Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO — As a Mexican-American woman who started her own consulting firm in Los Angeles, accountant Sonia Luna has taken advantage of programs aimed at helping minority- and female-owned businesses compete for government and corporate contracts. But increasingly, the fact that Luna is a lesbian entrepreneur hasn't hurt, either. Federal agencies, organizations such as the National Football League and more than one-third of Fortune 500 companies are trying to expand their vendor pools by explicitly encouraging bids from gay, lesbian and transgender contractors. The little-known outreach efforts mirror longstanding “supplier diversity” initiatives aimed at developing economic opportunities for businesses...

HICAGO — Denee Mallon marveled at the view of Lake Michigan from her hospital bed in the Windy City, where she had just made history: the then 74-year-old transgender woman underwent a milestone sex reassignment surgery she'd sought for decades. "Here I am, finally, after all these years," she said. "It happened." Her operation will be one of the first paid for by Medicare after she won a challenge in May to end the government insurance program's ban on covering such procedures for transgender individuals. Mallon's victory opened the door for other seniors to access this care and may influence...

Coal miners and gay activists — two groups that, in 1980s England at least, you might have figured would steer clear of each other — partner surprisingly effectively in the real-life story that's affectionately fictionalized in Pride.....

Consider this warning that recently greeted viewers of ABC's political soap opera, Scandal: "The following drama contains adult content. Viewer discretion is advised." That label was slapped on the episode because of scenes like the moment when trained torturer Huck prepared to ply his trade on colleague (and soon-to-be girlfriend) Quinn Perkins. "Normally, I'd start with the drill or a scalpel," he told Perkins, who was bound and gagged, looking on in terror. "Peeling off the skin can be beautiful. Or removing fingers, toes; I like the feeling of a toe being separated from a foot. ... I'm so sorry,...

More than a dozen members of Congress were defeated on Tuesday night. But taxpayers will still have to keep sending most of them checks. Members of Congress are eligible for a pension after just five years in office, so that means senators qualify for one after a single six-year term. But most can't start drawing full payments until age 62. North Carolina's Kay Hagan, for instance, lost her first bid for reelection. For senators and representatives with only six years in office, the annual pension is about 10% of annual pay -- in Hagan's case, that's $17,400 a year based...

When President Barack Obama takes Air Force One on a fundraising swing, he is required under the law to reimburse taxpayers for certain travel expenses. But as Mark Knoller of CBS News reports, the White House has made it a practice of not publicly releasing specific reimbursement figures, making it impossible for the public to see exactly how much they pay every time the president goes on a political trip. Knoller says it’s not about national security reasons, but rather about saving face. “Very simply, the White House doesn’t want to disclose the material because it might be embarrassing and...

The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country's wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas. Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation's 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone. Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don't get a permit could...

IMPORTANT: This information should not be downloaded using government equipment, read during duty time, sent to others using government equipment, or sent to anyone while in a government building because it involves election related activity. Today is National Voter Registration Day and while volunteers around the country will be on street corners, outside of groceries stores, at bus and subway stops and elsewhere to help people register, you can get started right now, right here with just one click.If we’re going to beat back the attack on working families by the likes of Mitch McConnell, Scott Walker, the Koch brothers and other...

A new policy put in place by Cal State University could cost InterVarsity and other Christian groups up to $460,000 to meet on campus because they cannot change their leadership requirements to include any student. "No campus shall recognize any fraternity, sorority, living group, honor society, or other student organization unless its membership and leadership are open to all currently enrolled students at that campus," the policy states. The rule requires leadership positions to be open to any student, regardless of whether they hold the same beliefs as the Club. The policy went into effect in 2012 but up until...

PBS, who operates partly on the dime of the U.S. taxpayer, just ran a one-hour special on the terror-sponsoring dictator who shrieked that “war with the U.S. is my true destiny!” and who came within a hair of nuking millions of PBS’ involuntary donors during the gravest military threat against the United States in modern history.PBS, who bills itself as America’s “most-trusted source for news and public affairs programs,” aimed their documentary on the “turbulent life” of the “controversial Cuban leader” at a U.S. audience and titled it, The Fidel Castro Tapes. But PBS pulled off its documentary without mentioningthe...

On Monday, PBS aired the controversial documentary “After Tiller,” a film that sympathizes with the four remaining late-term abortionists in the country. Pro-life groups immediately filed petitions urging the station to remove the film from its lineup, to no avail. Today, the documentary’s filmmakers and Dr. Susan Robinson, one of the abortionists featured in the film, participated in a Google Chat to field viewers’ questions. Their “answers” were misleading, accusatory, and, at times, outright lies.“What is the hardest part of your job?,” one Google participant asked Dr. Robinson: “Listening to the desperate, sad stories and not taking it on as...

