Free Republic

One of 15 Minnesotans charged with conspiring against ICE officers turned herself into officials Wednesday morning. Federal officials arrested most of the defendants Tuesday and they had their first appearance in court for efforts to “violently oppose immigration law enforcement." U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen had called the defendants yet to be detained "fugitives at-large." But one of them, Natasha Rakotz, denies the charges — and the label. “I think all of this is absolutely ridiculous. I am not a violent person. I've never been violent. I've never had trouble with the law,” she said. “The only thing I did was...

Rolling Stone magazine has published an article promoting a leftist gun influencer who celebrated Charlie Kirk's 2025 assassination, organizes transgender militias, and believes law enforcement officers should be shot to death. The piece centers on "Yeezy," a 33-year-old Appalachian man, and his online 3D-printing firearms operation. The article, titled "This Man Wants to Help You Print Your Own Gun" and written by writer Jack Crosbie, frames Yeeze's ghost gun business as a solution for people facing potential gun restrictions, particularly trans-identifying individuals. Yeezy has positioned himself as a trans rights activist and has a history of advocating for violence against...

Americans are used to handouts for favored groups. Affirmative action in university admissions, corporate “diversity” initiatives, and minority-owned contracting requirements direct opportunities, resources, and contracts to supposedly “oppressed” groups, such as women, Native Americans, blacks, and Hispanics. In California, state Democrats have embraced another kind of favoritism: contracts for state-certified gay-owned businesses. The scheme operates through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates privately owned utility companies. California utilities spent more than $43 billion in 2024 on contractors—fuel suppliers, surveyors, engineers, and others—whose work helps deliver water, gas, electricity, and internet service to California’s 39 million residents. In 1986,...

A 21-year-old University of Illinois Chicago senior says he is the person who set fire to a cross in Grant Park last week, though he insists he had no idea that burning crosses are a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan. Merlin Lu told NBC 5 in an interview Monday that his target was not a racial group, but rather supporters of President Donald Trump, whom he described as “MAGA Christian nationalist supporters.” His chosen method of protest: placing a red baseball cap atop a cross, the central symbol of Christianity, and setting it ablaze. “I don’t want to wait...

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday to temporarily halt an Idaho law that would restrict bathroom access for transgender people, ruling that major parts of the law are likely unconstitutional. In a 30-page decision, Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Amanda K. Brailsford issued a preliminary injunction preventing House Bill 752 from taking effect while legal challenges proceed. The ruling also granted provisional class-action status to transgender residents across the state, extending the court’s protections beyond the original plaintiffs. “Another issue of enforceability is a law enforcement officer’s ability to determine an individual’s ‘biological sex,'” Judge Brailsford wrote. This ruling is a...

A senior Estée Lauder executive who died in his husband’s arms moments after feeling lightheaded inside their $2.8 million New York City apartment suffered a pulmonary embolism triggered by cosmetic fillers. Kendal Ascher, 56, “suffered acute respiratory failure due to a pulmonary embolism connected to a foreign material after getting cosmetic filler injections,” the city’s medical examiner said Tuesday. Ascher’s Feb. 25 death was ruled accidental in the report, which was given to his loved ones over the weekend. Estée Lauder executive Kendal Ascher died suddenly in husband’s arms in their $2.8M NYC apartment Ascher’s grieving husband, William Howe, told...

Same-sex marriage is not on the rocks — yet. But the LGBT triumphalism of a few years ago is receding. Support for same-sex relationships is dropping, businesses are less inclined to pay for “pride” festivities, and Republican leaders are reclaiming June from the rainbow. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The issue was supposed to be settled, with the rainbow triumphant and opposition receding to a few marginalized religious weirdos. But in the years since the Supreme Court invented a right to same-sex marriage in the Obergefell decision, the effects have become clear, and they aren’t what we were promised. Same-sex...

A trans-identified male has lost an employment discrimination case after alleging that he had been wrongfully fired from his job at a childcare center in Letterkenny. The Workplace Relations Commission found that Aleena Starshine had been terminated not due to his gender identity, but as a result of repeat parental complaints and concerns about child safeguarding. . . The first complaint pertained to a “safari game” Starshine had organized with the children, during which he offered an 11-year-old child “a free kiss from me” or a “big kiss” as a prize. The child reported this to a parent, who then...

The Pride Night backlash isn’t going away anytime soon for the San Francisco Giants. The Giants held their annual celebration of San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ community on Friday night, with the team wearing special hats with a rainbow-colored “SF” logo as part of the evening. But four of the five pitchers the Giants used in Friday’s loss to the Cubs protested the commemoration, with three pitchers — Landon Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker — writing a Bible verse on their Pride Night hats, while Sam Hentges elected to not wear the rainbow-logo hat at all.

