Carolina’s recently enacted transgender bathroom law. Unlike other artists who have cancelled concerts in the state in opposition to the law, Dave Matthews Band will go ahead with its scheduled May 27 show at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte. In a brief statement on their website, the band announced that a portion of proceeds from the performance would go to five organizations working to fight the law: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal, ACLU of North Carolina, Equality NC...

A “transmasculine” teacher at an Oregon elementary school has been awarded $60,000 by her school district as compensation for harassment she claims to have suffered on the job, including being referred to by the wrong pronoun. The school conducted an internal investigation after Soell complained, but found no proof of harassment. The state’s labor commissioner, Brad Avakian, forced a bakery to pay $135,000 to a lesbian couple they wouldn’t bake a cake for, and he has also compelled a bar owner to pay a whopping $400,000 to a group of transgender customers he tried to ban from his bar. Eager...

A “transmasculine” teacher at an Oregon elementary school has been awarded $60,000 by her school district as compensation for harassment she claims to have suffered on the job, including being referred to by the wrong pronoun. According to The Oregonian, Leo Soell was born a woman, but now prefers to identify as “transmasculine” and “genderqueer,” meaning she does not consider herself to be male or female. After getting breast cancer in late 2014, she had her breasts amputated to create a more masculine appearance and changed her name to Leo. Once she returned from medical school in May, 2015, Soell...

Members of the UCLA community launched into a debate about free speech after a UCLA student posted a photograph in which students denounced the validity of identifying as transgender. In the photograph circulated on Facebook and Twitter, three UCLA students and one UC San Diego student held signs that read, “Get your agenda out of my restroom!” and, “Transgenderism is a mental disorder!” Julia Nista, incoming internal vice president of Bruin Republicans who posted the photo on Facebook, held a sign that said “There are only two genders!” in the photo. She said the photo was taken at a UC...

A Dallas-based LGBT resource center is calling on Dallas leaders to cut ties with a controversial North Texas pastor who compared gay-friendly business advocates to ISIS. First Baptist Church of Dallas' Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress made the remarks on a radio program last week when he was discussing president Obama's transgender directive to public schools. "I've said often the greatest thread to freedom of religion in America is not ISIS, it's the chamber of commerce," the pastor said on the radio. "I mean, it's the businesses that say to our representatives, 'Oh, don't pass laws like that. Don't pass these...

President Obama’s open-bathrooms campaign already has been taken to court by the state of North Carolina, as well as a civil and religious rights organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom, on behalf of several schools, and decisions are somewhere in the future. But the overall effort took a major hit just days ago in California, where a judge ruled in a case that has been in the courts for several years already that agenda critics deserve to have more information on the government’s actions. At issue is the state’s AB 1266, a law adopted by the legislature and signed by the...

If you, like 55% of U.S. parents with school-age children, oppose the POS’s latest stunt, ordering all schools, colleges and universities that receive federal financial assistance to allow so-called “transgenders” — a biological impossibility — to use the rest- or locker-room of their predilection, instead of in accordance to their biological plumbing, it’s even worse than you think.

Federal immigration authorities plan to build a separate unit for transgender detainees in a new facility under construction in Alvarado, Texas .... One other facility in Santa Ana, California also has a separate unit for transgender women and gay men. The Human Rights Watch report notes that transgender women have previously faced violence and been subject to attacks when they were housed alongside men.

Romanian campaigners said Monday they had collected three million signatures on a petition to block same-sex unions in the EU member state. Several groups linked to the Orthodox Church and united under the umbrella Coalition for Family are seeking a constitutional amendment to narrowly define marriage as the “union between a man and a woman”. It is the second such move in Europe this month after a group of mostly right-wing Italian politicians said they will push for a referendum to overturn the introduction of gay civil unions in their country. […] Homosexuality in Romania was illegal until 2000, when...

North Carolina’s Republican leaders are seeking to combine separate lawsuits over a state law limiting protections for the LGBT community — moves that could help steer the cases to a judge who twice ruled against the federal government in recent years. Three federal judges are currently assigned to five dueling lawsuits over the law, which requires transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in many public buildings. The law also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination protections. Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore asked on Monday to combine...

The estranged husband of a well-known Salt Lake City restaurateur and LGBT pioneer who died in a house fire over the weekend has been arrested on suspicion of murder and arson, authorities said. Craig Crawford, 47, was booked after the blaze on Sunday killed 72-year-old John Williams, the owner of the popular Market Street Grill and other restaurants. The fire occurred less than three weeks after Williams filed for divorce from Crawford and sought a temporary restraining order that was rejected, court records show. …

The dumpster fire that is the national superstore known as Target has had quite a rough time lately. And is it any wonder? They can’t seem to get their act together when it comes to pleasing their customers. First they ban guns within their stores because “safety.” Then they began allowing men into women’s restrooms because “equality.” Then they are currently suing a guy who stopped another guy from stabbing a girl to death because…well, because they’re dumb. The American people responded, and as can be expected, Target’s ship has begun to sink. Not only did well over a million...

DALLAS (AP) -- A detention facility for immigrants set to open later this year in Texas will include a special unit for transgender people, the second of its kind in the federal system. The privately-run facility under construction in Alvarado, Texas, southwest of Dallas, will include 36 beds for transgender detainees, according to a statement Monday from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The facility is expected to open in November.

Four students, none of whom could be older than 22, smiled for a photo. Dressed like slick, young L.A. professionals, they struck poses that wouldn’t be out of place in an Instagram post. But upon closer inspection, it is clear that these students were criticizing the new federal guidance that allows transgender people to use bathrooms of their choice. “There are only two genders,” one sign read. “Get your agenda out of my restroom” the other read. And finally, “Transgenderism is a mental disorder.” The women are members of the Bruin Republicans, attending an event at UCSB held by Young...