Free Republic

The year 2020 was tough for everyone, children and adults alike. Most school-age kids were forced to attend school virtually, at least for part of the year. This, combined with lockdowns, caused screen time use to surge. More than usual, parents may fear kids aren’t learning well or are being exposed to things they aren’t yet mature enough to handle. On this, their intuition may be correct: 2020 saw an increase in LGBTQ-friendly marketing targeted at kids.

A writer for The Guardian newspaper has labelled Christian teaching on forgiveness and redemption as “insidious” and “a dog-whistle for conversion therapy”. Fred McConnell, a woman who lives as a man, referenced the Ashers ‘gay cake’ case among concerns over a local church’s stance on LGBT issues. The comments came as LGBT activist and General Synod member Jayne Ozanne launched a multi-faith campaign attacking biblical sexual ethics. Biblical teaching McConnell, who failed in a bid to be listed as ‘father’ on her child’s birth certificate last year, looked into the church’s beliefs after “hearing a rumour about a sermon being...

England’s High Court has struck a rare victory for free speech, overturning the conviction of a Twitter user who called a transgender person a man and ruling that people have a right to offend others online. Mother of two Kate Scottow had been convicted under a section of the Communications Act which makes “persistently making use of a public electronic communications network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another” a crime following an argument with lawyer and trans activist Stephanie Hayden, who is legally a woman according to a gender certificate obtained in 2017. District judge Margaret Dodds...

The stubborn fact that male and female each have an objective nature will ultimately be the end of contemporary gender theory, and it looks like the lesbians are the canary in that coal mine.“[L]esbian as a category” is vanishing, warns lesbian journalist Katie Herzog over at Andrew Sullivan’s Weekly Dish. She laments that being an out and proud lesbian is no longer cool and notes how women who like women are increasingly “coming out as nonbinary or as men” instead.Herzog noted this just days before “Juno” and “The Umbrella Academy” star Ellen Page announced on December 1 that she is...

Holiday movies are a time-honored tradition, and this season could signal that queer couples are finally getting a seat at the table. Hulu and the Hallmark Channel have both released holiday films that feature LGBTQ couples in the main storyline. And there are at least seven new movies this month that have some sort of representation as well. "Compared to previous years, and the amount of LGBTQ-inclusive films that are out, it's like night and day," GLAAD's CEO and president, Sarah Kate Ellis told CNN. "We've really gone from zero to 100." "Hollywood understands that the business model works, and...

The woke “capitalists” at the Nasdaq stock exchange are pushing to force its listed companies to adopt leftist identity politics. And the liberal media is salivating all over it. Nasdaq recently filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pushing for mandatory racial and sexual diversity rules for its listed companies’ boards of directors. The new rules, if adopted, “would require all companies listed on Nasdaq’s U.S. exchange to publicly disclose consistent, transparent diversity statistics regarding their board of directors,” according to Nasdaq. Additionally, the rules would require the companies to “have, or explain why they do...

The Church of England announced that it is going to begin a formal “discernment and decision-making” process "about a way forward for the church" in regards to its teachings on sex, sexuality and marriage. Church leaders are aiming to come to a conclusion on the long-debated issues by 2022. The announcement came with the launch of the "Living in Love and Faith" resources, which more than 40 people, led by the Bishop of Coventry Christopher Cocksworth, worked on for three years to help people participate in honest discussions, listen to life stories and understand each other’s views. Part of the...

Norway's parliament outlawed hate speech against transgender and bisexual people on Tuesday, expanding its penal code which has protected gay and lesbian people since 1981. People found guilty of hate speech face a fine or up to a year in jail for private remarks, and maximum of three years in jail for public comments, according to the penal code. "I'm very relieved actually, because (the lack of legal protection) has been an eyesore for trans people for many, many years," said Birna Rorslett, vice president of the Association of Transgender People in Norway. Norway is one of the most liberal...

