Free Republic

KIELCE, Poland— Upbeat ’80s pop music accompanied about 1,000 rainbow-draped activists as they embarked on this city’s first LGBT rights march, on July 13. But the music could barely drown out the boos from bystanders. The marchers proceeded past banners that compared gay people to pedophiles. They pressed on in the face of counterprotesters making threatening gestures and Catholics praying on the sidewalks in silent protest. The scene reflected a growing tension in this country — between a burgeoning rights movement and a conservative backlash. It’s a tension that the Polish ruling party has been accused of fueling and exploiting....

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Aliyah Johnson stood petrified for several long seconds, mouth agape, eyes wide, as Mayor Pete Buttigieg walked in the door. When she finally shook off her paralysis, she barreled into his chest for an embrace before breaking into inconsolable sobs. The 19-year-old Columbia resident had been looking in vain for Buttigieg all over the South Carolina Democratic Party Convention. When he made a surprise appearance at a meet-and-greet with black millennials at a bar called Truth, she knew it would be her chance. She had never met him before, but Johnson needed to tell him her...

Each year, in the blazing sun of the Pride parade in Nelson, B.C., Pega Ren and her two young grandkids seek shade under their spinning rainbow parasols. Ren, a semi-retired sex therapist, told HuffPost Canada the parasols were a magical find, and have come to symbolize the importance of this event for her family. Ren spoke joyfully of going to the dollar store, picking up all the rainbow ribbons and flags, decorating the roller skates and the stroller, and getting the costumes ready. “I can’t imagine a safer place for families to bring children,” she said of Pride. A resounding...

Don Lemmon just compared president Trump to hitler. Lemmon was having a conversation with Cuomo and brought out the hitler meme.

On Monday morning, New Day aired a portion of an interview between CNN Newsroom anchor Poppy Harlow and Google’s CEO Sundar Pinchai. They discussed everything from China to data privacy, but Harlow seemed intent to focus on YouTube’s policies on “hate speech.” After the interview concluded, Harlow then turned attention to the videos conservative YouTube comedian Steven Crowder and host of Louder With Crowder, made about Vox journalist Carlos Maza:

Other countries are taking steps to atone for their shameful past treatment of L.G.B.T. people. The United States should too. The New York Police Department apologized last week to the gay community for the 1969 raid of the Stonewall Inn, the fallout of which is widely credited with spurring the contemporary gay rights movement at home and abroad. Timed to coincide with Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, the statement by Commissioner James P. O’Neill said in part: “The actions taken by the N.Y.P.D. were wrong — plain and simple” and “the actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that,...

A blog post published Thursday on the Huffington Post's South African version of the site advocated stripping white men of their right to vote. Shelley Garland is an activist and feminist completing a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and "working on ways to smash the patriarchy." "Could It Be Time to Deny White Men the Franchise?" she asked Thursday in the title of her blog post. "It is time to wrestle control of the world back from white males, and the first step will be a temporary restriction of the franchise to them," according to Garland. "If white men...

News that Chicago police charged Jussie Smollett with staging a brutal attack on himself was covered on every network and in every major newspaper, but Google is hiding searches of it from its platform due to concerns of "potentially disparaging" the liberal actor. A review of Google's autocomplete function on searches of Smollett found no references to anything regarding the hate crime, even though the company's own data show it is the only reason his name was ever searched. The top suggested searches for Smollett included Empire (a show he no longer has a role in), Mighty Ducks (a nearly...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Monday signed the so-called “Save Chick-fil-A” bill into law, a new provision that supporters say defends the fast-food restaurant and protects religious freedoms. Opponents have argued it discriminates against the LGBT community. Abbott, a Republican, did not hold a public signing ceremony, but he had signaled his support through a tweet a few weeks ago, DallasNews.com reported. On May 20, Abbott tweeted a picture of a Chick-fil-A soft drink in front of a laptop showing a news article with the headline “'Save Chick-fil-A' bill heads to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk” and wrote, “So. What...

Johannesburg -- Botswana became the latest country to decriminalize gay sex on Tuesday in a landmark case for Africa. The High Court of Botswana rejected as unconstitutional sections of the penal code punishing same-sex relations with up to seven years in prison.

