Free Republic

An openly gay pastor who claimed that a grocery store bakery wrote a homophobic message on his cake has dropped his lawsuit against Whole Foods, claiming he made up the story, according to news reports.

Even cisgender people aren’t safe from the transphobic mania over bathrooms. A Connecticut woman, who sports a pixie haircut, says she was harassed in a Walmart restroom by a woman who apparently mistook her as transgender. After posting a Facebook video about the incident, Aimee Toms said she’s been threatened by internet trolls and called a “lesbian” and “whore.” “People have irrational fears, I'd like for them to know this simply isn't something to be so angry about,” Toms, 22, told the Daily News. “Transgender people affect their lives in no way, shape, or form.” The alleged incident comes as...

The pastor who claimed he bought a Whole Foods cake that had a homophobic slur written on it has decided to drop his lawsuit against the company. Pastor Jordan Brown, who is gay, is a pastor of The Church of Open Doors, an LGBT welcoming congregation in Austin.

A transgender woman claims she was escorted out of a public North Carolina restroom by security – but surveillance video shows it might not have happened. Alexis Adams told WTVD last week that she was “humiliated beyond belief” and “bystanders were stunned” as security escorted her out of the Transit Center Thursday. “I couldn’t think. I couldn’t speak. I was speechless,” she said. “It was embarrassing. I was outed in front of everybody.” The Durham woman said she wanted to make a statement by going into a woman’s restroom and snapping a selfie in the mirror. She said a custodian...

The death of an Islamic teen in December, which fueled wide speculation about an anti-Muslim attack, was the result of a fall that followed the teen’s first use of marijuana, according to a report released Tuesday by Seattle police. Hamza Warsame’s death Dec. 5 drew national attention and sparked widespread speculation that he might have been the victim of an anti-Muslim hate crime, until it was ruled an accident a month later. A report released Tuesday by Seattle police reveals details of the investigation that bolster the conclusion made by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

So marijuana is harmless and doesn’t kill people? Consider the case of black Muslim teenager Hamza Warsame, who took a toke and plunged to his death. His friends from the hood blamed it on a non-existent white man who allegedly pushed the kid to his death. The headline in last December’s New York Times story was certainly ominous: “Assertions of Hate Crime in Seattle After a Somali-American Teenager Falls to His Death.” The paper said, “The death of the boy, Hamza Warsame, has prompted outrage among members of the Muslim community here, amid assertions—it is not clear from whom—that he...

Right now, thousands of people are taking direct action as part of a global wave of protests against the biggest fossil fuel infrastructure projects across the world. With so many governments still dependent on a fossil fuel economy, they can't be relied upon to make the radical change required in the time we need to make it. It is unjust that corporations and governments can commit crimes against the planet and society without retribution. And if we really want climate justice, protest in the pursuit of this must be normalized. To overcome political barriers, we need to reclaim our power...

Pension fund chiefs from California and New York City urged Exxon Mobil shareholders on Wednesday to back a measure that would force the company to finely detail how its business will be impacted as governments move to tackle climate change. CalPERS investment director Anne Simpson and NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer also said in a letter they would engage other shareholders as they push the world's largest publicly-traded oil company to say more about how its revenues, reserves and operations could be hurt by the Paris Agreement that governments signed in December to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. Their...

Victimhood is profitable. On the internet, it can get you thousands of dollars in crowdfunding donations. In the media, it can win you national prominence and a cooing audience of credulous sycophants. On campus, it can get you attention and plaudits from fellow grievance-mongers. Convince enough people you’re a victim, and everyone from presidential candidates to celebrities will come rushing to support you. So it’s little wonder that charlatans and opportunists regularly seek to take advantage of our species’ natural instinct for empathy. False flags, in which people deliberately stage attacks on themselves to win the support of society, are...

Ted Cruz "suspended" his campaign, but that doesn't mean his SuperPAC has stopped. They're still sending out emails.

Three New York college students pleaded not guilty Wednesday to claiming to be targets of a racially motivated attack when, prosecutors say, they actually had assaulted another bus passenger. Ariel Agudio, Asha Burwell and Alexis Briggs, all 20, entered the pleas at an arraignment in Albany County Court on charges of third-degree assault and multiple counts of falsely reporting an incident... A grand jury on Monday indicted the three women on the assault and false report charges. Agudio and Burwell also pleaded not guilty to charges of harassment, while Agudio pleaded not guilty to three additional counts of attempted assault....

