Free Republic

Antibiotic-resistant cases of the sexually transmitted illness gonorrhea have more than quadrupled in the United States. This new data, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, should serve as a warning that "the future of current treatment options may be in jeopardy," the agency said in a news release issued Thursday. "The confluence of emerging drug resistance and very limited alternative options for treatment creates a perfect storm for future gonorrhea treatment failure in the U.S.," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, who directs the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention.

Bisexuality is booming, with the number of people who bed men and women more than doubling, a study says. Some 7.7 percent revealed they had bi romps in 2014, compared to 3.1 percent in 1990. The stats follow the openness of Brit model Cara Delevingne and other celebrities about their bisexuality. In the same period the percentage of men who reported having had sex with at least one man rose from 4.5 percent to 8.2 percent. And the number of women who said they had bedded at least one female leapt from 3.6 percent to 8.7 percent. Meanwhile, acceptance of...

The Indiana governor and culture warrior would balance the ticket with a twice-divorced, proud philanderer at the top -- except he legalized discrimination against LGBT people with a law so extreme other GOP states rejected it. In choosing Mike Pence as his running mate, Donald Trump has shored up the GOP's religious base. But based on the Indiana governor's disastrous run-in with pro-business Republicans and moderates last year over gay rights, Trump may have just lost the election. [Snip] Unlike Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie, Pence has been a right-wing culture warrior for his entire career. As Samantha Allen detailed...

In second grade, California students will learn about families with two moms or two dads. Two years later, while studying how immigrants have shaped the Golden State, they will hear how New York native Harvey Milk became a pioneering gay politician in San Francisco. The State Board of Education unanimously approved those changes in classroom instruction Thursday to comply with the nation’s first law requiring public schools to include prominent gay Americans and LGBT rights milestones in history classes. The updates are part of a broader overhaul of California’s history and social science curriculum. During four hours of public testimony,...

State officials on Thursday added the evolution of gay rights and the contributions of lesbian and gay figures in history to the list of topics that public-school students will be taught in California, a landmark move that puts the ongoing LGBT civil rights fight into the mainstream of public education.

32 year-old Clyde Stengel, is in the Missoula County Jail for hiding in a shower and watching at least four people use the bathroom. Public Information Officer Travis Welsh with the Missoula Police Department said they received a call on Monday, July 11. “On Monday at about 2:30 in the afternoon, we responded to a call for service in relation to an incident that had occurred in a gender-neutral bathroom on South Russell Street,” Welsh said. “The report was that a male had been hiding in a shower as people came in and out and used the bathroom, and used...

IDAHO FALLS — A transgender woman accused of videotaping an 18-year-old in a Target fitting room admitted to detectives that she had made videos in the past of women undressing, according to court documents obtained by EastIdahoNews.com. Shauna Smith, a transgender woman, is being charged as Sean Smith with one felony count of video voyeurism after the alleged incident Monday. More information An affidavit of probable cause states the 18-year-old woman was trying on swimwear at the Target on 25th East when someone in an adjacent fitting room held an iPhone over the top of the barrier and began taking...

If Donald Trump was hoping for GOP unity leading into next week’s convention, there’s a ways to go. In addition to the last breaths of the #NeverTrump movement, the Log Cabin Republicans are denouncing recent developments for the party’s 2016 platform, calling it “the most anti-LGBT platform in the party’s 162-year history.” The organization, which represents LGBT conservatives, issued a letter from its president decrying the platform’s changes, which have been reported as “a rightward lurch even from the party’s” 2012 positions. “Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of ‘pray the gay...

“It is the Argentine attitude: Suppress and ignore” V.S.Naipaul, The Return of Eva Peron In the summer of 2011, the Puyehue Volcano near the Chilean city of Osorno, erupted sending a cloud of ash billowing into the Chilean skies and blanketing the farmlands with cinders. Perhaps Mother Nature was prescient, anticipating the upcoming volcanic reaction by Osorno Catholics to the appointment of the much despised and discredited Bishop Juan Barros by Pope Francis in March 2015. At issue, is the papal selection of a bishop with a long and sordid history of covering up clergy sex abuse. Like all political...

An Idaho man who told police he identifies as a woman was arrested Tuesday after allegedly taking photos of a woman in a Target fitting room, officials said. Sean Patrick Smith, 43, was allegedly dressed in women’s clothing when he entered the fitting room in the women’s section of the store in Ammon on Monday, East Idaho News reported. Smith, also known as Shauna Patricia Smith, then began taking pictures of a woman in the changing stall next to him, police said. “The woman was begging for help as she chased the man out the door,” a witness told East...

