Free Republic

Teen athletes have traditionally been classified as "boys" or "girls" so that girls can participate in sports without having to compete against boys who are usually stronger and faster than girls. This system worked as long as everyone agreed on which athletes were girls and which athletes were boys. Today some disagree about who qualifies as girls and who qualifies as boys. One thing hasn't changed. There are two different genetic types of athletes. One type has two "X" chromosomes. The other has an "XY" combination of chromosomes. Athletes who have an "XY" combination of chromosomes are usually stronger and...

Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio has made history by becoming the first transgender woman to grace the pages of the iconic Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The 23-year-old trailblazer, who has also posed for Victoria's Secret, will appear in the publication's 2020 issue after being photographed by Josie Clough on Scrub Island in the British Virgin Islands. Valentina appeared on Good Morning America on Friday to announce the news while sharing how much the opportunity means to her and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.

"There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there" -Thomas Hardy The poor West Vancouver Police are having to waste their time on a report of tire marks "tarnishing" the new Pride crosswalk in West Vancouver. A police video posted by NewsTalk 1130's Sonia Aslam shows police video of a black vehicle that is "suspected of leaving tire marks across a portion of the pride crosswalk at the intersection" outside of the police station.

The color of your skin should not determine the quality of your health. But in the United States, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is exacerbated by racism, bias, and discrimination. As America continues its long-overdue reckoning with racism and systemic injustice, we must address the devastating impact of the disease on the Black community. An end to the AIDS epidemic can only be achieved through dignity, respect, love, and compassion for all.

Feminist academic Raquel Rosario Sanchez doesn’t shy away from writing about ugly stuff. She deals with prostitution, coercion and intimidation. When she started her PhD on women and violence at Bristol University just over two years ago, Raquel felt lucky to be exploring these complex issues in a supportive and (she says, pointedly) ‘grown-up’ academic environment. She certainly didn’t imagine she’d end up being threatened with violence herself — nor that the university she so respected would, she claims, utterly fail to protect her.

Photos and videos of large crowds gathering on New York’s Fire Island over the July 4 weekend are drawing the ire of hundreds on social media. Officers from the Suffolk County Police Department were called to the beach in Fire Island Pines twice on Saturday regarding reports of a large number of people failing to social distance or wear face coverings as they partied in the sand. Numerous videos have since been shared across Twitter and Instagram documenting the troubling scenes at the popular vacation spot, showing cohorts of dwellers stood closely together without masks on.

Shock at people you thought had commonsense going full Orange-Man-Bad deranged is so 2018. Today it is political zombie-apocalypse avoidance of regimented legions of people who never knew they were racist. They plead for the right to denounce themselves in the best of tradition of the Soviet aparachiks who cried with gratitude at being able to accuse themselves of imaginary crimes at Stalin's late-1930s purge trials. The most surprising losers are the LGBT princes who have lost forever their traction to prove their martyrdom at the hands of the homophobic majority, again, most of whom never knew they hate, fear...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday mocked a rainbow LGBT pride flag hung from the US embassy in Moscow, suggesting it reflected on the orientation of the diplomats. During a televised video conference, a lawmaker told Putin that the US embassy had hung a rainbow flag on its facade for the first time to celebrate Pride month in June. 'Who works in this building?' Putin asked the speaker, Senator Alexei Pushkov, to be told 'Americans.'

At the tail end of a City Council meeting last week, so quickly and quietly that you could have easily missed it, a left-leaning Massachusetts city expanded its notion of family to include people who are polyamorous, or maintaining consenting relationships with multiple partners.

Well the company I work for, a top 10 bank, just posted an item on the company's intranet site saying the company supports "The Equality Act". It claims "there is absolutely no place hate and discrimination of any kind". I guess that if I am concerned about women sports and religious freedom I am a "hater". The most ridiculous thing is the company claims "no one should ever fear live in fear for who they are". Yeah right, I know what would happen if I state I am opposed to the "Equality Act".

