Free Republic

Following the Democrats’ sweeping victory of statewide offices on Tuesday, the Texas Supreme Court will shift from 9-0 Republican control to 5-4 Republican control in January. As part of the shift, Ellis will be replacing the Republican Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock. Ellis previously served as a justice on the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals. In her first public statement since the election, Ellis told the Dallas Morning News that she wants to ensure that any judges who officiate weddings in Texas also do so for homosexual couples, removing the religious freedom exemptions. “One thing I’d like to do is work...

Live updates from Donald Trump's election rally in Salina, Kansas Jason Alatidd Bryan Richardson Evert Nelson Topeka Capital-Journal Updated Nov. 1, 2026, 1:45 p.m. CT President Donald Trump is returning to Kansas for a second rally ahead of the midterm elections. Trump is scheduled to take the stage at Salina Regional Airport at 7 p.m. Sunday, following a program of other speakers starting around 5:30 p.m. The Salina rally on Nov. 1 comes after Trump rallied in Park City on Oct. 19, and after Vice President JD Vance rallied in Topeka on Oct. 26 and Olathe on Sept. 14. A...

An email address that James Talarico’s attorneys confirmed belonged to and was at one time used by the Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate appears in a database search result associated with the adult dating website Fling.com’s 2011 data breach. A Fling.com account was created with Talarico’s email address just before Talarico began teaching sixth graders.The result lists the username “mohawk787” and an account creation timestamp of December 26, 2010, at 20:56:49. The profile’s interests field lists “FETISH,” “GROUPSEX,” “SEXUAL RELATIONS,” “ONLINE FLIRTING,” and “OTHER.”Townhall shared the information described in this article with the Talarico campaign and requested comment Friday morning,...

A batch of mailers sent to Texas households ahead of the November midterm elections may be connected to an Illinois printing company whose owner and his son have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Trump-aligned groups and Republican committees, CBS News reports.The flyers, which appeared to come from a transgender advocacy organization, have been linked to Three Z Printing, an Illinois company. U.S. Postal Service records show the company holds the bulk-mail permit used to send the flyers to more than 1 million Texas addresses.According to the United States Postal Service, the company — dubbed Three Z Printing —...

HOW COULD THEY DO THIS?

The popular gay dating and hookup app Grindr agreed to pay £26 million (about $35 million) to settle a lawsuit over allegations that it shared users’ personal information, including their ethnicity, sexual orientation and, in some cases, HIV status, with third parties, reports The Guardian. The settlement ends the class-action lawsuit filed in the High Court of England and Wales in 2024, though Grindr continues to deny liability. ... Launched in 2009 and based in Los Angeles, Grindr bills itself as “the largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people. We have millions of daily users who...

The longtime pastor of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico was recently caught on camera promoting an "inclusive" translation of the Bible that strips the text of gendered language for God, including Jesus' titles as Lord and Son of God. The Rev. Jim Rigby, who has pastored St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) near Austin, Texas, for more than 35 years, discussed The Inclusive Bible with an undercover journalist posing as a prospective new church member, according to video recorded in August and first reported by The Daily Caller. Noting the church typically provides new members with a copy of The...

The Swiss government says it supports a uniform, national ban on so-called conversion therapy, and it’s moving ahead to consider federal legislation to outlaw the discredited practice. A report from the government published last week details a number of current national regulations addressing the practice, as well as a patchwork of laws or procedures in various cantons (independent member states) across the country, which include their own administrative or criminal measures and corresponding legislative proposals that have been initiated, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation reports. ... The patchwork of Swiss laws makes a national ban on the practice worth considering at...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A group of five patrons was kicked out of a Portland sports bar Sunday evening after bargoers were made “uncomfortable” over their “pro-women” apparel after they say they were ejected from a soccer game.According to footage posted by Amy Sousa, a staff member asked Sousa and her acquaintances to leave The Sports Bra, a women’s sports bar in Northeast Portland.“There are people that are in here that are uncomfortable with those shirts, and so I’m asking y’all to leave,” the staff member said to the group in the video. The staff member continued, “If I have...

The Episcopal Church has apparently reached another historic milestone, although perhaps not one Christians should be celebrating. All Saints' Cathedral in Milwaukee recently installed the Very Rev. Micah Cronin as its new dean, believed to be the first transgender-identifying dean in the history of the Episcopal Church. Cronin is a biological woman who identifies as a man and is married to another biological woman who identifies as transgender and serves as a pastor at an LGBT-affirming Lutheran campus ministry. If that description sounds confusing, perhaps that is precisely the point Christians should be considering. This is no longer simply a...

