Free Republic

In the last year and a half, multiple courts have ruled against government bodies that tried to force citizens to affirm transgender ideology—the idea that what really defines who we are is not our sex, but our gender identity. According to this ideology, a male who identifies as a woman is really a woman and must be called by feminine names and pronouns. Yet voices in the mainstream media, such as the editorial board of The Washington Post, seem to believe that the courts have it wrong, and that all teachers who decline to use transgender pronouns are hateful people...

On February 12, three female high school students in Connecticut filed a federal lawsuit against the participation of transgender athletes (with male anatomy) in female track and field events. The three students, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, have a fairly simple and straightforward argument: They claim allowing biologically male students to compete against biologically female students is unfair and runs afoul (no pun intended) of their basic civil rights. They also argue, quite convincingly, that allowing biologically male students to compete against them has undermined their ability to win races as well as opportunities for scholarships. Alanna Smith, who...

If you peruse social media for three minutes, you can find discussions on virtually every topic imaginable. From pop culture to politics, science to sports, food to fashion, there is no shortage of people willing to express their opinions. But there are limits.This week I took a camera crew to a nearby liberal arts college. My goal was simple; I wanted to find out what college students thought about sports. Or, more specifically, I hoped to learn what they thought about transgender women (i.e., biological men) participating in women’s sports.This was not a theoretical exercise. The debate about men competing...

This is a story we touched on a few weeks ago, but it’s back in the news over at National Review raising even more questions. It deals with the lawsuit involving G. R. Harris Funeral Homes, a company that was sued by a male employee who announced that he was going to begin living life (and dressing) as a woman, but was told he could not do so at work. That case has made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where arguments will be heard in the upcoming term. John Bursch is an employee of Alliance Defending Freedom,...

Public schools are reopening for business across America, meaning it's time to get back to reading, writing, arithmetic ... and revolution. As usual in matters such as these, California is leading the way. On the first day of classes at Denair Middle School near Modesto, science teacher Luis Davila Alvarado handed out a worksheet from a transgender advocacy group titled "The Gender Unicorn" asking students about their "gender identity," "gender expression" and their sexual and emotional attractions. These are children. And yet the teacher did not ask permission to hand the worksheet out. Most parents were outraged. The school estimated...

It’s an odd juxtaposition that in 2019 the self-professed “party of science” is pushing all their chips into the center of the table against the concept of biology. Democrats have rejected not only biology, but all of human history and their own eyes to embrace the idea that what constitutes a “man” or a “woman” is now open to interpretation. To think otherwise, to believe your lying eyes, is now on its way to being a hate crime. Were this just a passing fad you could maybe laugh it off. But this delusion is being codified in law in states across...

Only yesterday the Democrats in the U.S. Senate were giddy with the idea that Judge Brett Kavanaugh had united the women of America, who would pressure their senators to do him in. But the campaign to confirm Kavanaugh for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court is beginning to look like ladies' day at the baseball park. Successfully casting Kavanaugh as Harvey Weinstein will be difficult. Eighteen of the 25 women who have served as Kavanaugh law clerks, who know the judge best, signed a letter (the other seven couldn't sign because of current or pending employment elsewhere) describing "uniformly...

The Political Correctness Police, starting with the perpetually victimized GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and a group called 50/50 by 2020, are trying to impose quotas on everything Hollywood does. Leftist fascism is not on the march. It is galloping. They are part of an open letter signed by titans of the Hollywood left that demands an "unprecedented cultural moment." They demand the entertainment elite "use its power to improve the lives of trans people by changing America's understanding about who trans people are." GLAAD claims there were no transgender characters in 109 movies released by major...

Well, it turns out man-spreading is not the most pressing threat facing the New York City subway system after all. And neither are the trains that break down in the underbelly of the city leaving passengers stranded for hours with a continuously playing pan flute ensemble. Nor is the most pressing issue roaming gangs of street thugs or perverts manhandling women or homeless people urinating on seats or giant rats prowling subway stations. No, ladies and gentlemen – the greatest threat facing the Big Apple’s subway system is train conductors using the words “ladies and gentlemen.” The New York Post...

Michigan is set to become the 26TH American state to join the federal government in criminalizing female genital mutilation, even as two Detroit area doctors and one of their wives await trial for inflicting the procedure on a number of young girls. FGM, which is common in some parts of Africa and the Middle East, involves using a razor to remove all or part of a girl's clitoris and parts of the vulva. By Western standards, this amounts to child abuse and criminal assault. FGM defenders claim that the practice makes girls feel "clean;" that it helps them to fit...

