Free Republic

Isaac Barnett took a bold step last year: He told teachers and classmates at his Kansas high school that the student they had known as a girl now wanted to be accepted as a boy. His close childhood friend, who also identified as transgender, was ready to reveal his secret, too. […] With children rejecting the birth gender at younger ages and the transgender rights movement gaining momentum, schools in districts large and small, conservative and liberal, are working to help transitioning youth fit in without a fuss. California this year became the first state with a law spelling out...

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney this week campaigned in Idaho for Gov. Butch Otter and Rep. Mike Simpson, who have primary battles against tea party challengers, to prevent the GOP from veering "wild right." "I'm here today in Idaho . . . to make sure people understand that the people I'm standing with right here are the right team of conservative leaders to help the people of Idaho," Romney said, according to NPR. -SNIP- According to David Adler, director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, Romney's purpose in the state is to help with voter...

new insight into how San Francisco police handled the investigation into a New Year's attack on a Yale University choir. Many are saying it was mishandled. Now the story is getting coverage around the country and the world. We're doing a running tally -- it's been 10 days and 17 hours since police responded to the attack on the Yale students, and they still haven't interviewed the victims. This case is getting city officials the kind of attention they do not want, around the world. Since the I-Team broke the story of the New Year's attack on the Yale singing...

My name is Michael Wiesner and I am a former student at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. I am writing this article in the wake of an incident in which a teacher at the college recommended psychological therapy to an Arab student who had praised the U.S. Constitution On December 1st, a professor named Joseph Woolcock suggested a Kuwaiti Arab Muslim student named Ahmad Al-Qloushi should seek therapy after the student submitted a paper arguing that the U.S. Constitution was a step forward for America and the world. The Foothill College Republicans reported Dr. Woolcock's behavior to the media, and...

It was announced this morning during Mass that WSB-TV2 refuses to give air time to commercials produced by the Georgia Right To Life organization. The commercials were shown to the congregation before Mass. They are low-key and very non-confrontational productions. One commercial just has music in the background and a split screen. It shows, on the left side, a hand digging up a seed and on the right side, a hand planting a seed. Then we see the left side remain as a barren hole in the ground, while on the right, a baby grows into a toddler and then...

WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush on Monday defended his decision not to attend the NAACP's 93rd annual convention being held in Texas this week during an afternoon news conference with White House reporters. The president was in the midst of answering questions, when Dallas Morning News reporter Bob Hillman asked the president to respond to criticism that he has not attended a NAACP convention since his election and that his administration's civil rights record was not considered stellar. Bush paused briefly and with a slight smile, answered Hillman's question. "Let's see. There I was, sitting around...