Ghoulish internet trolls are editing photos of themselves so they appear to be urinating on Austin Metcalf’s grave — in a twisted act of solidarity with the Texas teen’s killer, Karmelo Anthony. Numerous photos showing the despicable act surfaced on social media this week after 19-year-old Anthony was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder in the 2025 stabbing, with some of the photos tagged with the likes of “#FreeKarmeloAnthony,” “#AustinMetcalf” and even “#F–kEm.” “F–K AUSTINNNNN METCALF,” read a third, followed by a series of middle finger and laughing emojiis. The vile urination photos gained widespread attention on social media from the...

'Nude isn't lewd': World Naked Bike Ride returns to Madison this June The 12-mile ride is a protest against oil dependency — and a statement that every body has a place in public. MADISON, Wis. -- Whether you love it, hate it or just tolerate it, the World Naked Bike Ride will return to Madison later this month. Organizers said the ride will begin at 11 a.m. on June 20. Madison is one of dozens of cities holding a ride worldwide. Organizers expect 160-200 people to join this year's event. The annual ride serves as a protest against oil dependency...

A progressive Christian denomination is facing sharp internal backlash over a proposed rule that would require ordained clergy to be in monogamous sexual relationships. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is set to vote on the monogamy requirement at its General Assembly this summer in Milwaukee. he PC(USA) has allowed for the ordination of openly gay clergy since 2011 and altered its definition of marriage to “two people” in 2014. The new proposed rule, known as CON-10, does not mention sexual orientation or same-sex relationships. Instead, it targets multipartner relationships... ... In its official response, the Advocacy Committee for Women and Gender...

During the lead-up to a union election at Wizards of the Coast for Magic: The Gathering Arena, the company allegedly deadnamed a number of transgender employees in front of their colleagues. When confronted about this action, the company apologized, only to do the same thing again the following week during the election itself. Kotaku has spoken to multiple union-eligible employees who explained the situation. According to them, WOTC and the group of employees filing for a union election agreed on an election to take place this week that would be in-person for in-office employees, and mail-in for remote employees. As...

Celebrity children identify as trans and non-binary at unbelievable rates. Charlize Theron, Cynthia Nixon, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony — whose 18-year-old recently debuted a new name, changing from Emme to Oskar — are just a few of the stars with children who aren’t living as their birth sex. There’s nothing wrong with being trans. But such an unlikely concentration in a particular community should give one pause — especially when so many of these kids began playing with gender at shockingly young ages. In a geography where having a trans child has a tinge of chicness...

On Monday’s edition of CNN's This Morning, a panel discussed the Senate race in Maine. CNN panelist and TikTok babbler V. Spehar weighed in: "We need to be talking about what we're gonna do for people, not what any kind of scandal coming up is, because there's so much getting lost in the conversations that we're having if we're trying to police, and do purity culture on every single candidate, and that's kind of an issue." Great point, V! Because the Democrats and the liberal media haven't spent years obsessing over every real and imagined scandal involving Donald Trump, or...

OUTDOOR EQUITY Help Pass the Equality Act Tell Congress that it’s time to protect LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. from discrimination.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democrat running against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race, has referred to women as “neighbors with a uterus” on more than one occasion.

Attorney General Ken Paxton says he's suing the city of Denton over gender-neutral changing rooms being available at a June Pride event at one of the city's public pools. The June 7 event, called "Big Gay Swim Day," was organized by two nonprofit groups – PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton, and is set to be held at the Quakertown Civic Center. The city owns the center, which has a public-access swimming pool and sex-specific multiple-occupancy changing rooms. The event is advertised as open to the general public of all ages, and organizers have announced that gender-neutral changing rooms will be available...

As Republicans seek to highlight Democrat James Talarico’s record on transgender issues, immigration, and other progressive causes ahead of November’s U.S. Senate election, the lawmaker’s campaign is embracing one of the nicknames those positions have earned him. The Talarico campaign recently began selling merchandise bearing the phrase “I’m a Talafreako,” a reference to a nickname used by Republican nominee Ken Paxton during his runoff victory speech. “He goes by a few names that you may all have heard of,” Paxton told supporters. “Some people know him as Tofu Talarico, some people call him Six Gender Jimmy. I’ve even heard some...

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said he would work with anyone who wanted to fight against President Donald Trump when asked about Democrat Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who’s embroiled in controversy amid allegations of adulterous behavior. Host Dana Bash said, “I want to ask you about the Senate race in Maine and The Wall Street Journal and New York Times reporting that last August, Democrat Grand Platinum’s wife told his campaign about sexual text messages....Do you have concerns about Grand Plattner?” Kim said, “Well, first I’ll say is, you know, I’ve been very...