Free Republic

Now that Time Magazine has told us that transgender is the new black, I’m going to say something politically incorrect: Your gender is not whatever you think it is. Put another way, there is no such thing as, “My gender is ‘fill in the blank.’”Unfortunately, Facebook didn’t get the memo, and so, according to AP’s Martha Mendoza, “Facebook users who don't fit any of the 58 gender identity options offered by the social media giant are now being given a rather big 59th option: fill in the blank.” (Yes, I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true.)One year ago, I...

Full Title: Strong cannabis causes one in four cases of psychosis: Users three times more likely to have an episode than those who have never tried it ªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªªª As many as a quarter of new cases of psychotic mental illness can be blamed on super-strength strains of cannabis, scientists will warn this week. The potent form of the drug – known as ‘skunk’ – is so powerful that users are three times more likely to have a psychotic episode than those who have never tried it.

Williamsburg, Va. – Kimberlyn Williams feels unsafe in her own home because of her 12-year-old son. “I am his mother and I do love him, but he`s dangerous,” Williams says. She says he’s so dangerous that she is prepared to face jail time to keep him out of the house, to not only protect herself, but her two younger children. “I have been hit, bit, kicked,” she says. “He has threatened to stab children at school, to kill them. He has these outbursts.” She says her son is now at Riverside Behavioral Health Center in Hampton. He was put there...

One day in 1977, about a year after Bruce Jenner shattered a world record to win the decathlon gold medal at the Montreal Summer Olympics, he met up with his sportswriter friend Barry McDermott to play tennis in New York City. McDermott suggested a match at his private club — but that wasn’t Jenner’s style. Privacy was never his priority. The pair went to Central Park, where word quickly spread that Bruce Jenner (Bruce Jenner!) was playing on the public courts. McDermott remembers the crowd growing, as he had known it would, gawkers pressed against the chain-link fence, watching the...

The couple thought that they finally had everything lined up: Their paperwork for a marriage license, their attendance to mandatory counseling, and — just to be safe — an order from Mexico's Supreme Court to honor their request to complete the first same-sex union in the state of Baja California. But on January 11, in their fourth attempt at marriage since June 2013 in Mexicali, Baja's desert capital, Victor Manuel Aguirre and Victor Fernando Urias were met with closed doors and once more couldn't get married. Instead, religious conservatives picketed the municipal registrar offices (along with alleged non-interested parties meant...

What does it take to protect a child from a crazy parent? Seriously, when is enough enough? In Tampa, Florida, a deranged father threw his beautiful, loving, precious 5 year old daughter off a bridge, in front of an officer. Tragic? Yes. Preventable? I say yes in this case. The government had lots of warning signs and took no action. i contend it is because citizens and law enforcement officers (LEOs), are too often afraid of legal reprisals, but that is a false fear.Here's all that the government knew, or could have easily known, which happened in the 24 hours...

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS CONTENT THAT MAY TRIGGER ANYONE WHO IS OFFENDED BY RACIAL SLURS AND ENJOYS MUSIC.If you don’t know who Azealia Banks is, there are only two explanations: 1.You’re a racist.2.Just kidding, that was it. She’s a rapper/singer/whatever who’s less known for her music than for her feuds, or “beefs,” with more popular and/or talented artists. She picks fights with people like Iggy Azalea, Eminem, Lady Gaga, and then a bunch of other people you’ve never heard of because of #1 above. Banks has been forced to do this for publicity purposes, because her music sounds like...

(FOX19) - A Change.org petition asking to ban transgender conversion therapy following Leelah Alcorn's death has received more than 233,000 signatures in two days. The Transgender Human Rights Institute posted the petition on Dec. 31 asking President Barack Obama and the leadership of the House and Senate to begin the process of banning transgender conversion therapy throughout the nation. "'Conversion therapies' have been documented to cause great harms and in this case, Leelah's death. Therapists that engage in the attempt to brainwash or reverse any child's gender identity are seriously unethical and legislation is needed to end such practices immediately,"...

An elderly California doctor has gained a cult following on social media for dressing in a rubber suit while pretending to be a teen girl. Robert, a 70-year-old from Newport Beach, revealed his act on TLC's "My Strange Addiction." He is part of fetish group called "maskers." The masked man goes by "Sherry" while dressed as the belle of the ball, he told the reality show. He has been wearing the rubber suits for more than a decade. The septuagenarian does not give his real name, but claims to engage in the bizarre ritual "because I think I look amazing."...

