Free Republic

In a sea of rainbow parasols, colorful tutus, and rhinestone hats, the 2025 San Francisco Pride Parade pulsed with celebration and defiance. As some corporate sponsors notably pulled back and federal crackdowns on LGBTQ+ rights escalated, this year’s theme revolved around a phrase coined by Audre Lorde: joy as resistance.

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Pride kicks off this weekend and there are several events happening across San Francisco open to all.

Take heed, New Yorkers, and learn from San Francisco’s mistakes: The City by the Bay has discovered to its sorrow that charismatic leaders like Zohran Mamdani can dazzle — but their decisions can be disastrous. Just a few years ago San Franciscans, too, supported magnetic populists, then watched as their neighborhoods fell off a livability cliff. Regrets, we have more than a few — and many we want to mention. In 2017 London Breed, a brash and captivating city supervisor from the projects, became acting mayor when the mild-mannered Mayor Ed Lee died. With big promises of housing creation, downtown...

San Francisco is the worst-run city in the nation, according to a report by WalletHub.Several other California cities also ranked in the bottom 10 of 148 cities, including Stockton (138), Los Angeles (139), Long Beach (140), Fresno (141), and Oakland (146).The finance website created a “Quality of Services” score of 36 metrics split into six categories, which was then measured against 148 of the nation’s most populated city’s per-capita budget.San Francisco came in last overall, ranking 89th in financial stability, 137th in education, 102nd in safety, and 135th in economy.The WalletHub study also looked at the operating efficiency of cities,...

Prior to President Donald Trump authorizing targeted strikes against Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday, federal agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers have been arresting Iranian nationals, nearly all men, in the U.S. illegally. In the last few months, federal prosecutors have also brought terrorism charges against Iranians, including those in the U.S. working for the Iranian government. Iran is a designated state sponsor of terrorism. Iranian nationals illegally in the country are considered “special interest aliens” under federal law. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sunday issued a warning to all Americans to be on a heightened...

San Francisco police have arrested a man accused of defacing the famed Pink Triangle, a symbol of LGBTQ+ rights that is installed annually during Pride Month on top of the city’s landmark Twin Peaks.

An event held last Fri­day at the National Press Club and broad­cast live on C-SPAN 3 focus­ing on the U.S.-Israel rela­tion­ship fea­tured a num­ber of vir­u­lently anti-Israel speak­ers who made con­spir­a­to­r­ial claims about Zion­ism, the influ­ence of the “Israel Lobby” and much more.jeff-blankfort-summit-dc-cspan The event, dubbed as a National Sum­mit to “Reassess the U.S.-Israel ‘Spe­cial Rela­tion­ship,’” was spon­sored by anti-Israel groups If Amer­i­cans Knew, the Coun­cil for the National Inter­est (CNI), the Insti­tute for Research: Mid­dle East­ern Pol­icy (IRmep) as well as the Wash­ing­ton Report on Mid­dle East Affairs. Ses­sions at the sum­mit included, “How does the Israel lobby influ­ence...

CONCORD, Calif. - Federal authorities are asking for the public's help to identify a woman accused of assaulting officers and stealing an FBI agent's badge at an immigration protest in Concord on Tuesday. A special agent with the FBI said the woman they're looking for was an "instigator" of violence at the demonstration. (snip) In a news release, the FBI said the woman was wearing a hoodie at the time of the incident. Costin described her as the "lead aggressor." "She seemed to be an instigator of much of the violence. She seemed to be a lead aggressor." The agency...

McDonnell’s body was hit with shrapnel from a pipe bomb and suffered in a hospital for two days. This is why his death is recorded on February 18 and the blast went off on February 16. One of the heavy metal staples from the bomb went through his eye and into his brain. Ayers’ fingerprints were found in a Weather Underground bomb factory discovered by the FBI in San Francisco in 1971. Photographs were taken of the materials, including C-4 plastic explosive. Members of the Weather Underground were taught how to make bombs by the Cuban intelligence service during trips...