CLEVELAND— An impassioned plea by a gay Republican delegate for the party to soften its stance on same-sex marriage failed to sway enough of her colleagues on the Platform Committee, which met Monday a week ahead of the convention to hammer out a statement of the GOP’s core principles. District of Columbia delegate Rachel Hoff identified herself as the “first openly gay member on the Republican Platform Committee” and struggled to hold back tears as she pleaded with her fellow colleagues to accept a more neutral position on gay marriage...

CLEVELAND—Delegates to the Republican National Convention accuse staffers and fellow delegates bankrolled by billionaire political activist Paul Singer of using duplicitous tactics in an attempt to force a floor vote on LGBT issues. ... The goal would be to cleanse the party platform of conservative perspectives on marriage and gender identity issues, an American Unity Fund source told CNN.

The real-life experiences of a Catholic mother with a “gay” daughter: When my oldest daughter was a teenager she had her first same sex relationship. As a Catholic mother, finding out was very upsetting. Several years afterwards seeing an ad in the Assumption Blessed Virgin parish bulletin for a “Catholic ministry” “for parents of gay and lesbians” I had hope that I had found supportive safe place of likeminded Catholic parents. The meeting was held in the parish meeting rooms of Holy Family parish in South Pasadena, led by a woman psychologist, Dr Elizabeth Taylor; there was no priest present....

AMMON — An Idaho Falls man who police say identifies as transgender was arrested Tuesday afternoon after deputies say he took photos of a woman in a fitting room in Target. Sean Patrick Smith, 46, who also goes by Shauna Patricia Smith, was booked into the Bonneville County Jail on one felony count of voyeurism. Bonneville County Sgt. Bryan Lovell says deputies were called to a disturbance at Target on 25th East just after 5 p.m. Monday.

A Virginia school board filed an emergency appeal Wednesday to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a stay of a lower-court ruling forcing it to regulate school bathrooms on the basis of gender identity.

Idaho police arrested a man -- who identifies as a transgender woman -- on one count of felony voyeurism Tuesday after he took pictures of a woman while she was changing clothes in a Target dressing room, the Post Register reported. Sheriff's deputies arrested 43-year-old Sean Patrick Smith, who reportedly identifies as Shauna Patricia Smith, the day after he was spotted reaching over the changing room wall with a cell phone taking pictures of a woman who was trying on clothes. The victim confronted Smith, who then ran out of the store. The alleged incident took place on Monday. Authorities...

Target’s commitment to an “inclusive experience” for its customers provided the means for a transgendered Idaho Falls “woman” to snap shots of a woman while she tried on clothes in a store dressing room. Bonneville County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a store in Ammon Monday after a customer reported that someone was taking pictures of her in the dressing room with a cell phone while she was changing, the Idaho Falls Post Register reports. The woman confronted the culprit, who fled on foot, according to a police statement.

A day after the Anglican Church of Canada narrowly voted not to authorize gay unions, questions about the integrity of the voting process emerged Tuesday, leading to a reversal of the result with the church approving the measure.More than 200 delegates attending the six-day General Synod 2016 narrowly rejected the resolution Monday night after hearing from more than 60 speakers, most of them in favor of gay marriage. However, on Tuesday — the last day of the triennial conference — some members stood up to say their ballot had not been recorded during voting late Monday, when the resolution failed...

A transgender Idaho Falls woman was arrested Tuesday on one count of felony voyeurism for a report that she took pictures of another woman changing clothes in a dressing room at Target in Ammon. Shauna Patricia Smith, 43, is in custody in the Bonneville County Jail under the name Sean Smith, according to the jail’s active inmate roster. A Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office news release said the suspect also is known as Sean P. Smith. Sheriff’s deputies responded Monday to the store after a woman reported that someone was taking pictures of her while she was inside a dressing room...

Thank heavens for progressive Hollywood. Otherwise, how would we know what to think about our culture, particularly the newest chic cause célèbre du jour, which is the LGBT movement? Actually, let me reconsider that statement. It doesn’t matter what we think. We will be told by our statist overlords what to think, how to feel, what to accept, and when to celebrate whatever new human right of their choosing. This, of course, is always done for our own good. So, sorry Black and Hispanic actors and actresses – you’ve been displaced. Sure, you’re people of color and all, but beyond...