Free Republic

A Lithuanian same-sex couple has been declared a legal family by a court in Lithuania, a historic victory for LGBTQ+ people in the Baltic nation. The two women in the couple, whose identities have not been made public, were living together and wanted to have their cohabitation recognized by the government as a form of partnership. The Vilnius City District Court agreed and ruled that the state should create a way for them to register their relationship. The Lithuanian constitution bans same-sex marriage, and the country’s Civil Code also bans the recognition of same-sex relationships as civil partnerships. Nevertheless, the...

In February 2016, Donald Trump scandalized Republican Party elites at a CNN town hall event in Columbus, Ohio, when he dared to call George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq “a big fat mistake” and “the worst decision any one has made, any president has made, in the history of this country.” Trump’s assertion infuriated GOP insiders not because it was clearly mistaken or even easily disputable, but because it was all too true. A glance at the titles of major books on America in the Middle East written by authors across the political spectrum—Fiasco, Grand Delusion, Losing the Long Game,...

An LGBT advocacy group that filed an unsuccessful legal challenge to end religious exemptions to federal Title IX discrimination law for Christian colleges that receive federal funding is closing down. The board of directors for the Religious Exemption Accountability Project emailed an update to supporters on Sunday to announce that they are closing the organization's operations, citing "a serious internal issue" that affected its "financial and operational stability." "While we cannot share all details publicly, we are deeply grateful to the founders, students, alumni, volunteers, donors, and community who believed in this work from day one," stated REAP. "Founded as...

According to new report, opposition to abortion is more ‘extreme’ than rape.A European abortion lobby is warning against “religious extremism” on the rise across the continent, singling out Catholicism and ignoring the threat posed to Europe by Islam. The 158-page report “The Next Wave: How Religious Extremism Is Reclaiming Power,” published by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights (EPF), faults “religious extremism” for the phenomenon of “accelerating financial expansion of movements working to dismantle decades of hard-won sexual and reproductive rights across Europe.”The EPF report derides the “anti-rights and religious extremist actors in Europe” working to oppose...

In Canada, free speech is no longer a thing. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney utilized an August 5 press conference in British Columbia to dismiss concerns over Liberal legislation (Bill C-18) that would forbid news outlets from sharing news on social media, particularly during emergencies. The Canadian Commie globalist didn’t just refuse to rescind the aforementioned Bill C-18. No siree, he also urged his fellow Canucks to rely on government-funded CBC News for fair and unbiased information. In light of the fact that heads of government steadfastly refuse to tell the truth, I have taken the liberty to translate Carney’s...

The DOJ drops the bogus charges against rising GOP star Carolina Amesty and immediately the corrupt MSM accuses Pam Bondi of wrongdoing. We reported a week ago that an up and coming GOP superstar in the Florida House was targeted by the Biden regime’s DOJ and falsely charged of bogus criminal actions only two working days before President Trump’s inauguration. We never thought we would see in our country an Administration (the Biden regime) target its enemies with false charges, pushed by corrupt prosecutors, in corrupt courts. No one was safe. President Trump, his closest associates, his supporters, and everyone...

New York City has officially opened its first shelter for transgender and gender-nonconforming people who are homeless. Officials say it’s the only city-funded shelter of its kind in the country and will help 150 transgender New Yorkers as the Trump administration has rolled back rights for the trans community, barring access to medical care, military service and federal documents that reflect their gender identity. The city is fully funding the facility in Long Island City, which will cost $65 million to operate through 2030. “ We've watched so many other corporations and foundations and businesses just like completely turn their...

In an interview with Euronews, Plamen Ralchev says: “The euro is a lifeboat that Bulgaria should board!" The scientist at the University of National and World Economics warns against right-wing populist parties exploiting the currency debate. The days of the Bulgarian lev are numbered! Bulgaria wants to introduce the European single currency, the euro, in January. The reform efforts are paying off: The European Commission, central bank and EU finance ministers have given the green light. Bulgaria meets all the conditions for the euro: Consumer prices are rising only slowly The budget deficit is low Public debt is one of...

When I was a college freshman studying broadcast journalism in 1978, I watched a show on PBS that made me contemplate something that I’d never thought about before: What would I do if one day the government took control of the media, rewarding those who spread the leaders’ propaganda and silencing dissenting voices?

The campaign has been linked to Eugenics and Nazi ideology Sydney Sweeney is no stranger to controversial ads. In recent history, she has sold us her bathwater and in 2024, skincare lovers expressed discomfort about her advertisement with a skincare brand, in which the words “bouncy and firm” were plastered across her chest rather than, y’know, near her face. Now, she’s back in hot water with the campaign for American Eagle that has been called out as a “conservative dog whistle” and with headlines on Newsweek like “Sydney Sweeney Fronts Ad Campaign for Jeans – Sparks Debate About Eugenics.” The...

