Free Republic

Mara Keisling, executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality, told C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Monday that North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law is “a ginned up problem” and that the transgender community is “being bullied.” “It is a ginned up problem that really has trans people baffled and concerned, because we didn’t do anything. We didn’t do anything to anybody, and now we’re being bullied,” said Keisling.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr, co-chairs of the Senate Intelligence Committee, don’t have the slightest clue about how encryption works. Good thing they’re currently pushing disastrous legislation that would force tech companies to decrypt things for law enforcement! Today Feinstein and Burr co-authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Encryption Without Tears,” and wow, it is bad. They have yet again demonstrated a failure to grasp even the most basic principles of technology.... Feinstein and Burr’s bill is not based in any technical reality. Companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google would...

On a sunny day at the Oasis Diner in Plainfield, Indiana, roughly 20 miles west of Indianapolis, Ted Cruz breezed through a 1950s-era diner with a gleaming steel facade. One of the last diners of its kind, the Oasis sits along the Historic National Road, the iconic highway traversing the state that fancies itself the Crossroads of America. Here, four days before he named Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential pick, Cruz met a crowd of a few hundred supporters. He mugged for photos, noshed on a fried pickle offered to him by a customer, then shot straight behind the...

A poll released Friday afternoon by the conservative group North Carolina Civitas showed Gov. Pat McCrory has the lowest approval ratings of his administration and trailing Attorney General Roy Cooper in the race for governor. The poll of 600 likely voters was done April 23-25 and has a margin of error of 4 percent. The poll shows 49 percent of North Carolinians have an unfavorable view of McCrory, the highest percentage since he has been governor. Only 39 percent have a favorable opinion, the lowest number of his time in office. In an October poll, by comparison, McCrory had a...

the story of a black female stripper who made up a lie to blame a white lacrosse team of a gang rape as a distraction when she needed a defence to prevent the state from taking her children away from her. then a white prosecutor; seeking re-election knowingly, withheld evidence that cleared the lacrosse team. The white prosecutor overwhelmly won the black votes until the truth came out. The first five minutes of "Fantastic Lies" might make lacrosse fans cringe. White privileged athletes. Partyers. A de facto frat house. The labels thrown out, true or not, will likely lure a...

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - A Wilmington couple is facing criminal charges after a woman showed a gun at a local restaurant over a wrong order of chicken wings. Clarissa Gagum, 24, and her husband, Rasheem Gagum, 24, were both arrested Thursday after Clarissa became upset that her order of chicken wings was wrong and pulled out a gun inside the restaurant. According to officials, the incident happened at the FU Wangz located in the 2100 block of Carolina Beach Road. Linda Rawley, spokesperson for the WPD, said Clarissa walked into the restaurant and ordered bone-in chicken wings, but received boneless...

It is beyond dispute that the left is winning the current culture war and doing so by a landslide. In response to this reality I’ve heard many conservatives say we just need to start making better arguments for our positions. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are not losing because our arguments are inferior. We are losing because of tactics rather than substance. Put simply, the left has learned how to do two things: 1) Control the language in the national debate 2) Get their ideas disseminated and accepted without any evidentiary basis.There is one Christian apologist who...

Fayetteville, N.C. — Cumberland County Schools says it’s investigating after video surfaced on social media showing a teacher at Terry Sanford High School lying down on a cot while students sat nearby.[snip]The teacher, Nicole Montunnas, told officials she was feeling ill, Till said. Click through for the video or it is apparently at https://twitter.com/OgKeyy/status/724983591642513409

San Francisco would have to stop entering into contracts with companies based in states that bar civil-rights protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people under legislation introduced Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors. The proposed ordinance, by Supervisor Scott Wiener, is another effort to increase pressure on North Carolina and Mississippi to rescind recently enacted laws to limit transgender rights.

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...

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...