Rising temperatures, rising sea levels and the increasing likelihood of extreme weather will all alter children's lives and the lives of their own children. And yet, children are largely left out of discussions about appropriate responses to climate change, according to a journal released by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. The findings in this issue have clear implications for policymakers and researchers trying to tackle the many challenges that climate change poses: * Policies must be developed to prepare and adapt in the face of inevitable climate change. States, cities and communities throughout the world must promote preparedness and...

An arson fire breaks out at a Houston mosque on Christmas 2015. A Fresno, Calif. Islamic Center is vandalized extensively in 2014, also on Christmas, in what local police initially call a “hate crime.” A 20-year-old Middle Eastern woman is slashed across the face and called a “'f***ing terrorist” near Wall Street in New York City just last month. In Dearborn, Mich. in 2014, several Qurans are burned in front of a mosque. In Arlington, Texas, a Muslim student says she was followed, harassed, and eventually threatened with a gun by men in a large pickup truck sporting Texas flags....

A hate crime aimed at black students at Maryland's Salisbury University has been revealed as just the latest high-profile race-related hoax to hit the groves of academe in the race-obsessed Obama era. Except for acknowledging that the two perpetrators are African-American students at the school that is located on the Delmarva Peninsula in eastern Maryland, the university is engaged in a cover-up. If the perpetrators were white, a cynic might say that the school would find a way to leak out the pertinent details in order to make a political statement. Of course, there certainly are racist incidents on university...

This is just another in a long line of "Islamophobic hate crimes" that turns out to have been perpetrated by Muslims. Indeed, many of them are actually faked by Muslims. The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), designated a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates, and other Muslims have on many occasions not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating "hate crimes," including attacks on mosques. A New Jersey Muslim was found guilty of murder that he tried to portray as an "Islamophobic" attack, and in 2014 in California, a Muslim was found guilty of killing his wife, after first...

To help address the nation's pressing need for better air quality, the U.S. EPA has awarded a research team co-led by a University of Washington civil engineer a $10 million Air, Climate and Energy (ACE) grant. The researchers will use a new approach combining air pollution research with the related areas of climate change and energy usage. Since air pollution and climate change are both largely caused by the combustion of fossil fuels, this integrated approach will address commonalities and encourage solutions that will positively impact all three areas. "A critical need facing our country is addressing air pollution and...

ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, La. - A $48 million grant for Isle de Jean Charles, La., is the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the effects of climate change. With a first-of-its-kind "climate resilience" grant to resettle the island's native residents, Washington is ready to help. "Yes, this is our grandpa's land," Ms. Bourg said. "But it's going under one way or another." In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants totaling $1 billion in 13 states to help communities adapt to climate change, by building stronger levees, dams and...

Let no one say that India isn't doing its bit to fight global climate change: Government scientists are working hard to reduce carbon emissions by making cows less gassy. Consider the numbers: India is home to more than 280 million cows, and 200 million more ruminant animals like sheep, goats, yaks and buffalo. Scientists at the Cow Research Institute in Mathura, around 100 miles south of New Delhi, are tinkering with cattle feed, seeking a formula that will create less gas for the cows to belch out. But a team of researchers in the southern state of Kerala is working...

Temperature and sea level aren't the only things expected to rise as a result of climate change. As heat becomes more extreme in some parts of the world, scientists expect a significant rise in the number of climate refugees. Climate scientists expect the coming decades to feature a mass exodus of millions from the Middle East and North Africa as extreme temperatures become more common. "In future, the climate in large parts of the Middle East and North Africa could change in such a manner that the very existence of its inhabitants is in jeopardy," Jos Lelieveld, director of the...

As Donald Trump inches closer to the Republican nomination, GOP insiders scramble to put a halt to the billionaire’s run for the White House. A new lawsuit filed in the state of California could prove to be the ultimate act of desperation by a frantic establishment willing to go to any lengths to end Trump’s bid for the Oval Office. However, if the allegations contained within the court documents are found to be true, they would not only spell the end of Trump’s presidential aspirations, but most likely his brand as a whole.