The WNBA needs to force Kelly Loeffler out. Loeffler is the co-owner of the Atlanta Dream. She’s also a U.S. Senator from Georgia, appointed to her seat last December. What Loeffler has said publicly is at least as bad, if not worse, than what Donald Sterling said in a recorded conversation with his mistress — and Sterling was forced to sell the Los Angeles Clippers.

Playing the role of Judas Goat, leading people to be oppressed in the name of liberalism worked just fine for Maya Dillard Smith right up until it was her daughters who were asked to accept deep voiced men in their lady’s room. Backing every socially destructive scheme the ACLU could conjure up was a comfortable way of life for Smith, who was the interim director of a Georgia ACLU chapter. Making landlords rent to newly released vicious prison inmates, forcing employers to hire incompetent lazy and counter productive workers and forcing “Heather Has Two Mommies” type books onto 2nd grade...

Last fall, Johnathon Schaech was running out of options. After making a living as an actor for 30 years — 1996's That Thing You Do! was his breakout — he was in danger of losing his SAG health insurance from lack of work, and he and his wife were trying to have a baby. Schaech, 50, had become something of an unwitting spokesman for male #MeToo victims in 2018 after he said Italian director Franco Zeffirelli had sexually assaulted him on the set of the movie Sparrow in 1993. (Before Zeffirelli died in June 2019, his son, Pippo, denied the...

In front of a massive Calvin Klein billboard in Manhattan, Black transgender model, actress and activist Jari Jones popped a bottle of champagne while her own likeness looked down over the city streets. The image of herself she was celebrating is part of Calvin Klein's 2020 Pride campaign #PROUDINMYCALVINS, which features a cast of nine LGBTQ models including Jones, who identifies as a transqueer lesbian.

The British Museum has added a Roman-era oil lamp depicting a scene of lesbian sex and other LGBTQ+ cultural objects to its permanent exhibition. The museum, which is currently closed due the coronavirus pandemic but usually attracts about six million visitors a year, already runs popular LGBTQ-themed tours. Five new objects, including the lamp, a novelty 'nine bob note', a Greek coin depicting Sappho, Kabuki prints and a medallion from a cross-dressing spy will go on display in the museum.

An arrest warrant has been issued in the murder of Dominique "Rem'mie" Fells, a Philadelphia black transgender woman. Authorities believe 36-year-old Akhenaton Jones is responsible for Fells' murder, according to CBS Philadelphia. Fells' family is hoping anyone who knows Jones' whereabouts will come forward. "Turn him in! This was a gruesome death," Fells' aunt, Germyce Williams, told CBS Philadelphia. "How anybody could do this to another human being is just so heartless and cruel. No mother should have to go through this, and I'm speaking for my sister-in-law.

One of the men at the center of the recent Supreme Court decision that held that firing people based on sexual orientation is a form of sex discrimination, was not ousted because he was gay, his former employer says. In a 6-3 decision that was released Monday in Bostock v. Clayton County — which was consolidated along with two other cases involving firings of homosexual and trans-identified employees — the high court ruled that Title VII, the civil rights provision within the 1964 Civil Rights Act that pertains specifically to employment, extends nondiscrimination protections to sexual orientation and transgender status....

This past week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. Hailed as a landmark decision for LGBT Americans, the 6-3 opinion written by Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch concludes that the use of the word "sex" in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination. This seems like a straightforward question with an easy answer: Should gay and transgender people be discriminated against in hiring and firing decisions? Most would say no. Why should a bank teller be fired for being gay? Why shouldn't an accounting firm...

Received a company wide e-mail this morning stating in honor of Juneteenth workerspeasants are encouraged to wear apparel supporting BLM. Wearing a black T-shirt would show support too. Followed by LGBTQ+ apparel day on June 26, if I was someone who is suppose to be covered by the "+" I would be insulted. Thankfully I have been working from home since middle of March so I do not need to roll me eyes walking around work those days. If I did go to work I would make sure to wear my typical white button down shirt tomorrow. I am not...

“An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.” This is the conclusion of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion handed down Monday. The court ruled that “an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII.”Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful “for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual . . . because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” The court, by a six-to-three margin,...