For years, one of the most visible consequences of transgender policies has played out in women's sports. Female athletes have watched biological males enter their competitions, stand on podiums, occupy roster spots and, in some cases, enter spaces once reserved exclusively for women. Whatever one's position on transgender issues, the conflict has forced society to confront an uncomfortable question: What happens when the interests of people who identify as transgender collide with protections created specifically for women? But there is another group of women caught in that collision who receive considerably less public attention. They are women in prison. And...

Harry Potter author JK Rowling was forced to cover the name of her superyacht while moored in Marina del Rey harbor, according to a new report. The beloved author has endured a storm of protests since expressing 'deep concerns' about transgender activism in an essay June 2020. She celebrated on the deck of a boat after a UK ruling that decided the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex in April 2025 She rose from homelessness to become one of the most celebrated children's writers of all-time. It was originally commissioned for LA businessman Eric Smidt, the...

President Donald Trump has been praised after it was revealed woke American professors are being poached by Canadian universities, including an academic who teaches transgender philosophy. California State University philosophy professor, Talia Mae Bettcher, who is transgender, is among the many American-based educators who have packed their bags and headed north to Canada to become a part of the $541 million research funding project. 'I knew I had to leave,' Bettcher, who is a native Canadian but taught in Los Angeles, told The University of Waterloo, her new home. 'As a green card-holding trans-woman and outspoken academic in an area...

On this Feast of St. Monica, I guess we Catholics need to add another wayward soul to our prayer list. This one's quite a lulu. Emma Cieslik, a 'museum specialist' at, not surprisingly, the Smithsonian, who claims to be Catholic, but not as loudly as she claims to be "queer, disabled and neurodiverse" in her social media bios, wrote this guest column for the National Catholic Reporter: August is Transgender History Month, a time to reflect on the transgender people who have led the way for transgender people's rights and who continue fighting for legal recognition and protection. This history...

Lawmakers say the Medi-Cal program needs $10 million to pay for gender-affirming care for minors after the Trump administration cut funding. Parents of transgender children say the state should have prepared sooner to prevent gaps in care.

Gay media celebrates Pope Leo XIV’s 4 pro-LGBT bishop appointments'Letters from Leo' hailed Pope Leo’s recent LGBT-friendly appointments, which include a bishop who had a drag queen speak at Mass. A gay news site published an article praising Pope Leo XIV for having “made room for progressive LGBTQ+ voices.” Headlined Pope Leo’s Recent LGBTQ-Friendly Appointments Include Bishop Who Had Drag Queen Speak at Mass, the article draws heavily from a liberal Catholic Substack, Letters from Leo, authored by former Obama staffer Christopher Hale.The article focuses on the installation of four reportedly pro-homosexual and pro-transgender bishops: James Checchio, appointed by Leo...

A majority of Americans still support same-sex 'marriage,' but a new poll reaffirms a notable decline over the past few years.

Hollywood has spent years peppering films and shows with transgender cast members, but Lilly Wachowski — who identifies as transgender — isn’t reaping the benefits. "The Matrix" co-creator, formerly known as Andy Wachowski, is now struggling to find financing for "The Hunted," a $10 million dystopian political thriller featuring an entirely transgender cast. “Well, if you’re excited for a brand-new all-trans movie, I’ve got terrible news for you,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere jokes. “Of course, these are the Wachowski brothers who made 'The Matrix' movies and now they’re called, in the article, the Wachowski sisters,” he explains.

Right-wing independent journalist Nick Shirley got into a heated exchange when a California official crashed one of his street interviews to sassily accuse him of having a "small penis." The middle-aged man barged into one of Shirley's interviews with a state politician and held up a piece of computer paper reading, "Allegedly Nick Shirley Has a Small Penis. Prove Me Wrong." "Did you guys hear that Nick Shirley has a small penis allegedly?" the man said. Shirley didn't seem thrilled with the interruption. "Wow that's so adult of you," Shirley deadpanned. "You have never seen it. You would never see...

Before gay marriage was legalized, its supporters made three specific promises. Every single one of them has failed. Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse walks through the actual data — Gallup polls, the UCLA Williams Institute study, and a 2025 systematic review of 123 studies across 31 countries — to show what really happened after decades of pro-gay advocacy and the legalization of same-sex marriage.