Millions of pro-life people may be up in arms about a pro-abortion film PBS will air this evening that “humanizes” late-term abortions, but the taxpayer-funded network doesn’t seem to care. Instead, it’s announced it is hosting a live video chat with the producers of the film, “After Tiller,” that glorifies late-term abortion practitioners. PBS posted a promotional for the chat on Saturday. Some pro-life groups are already encouraging pro-life advocates to be involved so the chat is not a one-sided affair in favor of abortion. RSVP and join the conversation on Google+ » pbsOn Tuesday, September 2, 2014, from 1...

I work about a mile from the Smithsonian museums and like every good Washingtonian, I never visit the famous sites. Today, being Labor Day, and having nothing else to do, I decided to go the Smithsonian Museum of American History. In one area they had a poll, taken by the museum visitors (how many thousands would that be?), voting for the greatest president in history. George Washington came in first, Abraham Lincoln second, Barak Obama third. I always thought "my jaw dropped" was just a fanciful expression, but my jaw DID drop. Reagan, by the way was 4th.

A federal study to determine why 75 percent of lesbian women are obese and gay men are not has totaled nearly $3 million. snip They have determined that gay and bisexual males had a “greater desire for toned muscles” than straight men, lesbians have lower “athletic self-esteem” that may lead to higher rates of obesity, and that lesbians are more likely to see themselves at a healthy weight even though they are not, the Free Beacon reported. Their research also found that LGBT individuals exercise less than heterosexuals, and that sexual minorities are 46 to 76 percent less likely to...

The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. ... “This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda [?], and assist in the preservation of open debate,” the grant said. ... “Truthy” claims to be non-partisan. However, the project’s lead investigator Filippo Menczer proclaims his support for numerous progressive advocacy groups, including President Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action, Moveon.org, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, and True Majority. ... The government-funded researchers hope that the public will use...

According to proposals on the table at the Texas Department of Transportation, the highway system around Downtown Houston may be subject to a significant transformation. This well may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city to reconnect neighborhoods long bifurcated by highway IH-45 while also improving traffic capacity of the highways. How to change and improve the highway system is of great debate. As the Department of Transportation follows through on its federally required processes to propose and examine alternatives to the expansion of IH-45, also called the North Houston Highway Improvement Project, itÂ’s winnowing the options quickly. Now is...

[...]The constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure is based on the psychological need to maintain control over personal information and behavior. The involuntary loss of privacy and dignity regarding sex is a central aspect of the psychopathology of American sex totalitarianism. And it has been inflicting itself on the American mind from the highest offices of government. Sexually oriented feminists can be divided into two generations. The central purpose of the first generation was to legalize abortion and normalize sex outside marriage. Gloria Steinem is still the leader of that generation. She, who is often seen...

The political arm of the Planned Parenthood abortion business says it will spend as much as $3 million in Texas to elect pro-abortion gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and other pro-abortion candidates. Cecile Richards, the president of America’s biggest abortion corporation was in the Lone State State to push her plan. Cecile Richards, president of the national advocacy group Planned Parenthood Votes, said the effort aims to draw differences between Democrat Wendy Davis and Republican Greg Abbott, the state attorney general, in the campaign for governor. wendydavis12“When women have a chance to know the difference between candidates, they won’t vote for...

"'Life' in this 'society' being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of 'society' being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex." - Valerie Solanas.Professor Breanne Fahs is a revolutionary. She teaches Women's and Gender Studies at Arizona State University. Recently, she decided to give extra credit to her female students for "defying social norms" by refusing to shave their armpits. In the name of equality, she also gave her male students an opportunity to earn...

Two more investigative videos from pro-life organization Live Action show Planned Parenthood facilities in Denver, Colorado offering disturbing and dangerous advice to what staffers think are underage girls. The counselors lay out in graphic detail a spectrum of sadistic sexual behaviors to the investigators, including "whipping," "tying up," and "asphyxiation." As one of the Live Action videos shows, a gruesome crime involving asphyxiation recently captured media interest.  Police discovered 16-year-old Jessica Burlew this past January with the corpse of 43-year-old Jason Ash, whom Burlew had strangled to death and mutilated with razor blades in the midst of "a sex game." "Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains...