Free Republic

In the America I grew up in, I was raised to respect women and protect them. In that regards, there was certainly nothing unusual about my upbringing. My father and mother stubbornly drilled those concepts into my stubborn head. I was taught to open the door for a woman. While sitting on a bus or in a doctor’s waiting room, I was instructed to give up my seat to a woman. It is a practice I continue today.

Admissions policy would no longer be 'race-neutral' New London - Buried in the annual Coast Guard authorization act passed this week by Congress is wording that would strike from the U.S. Code the statement that all appointments to the Coast Guard Academy "shall be made without regard to the sex, race, color or religious beliefs of an applicant." Under current federal law the academy is "race neutral," but the change would put it on the same footing as other colleges and universities in balancing its enrollment by admitting students from specific groups. The other military service academies admit students by...

Gay marriage is a hot issue right now, but it's not as titillating as another battle for equality: the right for women to go topless in public. That right is a fundamental one, according to the folks behind Go Topless, an organization dedicated to the belief that in order for America to be a truly equal society, women should be able to bare their breasts without fear of being arrested. Go Topless has been around since 2007, and its big push is Go Topless Day, an annual event held on the Sunday closest to Aug. 26, which is Women's Equality...

The US Commission of Civil Rights investigation of a possible Justice Department cover-up relating to the New Black Panther voter intimidation case is heating up big time. Today's regularly scheduled meeting of the Commission almost turned into a a hockey game as an argument broke out over the possible cover-up,whether that investigation has been fruitful, and whether the commission can even fulfill its mission anymore.

A large majority of likely voters do not agree that illegal aliens are entitled to the same rights and basic freedoms as U.S. citizens. The Zogby Interactive poll of 2,108 adults conducted from April 16-19 also found broad support for major immigration reform and immigration regulations that are more restrictive.79% do not agree that illegal aliens are entitled to the same rights and basic freedoms as U.S. citizens. Liberals are the only ideological group where more agree (49%) than disagree (46%) that illegal aliens have those rights. Both Congress and President Barack Obama get very low on their handling of...

In democratic Israel, Arabs, Muslims are often first class citizens over Jews Critics point out to the reversed unevenness, some have summed it up in one phrase: "If Arabs Can Live in Jewish Neighborhoods, Why Can't Jews Live in Arab Neighborhoods?" [*], In fact, many have raised the issue of Arabs not only being equal citizens as Jews in Israel, but often as first class citizens, Arabs, Muslims first class citizens in Israel whereas Israeli Jews are second class citizens [*]Land issues: an example: Israeli Police evict Jews from Jewish-owned Hebron home as applauding Palestinian Arabs looked on [*], there...

It is discriminatory to select a racial or ethnic group for advancement and employment opportunity rather than hiring the most qualified person for a position regardless of race, color, or creed. So, where is the Equal Rights movement now? Why is the Obama administration looking to hire people from a certain ethnicity rather than just seeking the most qualified for the job regardless of heritage, religion, etc., if there was not a hidden ulterior motive to this recruitment of Muslims.

Members of the Red Hat Society get a little funk in their trunk. Drawing comparisons to gender-equity movements like Title IX and ERA, white girls are now demanding that society smash the glass mirrored-ball ceiling that has kept them from playing that funky music. White girls are also demanding the right to lay down the boogie on a equal status as white boys. Dominique Lativia, a gender funk studies professor at Penn State, said the anti-female bias that exists in the male-dominated funk industry is reinforced by negative stereotypes of non-funky females and a habitual need for funds to support...

"All’s fair in love, war, and paternity cases. When child support is sought, there is scarcely any deceit that courts won’t push aside under the “best interests of the child” test."Courts have ruled that boys who were statutorily raped by older women must pay child support. Courts have ruled that when a woman has taken the semen from a condom a man used for sex with a different woman and has inserted it in herself, the man must still pay child support. Courts have ruled that when a woman has concealed her pregnancy (denying the man the right to be...

"Ladies' Night" was a hit single for the band Kool and the Gang in the '80s, but now it's become the subject of a lawsuit. New York attorney Roy Den Hollander has filed a class action lawsuit against several Manhattan bars and clubs, alleging that their ladies' night practices are unconstitutional. Hollander charges that when they host ladies' night they are violating the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. Hollander is seeking to be named class representative for all men charged more money or burdened by stricter time restraints than woman. He seeks nominal damages and an...

The recent reincarnation of the Equal Rights Amendment was a good idea—until its backers decided to change the name. The ERA has been reintroduced into both the House and the Senate, and has over 200 congressional co-sponsors. Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights, and civil liberties, says the bill "is going to be one of the items at the top of the agenda." Unfortunately, the bill’s sponsors have changed the ERA’s name to the “Women’s Equality Amendment.” There’s a major problem with that, because when considering injustices based on gender, today men...

Instead of lobbying for special rights in the face of growing opposition, the Left is promoting legislation that would quietly usher in their agenda through the backdoor at the state level.Arkansas is facing a powerful challenge by anti-family groups lobbying for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which, until recently, was a largely irrelevant piece of feminist propaganda dating back to the early 1970s. Now, state Rep. Lindsley Smith (D) is dusting off the amendment in a campaign to "protect women," when in fact, the U.S. Constitution already does so. Smith is pushing her state to ratify the ERA, which seeks...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Georgia (AP) -- The trial of an Atlanta-area father accused of circumcising his 2-year-old daughter with scissors is focusing attention on an ancient African practice that experts say is slowly becoming more common in the U.S. as immigrant communities grow. Khalid Adem, a 30-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, is charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Human rights observers said they believe this is the first criminal case in the U.S. involving the 5,000-year-old practice. Prosecutors say Adem used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in their apartment in 2001. The child's mother said she did not discover it...

40 years after poll equality was enforced a black leader faces bias accusationsAS YOU drive toward Macon, past festering swampland and Baptist churches, fire-and-brimstone radio sermons filling the car and lumber trucks thundering by, it is hard to shake off the ghosts of the past. Here, only 40 years ago, in the heart of Mississippi Burning country, the Ku Klux Klan were firebombing black churches and lynching and murdering without fear of arrest. Even today, the thick red clay and sprawling woodlands that line the road still hold the bodies of some of their victims. African-Americans brave enough to try...

Jul. 10, 2006 | There's nothing like a judicial ruling -- in this case, the extremely tortured one written last week by Judge Robert S. Smith of the New York Court of Appeals against gay marriage -- to make me feel simultaneously all-powerful and helpless. On Friday, my family read the news over breakfast. I was on my way to volunteer at my church food pantry; my wife was finishing the endless paperwork for our 17-year-old daughter's college loan, and Katie -- one of the "children" in whose interest the court said it ruled -- was on her way out...

(AgapePress) - The head of a Philadelphia-based Christian ministry says his group was targeted by a "lawless mob" of homosexuals at the city's annual homosexual pride event -- and that city police refused to enforce state laws against harassment and disorderly conduct at that time. New video footage from Repent America shows homosexuals with the group "Anti-Racist Action" shouting profanities at RA director Michael Marcavage and even threatening him with physical violence in the presence of Philadelphia police officers. Members of the group also yelled "Christian fascists" at RA participants while ministering at the June 11 event. Marcavage suggests the...

May 17 (UPI) -- Humans and chimpanzees may have interbred millions of years ago after the two species initially separated, according to a study published in Nature. If hybridization -- creating a new form of plant or animal life by combining two species -- did occur between humans and chimpanzees, ``one might need to modify the evolution displays in museums,'' Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor David Reich wrote in an e-mail message. The study, ``Genetic evidence for complex speciation of humans and chimpanzees,'' says the X chromosome is much younger than previously thought and may mean that after human and...

The debate about neonatal circumcision is over. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), neonatal circumcision is the result of ignorance, bad medical practice and American social and cultural pressure. Regarding the three most commonly cited justifications for neonatal circumcision (penile cancer, venereal disease and penile hygiene), the AAP now states that the benefits are negligible, which means that the majority of American men are walking around without foreskins for no good reason. Yet, the barbaric practice shows no sign of abating, and for this reason I plan to shed some light on the cultural dark spot of circumcision....

Real men -- good men -- take responsibility for the children they father. If they get a woman pregnant, they do the right thing: They stand by her. They support their child. They don't try to weasel out of a situation they co-authored. They shoulder the obligations of fatherhood, even if they hadn't planned on becoming a father. Once upon a time, men confronted with news of an unintended pregnancy knew what was expected of them. More often than not, they married the woman who was carrying their child; for those tempted to behave irresponsibly, society devised the shotgun wedding....

Jeremiah Clayton Jones discovered that his former fiancée was pregnant just three weeks before the baby was due, when an adoption-agency lawyer called and asked if he would consent to have his baby adopted. "I said absolutely not," said Mr. Jones, a 23-year-old Arizona man who met his ex-fiancée at Pensacola Christian College in Florida. "It was an awkward moment, hearing for the first time that I would be a father, and then right away being told, 'We want to take your kid away.' But I knew that if I was having a baby, I wanted that baby." Mr. Jones...