Free Republic

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Wednesday that France faces an "uncivilising process", a government source said, following the violent deaths of a nurse and three policemen and repeated attacks on elected officials. "We must be uncompromising on the fundamentals. There is no legitimate violence, whether verbal or against people," Macron told ministers at a cabinet meeting. "We have to work from top to bottom to counteract this uncivilising process," he added, in comments first reported by daily Le Parisien and confirmed to AFP by a person present in the meeting room. Macron was "calling society to order," a person close...

Indiana has enacted a law requiring teachers to tell parents when students ask to be called by a new name or different pronoun. North Dakota has approved a law that lets public school teachers and state employees ignore using a transgender person's preferred pronoun. And the latest such action came in Florida on Wednesday when Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that bans gender-affirming medical care such as puberty blockers or hormone therapy for transgender youths - a measure that joins the state's growing list of legislation that limits the rights of LGBTQ people. This month's rush of...

Uber has put its chief diversity and inclusion officer on leave after she moderated a pair of “Don’t Call Me Karen” events that workers at the San Francisco-based firm said were insensitive to people of color, according to a report from the New York Times. Lee billed the first event, in April, as a time to focus on “the ‘Karen’ persona” and hear from white women who work at Uber, the report said. “Karen” is a pejorative often used to refer to white women who feel the need to police people of color and/or demand special treatment in everyday encounters....

As queer Americans face a historic onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation, a normalizing of homophobic and transphobic rhetoric from right-wing politicians and a surge of violent attacks, Target’s standout message for Pride Month is simple: “Live Laugh Lesbian.” The short mantra adorns a pink crop top that is part of the global retailer’s latest Pride collection. Other noteworthy items include a coffee mug that says “gender fluid”; rainbow outfits for pets; a Drag Queen Bird Decorative Figurine; a jumpsuit that simply says “GAY” in massive letters; a tote bag with an image of a woman looking off into the distance and...

A Temecula mother has complained that her 15-year-old daughter was made to read a sexually explicit play in drama class and is calling for a policy to prevent such instances in the future. Tracy Nolasco said her daughter, a Temecula Valley High School sophomore, had to read “Angels in America,” a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tony Kushner. The play, set in New York City in 1985, explores the AIDS epidemic as well as religion, race, politics, and homosexuality. Nolasco on Tuesday night, May 16, told the Temecula Valley school board that the drama describes sexual activity, sexual...

Conservatives are spending endless hours battling the culture war, but they're missing the most significant issue facing the US, Biden's disastrous open border policies that will lead directly to America's decline. The massive influx of illegal immigrants at the border, now spurred on by Biden's plans to give literally everyone and their cousin asylum (leading to amnesty), will result in a Democrat majority. While migrants have traditionally gravitated toward the nation's population centers, now the administration is bussing them to every little corner of the domestic United States, upending towns in the Midwest, the South, the Rockies, and the deep...

Before the WGA writers strike and nominally sincere, Pride-branded content take hold, soak up the torrent of LGBTQ content premiering in May. Streamers and studios appear to be gearing up for Pride Month early this year, as May offers a feast of queer content in the form of groundbreaking reality series, stand-up specials and poignant art films. Netflix is unleashing a torrent of programming, with a new Anna Nicole Smith documentary; two sapphic-minded comedy titles; a new “Queer Eye”; and even a messy, highly commercial dating show. And other streamers have taken note: Hulu, for example, might have the most...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cast members and the creator of the Showtime series “The L Word” praised President Joe Biden on Tuesday for his support of LGBTQ rights. The groundbreaking show followed the lives of lesbian friends in Los Angeles, struggling with romance and careers. Actors Leisha Hailey, Jennifer Beals and Katherine Moennig and executive producer Ilene Chaiken joined White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly gay woman to hold the job, at a press briefing in honor of Lesbian Visibility Week.

We seem to be at a flashpoint in the transgender culture wars. Long-threatened violence is now becoming real, and people have been murdered. “Scott”Newgent, a biological woman who regrets “transitioning” and now campaigns against the trans agenda (you might recognize Newgent from Matt Walsh’s documentary What is A Woman?), told me on the podcast this week that violence has been inevitable for some time. Walsh also noted during a roundtable discussion that although he cannot get into specifics for security reasons, he believes more violence is coming.