CNN runs Pride Month essay by married mother of two (a former CNN reporter) who watches Saturday Night Live, decides to leave her husband and break her family up to live as a lesbian. No, really, this is a thing that happened: But there I was, at 36 years old, realizing I didn’t know myself at all. I had everything I thought made my life perfect. I was married to my best friend and we had two beautiful, healthy and hilarious children, with successful careers and a beautiful home. My life would change forever after a simple Google search in...

MTV is breaking down barriers regarding sexuality and has announced its dating show cast this year will be the first ever in United States to all identify as sexually fluid. In June, the broadcast network will air another season of 'Are You The One?' — which stars 16 men and women in their 20s, who will be dropped off in Hawaii in hopes of finding the 'perfect match' while also competing for a $1 million grand prize. The cast members this year, though, are exclusively singles who identify as sexually fluid, meaning gender does not limit their options when finding...

'I didn't understand what transgender was' Meet May, her brothers, mum and Charlotte - who used to be dad. We find out what it’s like to have a parent transition, and how this family from the border of North Yorkshire and Teesside not only stayed together, but are now closer than ever.

When Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex unions, hundreds of gay people marked the occasion by registering to marry. It marked a significant change on the island, where the majority of people only relatively recently became supportive of same-sex relationships. In many other places there has also been a shift - often a rapid one - towards more liberal attitudes. For example, in 2007, one in five South Koreans said homosexuality should be accepted, -but, by 2013, that figure had doubled. Attitudes among the public also appear to have softened in other places including Argentina, Chile,...

Hillary Clinton was in Houston Friday to speak at a fundraiser. But she also took time to strike a pose. The former presidential candidate sat down to be photographed for Pride Portraits, a Houston-based campaign meant to fully represent the LGBTQI community and its allies. **SNIP** "Hillary Clinton entered the room with that powerful, winning smile and thanked me for the opportunity to be a part of the campaign. I let her know why today was so important to not only me and the campaign but thousands of LGBTQIA+ community members," Schell says.

The Trump administration has formally proposed to revise Obama-era civil rights for transgender people in the nation’s health care system, eliminating “gender identity” as a factor in health care and leaning government policy toward recognizing only characteristics of sex at birth. The Department of Health and Human Services published its proposed regulation Friday, which eliminates a 2016 regulation inserted by the Obama administration that redefined discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include gender identity.

Michael D. Cohen is embracing his truth. This week, the Nickelodeon actor, who has starred as “Schwoz” on Henry Danger since 2014, revealed that he transitioned female to male nearly 20 years ago. Cohen, 43, tells PEOPLE that he felt he was assigned the wrong gender at birth and decided to transition to male and align with his “core being and essence” on April 26, 2000 — just before his acting career took off. Michael D. Cohen is embracing his truth. This week, the Nickelodeon actor, who has starred as “Schwoz” on Henry Danger since 2014, revealed that he transitioned...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s High Court on Friday upheld sections of the penal code that criminalize same-sex relations, a disappointment for gay rights activists across Africa where dozens of countries have similar laws. The judges’ unanimous ruling in the closely watched case was followed by activists’ vows to appeal. Many in Kenya’s vibrant gay community had hoped the court would make history by scrapping the British colonial-era laws and inspiring other countries in Africa to do the same.

T.R. Knight, Bobby Moynihan, Storm Reid, RuPaul, Christine Baranski and Wanda Sykes are among the stellar voice cast set for The Bravest Knight, Hulu’s groundbreaking animated kids series based on Daniel Errico’s popular children’s book The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived, from Big Bad Boo Studios. The first five episodes of the series will launch on Hulu June 21, followed by additional episodes later this year. The boundary-breaking new series features a household with two dads (Sir Cedric, voiced by Knight, and Prince Andrew), making it one of the first children’s television series with an openly gay main character. It...

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Arkansas' state network of PBS member stations did not air the season premiere of "Arthur" over concerns that it showed a same-sex marriage. Arkansas Educational Television Network spokeswoman Julie Thomas said in a statement that the network made the decision after previewing the episode in April. The episode had been scheduled to air May 13. "While ideally parents watch our programming with their children and discuss it with them afterwards, the reality is that many children, some of them younger than age four, watch when a parent is not in the room," the statement says. "In...