Free Republic

United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers. Delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference — the first such legislative gathering in five years. That overwhelming margin contrasts sharply with the decades of controversy around the issue. Past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests, but many of the conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years, and this General...

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Education Agency on Monday to ignore a Biden administration rule that expanded federal sex discrimination protections to include LGBTQ+ students. The Biden administration recently revised the rules for Title IX, the sweeping civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at federally funded colleges and K-12 schools. The new rules, which are set to go into effect in August, redefined sex discrimination and sex-based harassment to prevent misconduct based on sex stereotypes, pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation. It codifies initial guidance documents that prompted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to sue the Biden administration...

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., a Democratic congressman representing New Jersey's 10th District, died Wednesday following a hospitalization earlier in April for a "cardiac episode," Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday. Payne was 65.

A new article out from Politico reveals that a select group of lawyers and legal pundits have been working behind the scenes to quash a Trump second term using the media. They've been sharing narratives, honing points, and working together to "intellectually stress-test the arguments facing Trump on his journey through the American legal system." The names of those who have been at these meetings are all too familiar and their tactics mirror those undertaken in 2020 to manipulate media to sway the presidential election in Biden's favor. A group began meeting weekly in 2022, every Friday, on Zoom calls...

U.S. District Court Judge Aleta A. Trauger sided with the Tennessee Star last month, in seeking all the written documents from shooter Audrey Hale, which resulted in the deaths of three students and three faculty members. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The FBI has turned over writings from the Covenant school shooter to a federal judge, including the killer’s manifesto, which will be read privately by the judge. Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star, sued the FBI in May claiming the bureau had violated the First Amendment by rejecting multiple Freedom of Information Act requests for the Covenant...

Scientific American has published a piece claiming that “misinformation,” such as the notion that there are only two sexes, is “being used against transgender people” and in order to target “gender-affirming medical care.”The article states that there are three types of “misinformation,” and they are “oversimplifying scientific knowledge, fabricating and misinterpreting research, and promoting false equivalences.”Three types of misinformation are being used against transgender people: oversimplifying scientific knowledge, fabricating and misinterpreting research, and promoting false equivalences. https://t.co/1AOp6Bk6A2 — Scientific American (@sciam) April 20, 2024The piece asserts that “Many of the arguments against trans rights center on the idea that transness...

Former First Lady Melania Trump, former President Donald Trump’s wife, headlined a fundraiser on Saturday evening, her first solo event of the 2024 campaign. Exclusive photos of the former first lady — provided to Breitbart News by her longtime photographer, Andrea Hanks — show her alongside Log Cabin Republican leaders Ric Grenell, Bill White, and Bryan Eure. Grenell — the former Director of National Intelligence in Trump’s administration and the first-ever openly gay U.S. cabinet official in history — made clear at the event that Trump will win the vote of gay voters in 2024. “Donald Trump deserves our vote,”...

Louisiana education chief slams new Biden administration rules for LGBTQ+ studentsLouisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley advised schools not to change their policies to comply with new federal anti-discrimination rules.Louisiana’s top education official advised school districts Monday not to change their policies to comply with new federal rules that extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ students, setting up a potential showdown with the Biden administration.The new rules, released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education, say discrimination against students based on sexual orientation and gender identity is prohibited under Title IX. The 1972 law bans sex-based discrimination in schools and...

The missing American who’d traveled to Ukraine years ago to aid Russian separatists in Donbas was found dead in the country’s war-torn eastern region. The body of Russell Bentley, a 64-year-old U.S. Army vet, was recovered in the Russian-controlled region of Donetsk Oblast, Reuters reported. -snip- The former pothead, who used “Texas” as his military call-sign, left behind a yoga instructor girlfriend to travel to Ukraine. He utilized crowdfunding sites to finance his trip, and had since become a Russian citizen. He also got married after moving to Ukraine, where he began working as a reporter for the state-owned Sputnik...

“but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” —Matthew 18:6 There isn’t much that can be said about such demonic filth except that those who force their children into rebellion against their Creator are going to face the harshest punishment. And to do so by taking the Lord’s name in vain is, well, let’s just say they should be praying for the millstone. This Methodist “pastor” dresses his children...