If the far-Left’s attack on actress Sydney Sweeney’s new ad for American Eagle isn’t the most intellectually embarrassing event of the year, it must be close.The blonde, blue-eyed beauty pitches the company’s jeans. Because the ads importune viewers to buy “good jeans” by playing on the idea of “good genes,” Sweeney is guilty of promoting “whiteness,” “white supremacy,” and, of course, “Nazi propaganda.”Presumably we are to believe that Sweeney, who appeared in the hysterical leftist dystopian TV program The Handmaid’s Tale, now advocates Aryan racial purity, with a little Lebensraum thrown in. Madness, yes. But the Left never lets a...

California will not ban transgender athletes from competing in K-12 school sports or change its anti-discrimination policies to exclude them, becoming the second state after Maine to defy the Trump administration over the issue.

In a move that has sparked outrage among religious communities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has escalated his administration’s campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), a cornerstone of spiritual life for millions of Ukrainians. The latest blow came when Zelensky signed a decree stripping the revered 80-year-old leader of the UOC, of his Ukrainian citizenship, according to Ukraine’s SBU security service agency. The SBU claims Onufriy, also known as Orest Berezovsky, acquired Russian citizenship in 2002, a charge the metropolitan has denied. In April 2023, Onufriy admitted to briefly holding a Russian passport but insisted he relinquished it, affirming his...

Washington (AP) — After the raucous rainbow-hued festivities of Saturday’s parade, the final day of World Pride 2025 in the nation’s capital kicked off on a more downbeat note.Thousands gathered under grey skies Sunday morning at the Lincoln Memorial for a rally and protest march, as the community gathers its strength for a looming fight under President Donald Trump’s second administration. “This is not just a party,” Ashley Smith, board president of Capital Pride Alliance. “This is a rally for our lives.”Smith acknowledged that international attendance numbers for the bi-annual World Pride were measurably down, with many potential attendees avoiding...

When the guns fall silent in Ukraine – and they will, sooner or later – Western officials will rush to declare a new era of European security. There will be speeches about victory, resilience, the defense of democracy. But beneath the rhetoric, something far more consequential will already be taking shape: the emergence of Ukraine as a de facto member of NATO, regardless of whether Article 5 ever formally applies.

Sometime in the Twenties, Józef Piłsudski quipped that the “most beloved state” of the Polish people is indecision. Almost exactly a century on, the modern nation’s founding father has never been more right, with last week’s presidential election resulting in an almost literal dead heat. Though the conservative Karol Nawrocki finally carried the day, the populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) candidate only defeated Rafał Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, by just 1.78% of the vote, with less than 370,000 ballots separating the two men in a country of 37 million. Since Nawrocki’s win, commentators of all stripes have...

Standing in a town square, quietly holding a sign, two people were arrested by police Thursday in Brussels, Belgium. The offending message? “Children are never born in the wrong body.” Lois McLatchie Miller, a senior legal communications officer for Alliance Defending Freedom International, and Chris Elston, a Canadian advocate for children who goes by the nickname “Billboard Chris,” said they were in police custody for several hours before having their signs confiscated. According to Elston, they were initially told they were being charged with disturbing the peace, but were eventually let go. The arrest is just the latest instance of...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) praised Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russia, calling its government and armed forces “ever-resourceful” while warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for more war. “The ever-resourceful Ukraine used creative drone warfare tactics to successfully attack Russian bombers and military assets used to kill Ukrainian citizens and destroy their country,” Graham said on the social platform X on Sunday reacting to the Ukraine attack. Ukraine hit Russian bases across the vast country in the recent attack, including in the regions of Irkutsk and Amur, which are thousands of miles from the Russian-Ukraine border. The attack...

Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has urged Washington’s chief negotiator with Moscow, Steve Witkoff, to consult European leaders before placing trust in Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Witkoff has been part of U.S. delegations leading talks with Moscow and Kyiv since February, after Trump tasked members of his administration to help negotiate an end to Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine. However, he has faced criticism from Kyiv for peddling Russian narratives, including a suggestion to hand over four partially occupied eastern Ukrainian regions to Moscow. In March, Witkoff said that Putin has no intention to “take all of...

The democratic will of the Hungarian people to clamp down on the proliferation of LGBTQ+ ideology should be punished by the European Commission, a group of 16 EU countries demanded on Wednesday. In response to recent legislation passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative government to ban Pride parades in Hungary, over half of fellow European Union member states signed an open letter demanding that Budapest reverse course or face punishment from Brussels. The “declaration” was signed by the countries of Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden. […]...