North Carolina's new transgender bathroom law will harm already vulnerable children, says a leading group of U.S. pediatricians that wants the law repealed. The American Academy of Pediatrics this week joined other professional groups and business leaders in urging repeal of the law, which requires transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match the gender on their birth certificate. "As pediatricians, we know firsthand how increasing burdens and barriers for youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender can increase their risk of depression, substance abuse, dropping out of school, or suicide," said Dr. Deborah Ainsworth, president of...

A federal judge on Monday night upheld North Carolina’s voter ID law, the Charlotte Observer reported. Judge Thomas Schroeder issued a 485-page ruling posted online Monday evening, dismissing all claims in the challenge to the state’s 2013 election law overhaul. Schroeder, appointed by George W. Bush, also upheld portions of the law that cut the number of days people could vote early and eliminated same-day registration and voting allowances. "This ruling further affirms that requiring a photo ID in order to vote is not only common-sense, it's constitutional," Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement. Opponents immediately condemned the decision....

When North Carolina Gov. Patrick McCrory signed House Bill 2 into law, I wonder if he was thinking long-range about what the result might be. I can’t see him and his staff wondering out loud if their thick-skulled, cracker logic...

BILL KRISTOL: The only thing that appeals to me is what Reince Priebus just called a dumb idea, which is giving the American people a better choice than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump... I think an independent candidacy is totally doable, I think it will happen. The ballot access problems are not -- STEPHANOPOULOS: -- coming up on the filing deadlines -- KRISTOL: -- oh, Texas, North Carolina. Every other state -- no other state's filing deadlines' before June 27th. You couldn't wait until the convention. You'd have to decide after Indiana, possibly after California. I think there will be...

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina voters say a new law has hurt the state's image and job prospects and should be completely or partially repealed, but they believe people should be required to use public bathrooms that correspond to their birth gender, according to a WRAL News poll released Tuesday. The results reflect the ongoing struggle statewide with the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, commonly referred to as House Bill 2, since it was signed into law almost three weeks ago following a one-day special legislative session. The law prohibits transgender people from using public bathrooms that correspond to...

HIGH POINT, N.C. — Parrish Clodfelter, a 79-year-old retiree who lives on a central North Carolina farm, professes opinions about transgender people that might get him fired if he worked for a multinational corporation, though for many here, they constitute simple country wisdom. “A man wants to change to a woman, he’s got a mental problem,” Mr. Clodfelter said on Wednesday over lunch at Spiro’s Family Restaurant, where posters by the door advertised classes on carrying concealed weapons and a “Hillbilly Sunday” Pentecostal church service. But Mr. Clodfelter has a different kind of problem. As a longtime Republican, he wants...

The reaction has been swift. The singer Bryan Adams canceled his concert in Mississippi in protest against what he called an “anti-L.G.B.T.” law, and the actress Sharon Stone decided not to film a movie there. In North Carolina, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Pearl Jam and Ani DiFranco have canceled shows in response to a law regulating transgender bathroom access. While the celebrity response is drawing considerable attention, the travel industry in each state is more concerned about lower-profile visitors: the everyday tourists who have already begun canceling trips or planning vacations elsewhere. Both states have been hit by hotel cancellations...

In a complicated political season, nobody has more complications to worry about than the half-dozen Republican senators seeking re-election in tight, swing-state contests. Those senators–hailing from Illinois, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina—are being buffeted by big forces largely out of their control as they try to hang onto their seats. Their fate will determine whether Republicans keep control of the Senate, where they currently have a 54-46 advantage. The predicament of these GOP senators comes into clearer focus in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, completed just last week, which helps crystallize three big complications they...

NASCAR has decided to openly oppose the North Carolina bathroom law, according to a Motorsport report. The law forbids people from using the public bathrooms of the opposite sex in government buildings. At this week’s 2016 Associated Press Sports Editors Meeting, NASCAR Chairman Brian France said his sport is “working behind the scenes” to change the controversial law.