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, the government has been issuing guidelines about healthy eating choices. Now, a panel that advises the Agriculture Department is ready to recommend that you be told not only what foods are better for your own health, but for the environment as well. That means that when the latest version of the government's dietary guidelines comes out, it may push even harder than it has in recent years for people to choose more fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and other plant-based foods — at the expense of meat.

When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don't tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don't ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That won't do anything but make them hate them self....

When Ohio teenager Josh Alcorn told his parents he wanted to live as a girl, that he felt trapped in his own body, his parents said they wouldn’t stand for that. “We don’t support that, religiously,” his mother told CNN Wednesday, her voice breaking. “But we told him that we loved him unconditionally. We loved him no matter what. I loved my son. People need to know that I loved him. He was a good kid, a good boy.” Crossing out the name “Josh,” the 17-year-old signed the name he wanted to be known as — “Leelah” — in a...

The suicide of a transgender teen is catching national attention in part because of a suicide note she left behind online. Leelah Alcorn, 17, of Kings Mills, Ohio, was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on I-71 about 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to local media. Posthumous posts started to appear on her Tumblr page, titled “Lazer Princess,” including her suicide note and a post apologizing to her closest friends. “My death needs to mean something,” she wrote. “My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look...

OLDSMAR, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man is charged with first-degree murder after his mother was found decapitated outside their home on New Year's Eve. According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Mario Gomez called 911 on Wednesday evening and told dispatchers that his brother Christian had killed their mother and cut off her head.

In the aftermath of the hostage crisis in downtown Sydney, Australians are showing the world they're not caving to racism or Islamophobia. On Monday, an armed gunman stormed a cafe in Martin Place, entering a tense standoff with police. After the hostage-taker displayed an Islamic flag in the cafe's window, many of Australia's Muslims are understandably anxious about facing retribution. But instead, Australians have banded together on Twitter with #IllRideWithYou, a hashtag showing their solidarity with fellow countrymen scared of being attacked on public transportation. Why it matters. This hashtag movement is powerful sign that Australians won't get worked up...

Didn't think so, but it's understandable. Thomas was an unarmed mentally ill homeless man from Southern California who was tasered, clubbed and beaten to death in Fullerton by three cops in July of 2011. Thomas' face was pounded to a pulp and, after losing the ability to breathe normally, he died later in a hospital of brain damage. Video of the awful incident - including Thomas' screams and his cries of "Dad! Dad!" -- was recorded on security cameras and there was a minor outcry at the time over police brutality. Unlike the case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.,...

We are told, by the legal system and the military, that we don’t belong. It’s time for trans people like me to tell the world something different: we exist Chelsea Manning was transgender ‘in secret’ while serving in US army“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” reads the oft-quoted line from Martin Luther King. I am a young trans woman. And I can attest to the “long” part, but I hope the bend toward justice will soon become more pronounced. There’s a lot of unfinished business when it comes to protecting civil rights for...

Three-week-old Sequoia is one lucky baby: She is breastfed by not one, but two women, her mothers Heidi and Mary Ellen Olson. The married couple from Santa Cruz, Calif. engage in a practice called “co-nursing,” in which they share breastfeeding duties. “Our friends are fascinated by the fact that my wife and I both breastfeed our daughter,” Heidi, 26, a nanny and the baby’s birth mom, tells Yahoo Parenting. “We get a lot of, ‘Wow, that’s amazing!’ and ‘I didn’t know that was possible!’”

The Miami-Dade County Commission is set to vote on an ordinance that would ban discrimination against transgender men and women. The commission is expected to vote Tuesday on the measure that would expand the county's law that prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations to include transgendered people. It already bans discrimination based on gender, religion, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

"....Conversely, the scathing disdain [Obama] shows those who disagree with him ...or whom he considers not on his team—in power or intellect—is of a man whose anger seethes so close to the surface he wears it on his starched long sleeve.Of course politicians get angry, but it is generally after long and frustrating negotiations where someone is not playing by the rules.But Obama seems to be always angry...........Instead, and like an angry teen-ager who defaces walls with graffiti,he effaces the Constitution instead with his feckless and reckless Executive Orders,no matter the consequences.He is Homo politicus on steroids.And why did he...