No connection to protest Police say about 30 suspects entered the Shiekh Shoes store near 34th and International Boulevard around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, just blocks from the Fruitvale Village where a peaceful protest against U.S. immigration raids had taken place earlier in the evening. Also nearby, one vehicle was set on fire and police say some people threw objects at police officers and damaged a police vehicle.

A pro-Democrat labor union’s San Francisco chapter hired an admitted sex offender to a top position after she served jail time for child sexual abuse at a California high school. Noelia Linares, a business agent at SEIU Local 87, pleaded “no contest” in 2018 to sex crimes involving a minor. The plea stems from a 2017 arrest, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Linares’ group is part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a national organization that backs Democratic political campaigns and helps migrant workers avoid deportation. SEIU helped spark protests in Los Angeles that...

Protests over President Donald Trump's immigration policies have spread to San Francisco, posing a test for new Mayor Daniel Lurie, whose platform promises included taking a tougher stance on crime. On Monday night, police declared an unlawful assembly at about 10 p.m. after thousands of people took to the streets, reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. San Francisco police met one contingent that refused to disperse and warned that batons, projectiles, and chemical agents would be deployed. Police also arrested about 150 protesters on Sunday, more than twice what police in Los s had reported. Lurie, a Levi Strauss...

The San Francisco Unified School District will not be moving forward with a controversial equity grading strategy that was proposed this week after significant backlash. The strategy, known as "Grading for Equity," was presented during a SFUSD Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, according to Superintendent Maria Su, with the goal of offering "professional development opportunity in standards-based grading." Under the proposed standards, how a student scores on the final exam, which could be taken multiple times, would be what counts toward their grade for the semester, according to the Voice of San Francisco.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the removal of Harvey Milk's name from a Navy replenishment ship, and the move stirred up the inevitable controversy. It was intended to, just as the original naming of the ship was meant to be a poke in the eye of opponents of DEI. The choice to name the ship after Milk was meant to send a signal that the Navy was honoring Harvey Milk for being a gay rights icon, and the choice to remove it was meant to tell people that Trump's Navy doesn't honor people for how they deploy their...

SAN FRANCISCO - Several prominent Bay Area arts organizations have abruptly lost federal funding following a shift in grantmaking priorities by the National Endowment for the Arts under the Trump administration. It's a change that leaders say is putting vital programs and community work at risk.

On May 13th, 2025, a potentially catastrophic mistake unfolded at San Francisco International Airport when United Airlines Flight 1152 turned the wrong way after takeoff—directly into the path of SkyWest Flight 5273. This was one of the closest calls we've seen this year—just 0.4 nautical miles and 280 feet separated these two planes. We walk through the ATC audio, analyze the pilot decision-making, and talk about what needs to change to prevent this from happening

Nothing captures the hate experienced during another term of President Donald Trump more starkly than the victimization of transgender people.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The agency that governs high school sports in California says the second-place finisher may share the top spot on the podium if a transgender athlete wins at this weekend's track and field championships. Santia Ali of Clayton Valley Charter High School in Contra Costa County competes in the triple jump and come Friday, she'll compete for the California state title. Among the competitors is AB Hernandez, a transgender athlete who has drawn President Trump's scrutiny. "At the end of the day, all I can do is go out there and compete and just do my best...

It's well known that San Francisco is a urban disaster area, what with malls moving out, hotels shutting doors, conventions moving to other cities, thieves looting retailers with impunity, little shops fleeing, and entire districts full of homeless drug addicts looking like Dante's seventh circle of Hell.But has anyone asked what's going on at Fisherman's Wharf, the city's most famous tourist destination?Sure, it's known as a tourist trap. But everyone likes to try its famous Italian and seafood restaurants at least once.Now it's a ghost town:Fisherman’s wharf destroyed … go woke go broke So sad what “progressives” have done to...

District materials highlight a decrease in A grades for ‘more privileged’ students.. Without seeking approval of the San Francisco Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools Maria Su plans to unveil a new Grading for Equity plan on Tuesday that will go into effect this fall at 14 high schools and cover over 10,000 students. The school district is already negotiating with an outside consultant to train teachers in August in a system that awards a passing C grade to as low as a score of 41 on a 100-point exam. Were it not for an intrepid school board member, the...