If we want to win the culture war it AIN’T gonna be pretty. And make no mistake, this is WAR. A war on our kids, a war on women, a war on our communities, and to Matt Walsh’s point, ‘going woke and going broke’ clearly isn’t enough to get corporations to pay attention. Otherwise, they wouldn’t pick an obvious man playing an insulting caricature of women to represent their products. Walsh wrote a fairly brutal thread and actually called out conservatives: The Left has taken away all of the neutral cultural ground. This is why brands like Bud Light and...

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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Thousands of people rallied across the country Friday as part of a Transgender Day of Visibility in support of the rights of transgender people and their resilience amid what many denounced as an increasingly hostile environment. Supporters converged on statehouses nationwide, at the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., and were planned as far away as Mexico City to mark a day of international unity first proclaimed more than a decade ago. Chanting, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” many at the statehouse in Montpelier, Vermont, draped themselves in pride flags or carried posters...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida teenager has documented how it feels to be young and transgender for a film set to debut at a festival as transgender people around the world celebrate visibility and lawmakers across the country look to restrict their rights and care. Carys Mullins, 19, who is gender non-conforming and uses she and they pronouns, said their experience inspired conversations with community members for a documentary, “You’re Loved.” The film directed and produced by Mullins is set to premiere Friday at the Tampa Bay Transgender Film Festival on International Transgender Day of Visibility. “That’s a...

NEW YORK (AP) — As Hollywood emerged from the pandemic, its biggest film productions dipped in diversity after years of incremental progress, according to a new study by UCLA researchers. Opportunities were notably greater for women and people of color on streaming platforms than in theatrically released films. The annual UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, published Thursday, presented one of the most detailed looks yet at how the film industry was shaped and, in many ways, set back during the pandemic. In analyzing 2022 movie releases, academics found that ethnic and gender inclusivity in theatrical films reverted back to 2019 or...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont religious school that withdrew its girls’ basketball team from a playoff game because a transgender student was playing on the opposing team won’t be able to participate in future tournaments, the Vermont Principals’ Association announced Monday. Mid Vermont Christian School, in White River Junction, Vermont, forfeited the Feb. 21 game, saying that it believed that the transgender player “jeopardizes the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.” The executive council of the principals’ association, which is the governing body for Vermont school sports and activities for member schools, ruled that the...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – In the last decade, gender pronouns have become a much more common sight to see and hear – both in social media profiles, in their email signatures, on patches and pins, and when they introduce themselves. As the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and rights continues, many people have publicly announced that they’re non-binary and use they/them pronouns. When people share their pronouns, they’re explaining how they self-identify and how they’d like others to refer to them. The best thing to do when someone shares their pronouns is to use them. According to GLSEN, a group that...

What does it mean to be a conservative wireless network? Or a conservative dating app? What about a cookie company that makes Donald Trump–themed gingerbread men? As mainstream corporations have embraced progressive political positions in recent years, some conservatives are responding by providing a politicized consumer experience of their own. "People are seeing a shift in corporate America having a lot of influence on politics," said Chrissi Bretz, the director of outreach at Public Sq., a database of conservative-oriented businesses. "We're seeing large corporations spending money on agendas." In interviews with Reason, right-wing business owners at the Conservative Political Action...

French state-backed media say American conservatives, not LGBT activists, are to blame for the “culture war” over drag queen events aimed at small children. France 24, a government-owned news organisation which produces English, French, Spanish, and Arabic content aimed at foreign audiences, was one of many outlets which published a pro-drag article acquired from Agence France-Presse (AFP), a news agency founded as a state enterprise and still deeply entangled with the French state. As output from a notionally impartial wire service, the article has been published by a huge number of media outlets, sometimes automatically — but it is far...

The goal of "fair housing" would seem to be quite straightforward. As spelled out in the Fair Housing Act of 1968 — and found in realtors’ offices across the country — it precludes "discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of dwellings … based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status, and disability." In other words, those who can afford to rent or buy should not be precluded from doing so for reasons having nothing to do with the ability to pay. But for the Biden administration’s Department of Housing and Urban...

ESPN anchor Randy Scott has been accused of using misogynistic language while narrating a women’s college basketball highlight on “SportsCenter.” Scott came under fire over the weekend when he voiced a highlight package from the Maryland-Michigan State and was heard saying, “let’s get back to the actual basketball in Ann Arbor,” as the show transitioned to highlights from the Michigan-Michigan State men’s game. Although it sounded as if Scott was saying that women’s basketball isn’t “actual basketball,” the ESPN anchor defended himself in a since-deleted tweet. “We did a VO of the moment of silence in Ann Arbor,” Scott tweeted,...