Hundreds of innocent people have been slaughtered by IslamoNazis, our national debt is greater than our GDP, and much of the national political dialogue is about men who “identify” as women and vice versa, and which pronouns we must use to address them. We’re insane. I don’t claim to be an expert on what it’s like to be transgendered, but I also don’t care. I don’t give one steaming pile of damn how you want to, or feel compelled to, live your life as long as you don’t hurt anyone else and I don’t have to subsidize it. As far...

For high school girls across the country, the competition for college-athletic scholarships is on the verge of ascending to a whole new level. The 44th anniversary of Title IX is less than two weeks away, but recent events suggest that the face of female athletics is changing forever. A totally new caliber of athletic prowess is being invented for womenÂ’s sports, and ordinary women simply wonÂ’t have enough equality to compete. To the surprise of no mentally stable person ever, women like Bruce Jenner will prove virtually impossible to beat when it comes to antiquated women competing against them for...

It was very late at night in a nearly-deserted airport and I was alone in the bathroom when a man walked in. Or maybe just a person who looked like a man, dressed like a man, walked like a man, and had a man’s haircut. As I washed my hands I looked up and casually observed, “Oh, I think you’re in the wrong bathroom.” He or she gave me a frozen glare and an angry, sarcastic retort: “No – YOU’RE in the wrong bathroom!” The gender-nonspecific person headed for the stalls and I headed out the door. He or she...

Things have really gone down the toilet. Literally. Corporate America, the bastion of all things ethical, is now forcing its public potty policies on the rest of America. Why do state legislatures need to even waste time on deliberating over whether men use menÂ’s bathrooms and women use womenÂ’s? Oh, because, in our gender-challenged culture, the needs of a deeply confused 0.1% of the population must upend a practice so common sense even a child understands it. In fact, itÂ’s children who will end up being the ones most threatened. I love all people. I just donÂ’t love all their...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Tim Graham. As night fell on Christmas Eve, National Public Radio was in its usual holy-day mode, using your tax dollars to mock the traditional Christian creed. This time they promoted an activist movie called "The Danish Girl," yet another alleged "true story" about artist Einar Wegener, a married man who wanted to be a woman named Lili. An earlier NPR commercial -- sorry, "underwriting announcement" -- said he was the first recipient of "gender confirmation surgery." Paging Mr. Orwell -- it's NPR on line 1. Focus Features -- part of the Comcast...

This story starts with a transgender high school student who was born male but identifies as female. As a public high school student, she wants the school to recognize her as a girl, to call her by her new legal name, to allow her to use the girls' bathroom and to accept her in girls' athletic programs. Her high school in Palatine, Illinois, has pretty much complied. Teachers call the girl by her female name. She uses the girls' bathroom. She plays on a girls' sports team. Except, she does hit one wall: The school doesn't provide unfettered access to...

Although there are scores of issues I’d rather address, as long as the tide of gender confusion continues to rise, I will not stop speaking out. There’s a reason that the 5th principle in Outlasting the Gay Revolution is “Celebrate Gender Distinctions.” Nothing is more fundamental than male-female distinctions, and that’s why we must draw a line in the sand and say, “No more!” to the war on gender. And we can do this while looking for compassionate solutions to help those who genuinely struggle with gender identity issues. But compassion is not denial, and developments in and out of...

When the creations of God begin to defy the order of which He crafted things, bad things happen. At first none may notice, and thusly some justification as to God’s absence or even lack of existence begins to be discussed. Invariably however it just all goes wrong. I’m not talking about Bruce Jenner, who now has had breast installation, hormone treatment, lots of make-up/fashion advice and asked to be called Caitlyn once his tans-sexual appearance was completed. The fact that this was all done to a body that as a male dominated the competition at the highest levels of athletic...

Katherine Timpf is young, beautiful and very sane. Oh, have I said something wrong? Good. Writing for National Review, Timpf covers the complete flight from reality that characterizes today's progressivism/feminism. A quick glance at her recent titles gives the flavor of the world they seek to create and impose. "Feminists: Remove World War II Sailor Statue Because It's 'Sexual Assault'" (that would be the iconic image from Times Square on VJ Day in 1945). "Feds Spending Money To Find Out Why Obese Girls Get Fewer Dates." "Feminists: Slow Motion Is Sexist." And today's installment: "Schools Told to Call Kids 'Purple...

Democratic California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has written a bill that would require public schools in his state to allow students to choose which bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams match their gender identity. Both the Assembly and state Senate have passed Assembly Bill 1266. It now sits on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown. If the governor allows the bill to become law, then public school administrators won't be able to assign transgender third-graders to use a separate bathroom or play on the team of their biological gender -- even if their motive is to protect a vulnerable child. "Separate...