The leftists at the Harvard Crimson have spoken out against transgender athlete bans and claimed that the evidence to support the case that men have a physical advantage over women is “less conclusive.” However, in the process of making the assertion, the article ignored all evidence to the contrary to support their own claim that transgender athlete participation is wholly benign. In the college paper’s April 16 editorial, entitled, There Are Many Obstacles Facing Women’s Sports. Trans Athletes Aren’t One, writer Jonathan G. Yuan writes for The Crimson Editorial Board that the “science” is “less conclusive” that “transgender women hold...

Rural white people, as a group, now pose four interconnected threats to the fate of the United States’ pluralist, constitutional democracy.Rural white voters have long enjoyed outsize power in American politics. They have inflated voting power in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and the Electoral College. Although there is no uniform definition of “rural,” and even federal agencies cannot agree on a single standard, roughly 20% of Americans live in rural communities, according to the Census Bureau’s definition. And three-quarters of them – or approximately 15% of the U.S. population – are white. Since the rise of Jacksonian democracy...

Neighbors of a gay couple in Maryland were shocked to find out they were arrested for possession of child pornography after getting flagged by IKEA. 41-year-old Robert Sherer and 54-year-old Robert Books were arrested Wednesday after police were tipped off about Sherer allegedly downloading child pornography on his work computer. He worked as a senior resolutions generalist at IKEA in White Marsh. The company, which is based in Sweden, notified Swedish police about the alarming discovery after confirming the accusation. Police notified their counterparts in Maryland, who began investigating the couple in March.

A 26-year-old transgender Antifa activist from Alabama named Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert was arrested this week and charged with illegally possessing and detonating an explosive device outside the state’s Attorney General office in Montgomery. The Post Millennial Senior Editor Andy Ngô posted about the arrest on X Wednesday, writing, “According to court documents, Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert had extensive Antifa propaganda he allegedly used around the time of the bombing. He allegedly made an IED with nails. Calvert is charged with malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device.” Calvert is being charged with “malicious use...

First of all, did you even hear about the explosive device planted and detonated outside the Alabama Attorney General's office back in February? The 'news' media offered some perfunctory coverage at the time, but consider the circumstances and context: Just a few days prior, the state's Supreme Court had issued a highly controversial ruling involving frozen embryos, with possible implications for in vitro fertilization. The subsequent uproar garnered national attention, as many journalists were eager to jump all over a story they perceived as politically beneficial to both their preferred political party, and to their unlimited abortion agenda. The GOP-controlled...

An Irondale man was taken into custody Wednesday on a federal indictment accusing him of detonating an explosive device outside the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, is charged with malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device. Charging documents against him say he also placed stickers on state buildings at the same time of the bombing depicting different graphics advocating for various political ideologies. Some included the phrase “Support your local antifa.” Antifa, short for Anti-Fascist, does not describe a particular group, but rather describes individuals who adhere to what they consider...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s husband Chasten Buttigieg said Friday on MSNBC “Deadline ” that Republicans were telling suicidal LGBTQ people to “pull the trigger.” Host Nicolle Wallace said, “I think that’s exactly right. I keep having Amanda Zurawski back, the woman in Texas who was pregnant and named her daughter Willow. She lost her pregnancy at 18 weeks and almost died of sepsis. It’s a story that is real. It’s a woman who very much wanted her pregnancy. It’s this inconvenient wrinkle for Republicans for extremist Republicans policies on abortion because it doesn’t fit into the mold. If you love...

If the Biden administration is trying to restore American parents’ confidence in the public school system, they sure have a funny way of showing it. Nowadays, one of the most significant causes of concern — and perhaps the deciding factor for most parents pulling their children out of public schools — has been the increasing woke indoctrination from the public school system, especially in regard to the ever-prominent LGBT agenda. And how is Biden’s Department of Education handling the increasing wariness of parents toward the public school system? By releasing on social media a video celebrating another made-up LGBT holiday,...

Wearing a black pantsuit and buzz-cut hairstyle, Fin introduced themselves by their new name before reading a bible verse to the congregation.

Former First Lady Melania Trump is helping the homosexual ‘conservative’ group Log Cabin Republicans kick off its ‘Road to Victory’ campaign at her and her husband’s Florida resort home on April 20. ... PALM BEACH, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — After an extended absence from public view, former First Lady Melania Trump is reportedly set to return to the campaign trail for her husband starting with a fundraiser for homosexual “conservative” group Log Cabin Republicans at her and husband Donald’s resort home of Mar-a-Lago. The news puts to rest unsubstantiated rumors that Mrs. Trump was distancing herself from the former president’s 2024...