Vatican’s ‘McCarrick report’ details ex-cardinal’s intimate friendship with Joe Biden, Obama One letter in particular details the great intimacy of the relationship between McCarrick and Biden UNITED STATES, November 11, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – The Vatican’s newly released McCarrick report, offering details about ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexual abuse, rise to power, and high-ranking cover-up of the matter, contains letters which evidence the close relationship between McCarrick and then Vice-President Joe Biden as well as President Obama. In 2006 Cardinal Re, then Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops, had asked Nuncio Sambi to convey to McCarrick that he was to lead a...

What’s the first thing you do when meeting someone new? Exchange pronouns, of course, to make sure you refer to each other accurately. But what if you didn’t have to do that? Meet Earl Thornton. He has this amazing ability to guess people’s pronouns instantly -- just by looking at them. And he’s almost never wrong. “I don’t know, it just feels like I’ve always been able to do this,” said Thornton, who is very humble about his nearly supernatural ability. “I just look at somebody, and then before I can even think, I have their pronouns in my head.”

On July 1, the state of Virginia enacted the “Virginia Values Act,” which bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. A companion law requires employers to include coverage for sex reassignment and “gender affirming” surgeries in their health plans. According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, who has filed a pre-enforcement challenge, the Virginia Values Act requires “churches, religious schools, and Christian ministries to hire employees who do not share their stated beliefs on marriage, sexuality, and gender identity.”Though the Act provides an exemption for religious schools “owned, supported, controlled, or managed” by denominations or churches, that...

Three Christian schools and a Christian network of pregnancy centers are suing Attorney General Mark Herring (D-Va.) in order to prevent Virginia from implementing two pro-LGBT laws that force “people of faith to adopt a particular government ideology under threat of punishment.” The two laws purport to prevent “discrimination” against LGBT people but, in reality, they force Christian ministries to choose between violating their sincerely held religious beliefs or paying hefty fines, as much as $100,000 per offense. The so-called Virginia Values Act (S.B. 868), which Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) signed on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday) in...

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOE BIDEN’S FOUNDATION LAUNCHED A PRO-LGBTQ CAMPAIGN WHICH PROMOTED THE STORIES OF AN 18-MONTH-OLD “GENDER NONCONFORMING” CHILD AND OTHER TRANSGENDER KIDS. The 2018 initiative, called the “As You Are” campaign, centered on a map tracking LGBTQ “acceptance stories” across the country. It was spearheaded by Biden’s eponymous foundation, which has been described as “further[ing] the work the Bidens did over eight years in the Obama administration and cement[ing] the former vice president’s more than four decade legacy in public life.” Of the nearly 500 individuals highlighted, many were children under the age of 18, with one account...

The Boystown banners are coming down. Business leaders in Chicago’s largest LGBTQ neighborhood announced Wednesday that they would stop marketing the area as Boystown, following complaints that the 30-year-old name excludes women and gender nonbinary people.

by Jacob Harding A campaign surrogate of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is under federal  investigation for soliciting sex with minor boys. Federal agents raided the Illinois home of Jerry Harris, who gained notoriety due to his role in the Netflix documentary Cheer, Monday afternoon as part of a probe into messages sent to minors asking for explicit photos and to meet for sex. The solicitations were flagged for authorities by the 21-year-old's employer. The Biden campaign had been using Harris, who has over a million followers on Instagram, as part of Biden's push to sway young voters and "win...

A survey of around 1,200 queer male Americans found that around 45 per cent – around 540 – plan to vote for Trump. Oh, no. As much as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has netted an, albeit, slim majority of the queer male vote, securing 51 per cent, it signalled to pollsters how the president’s brand of bullish showmanship has roiled the political landscape. ndeed, the LGBT+ voting bloc has long been reliably Democratic. The poll conducted by queer dating app Hornet found that, overall among its users, around 66 per cent prefer Biden while 34 per cent support Trump....

LGBTQ rights advocates are pushing back against the Texas Board of Education's recent rejection of a proposed curriculum to teach middle school and high school students about gender identity and sexual orientation. The Republican-dominated board rejected a batch of proposed curriculum changes last week, striking down mandates to require students to learn about the differences between gender identity and sexual orientation as well as a proposal to teach middle schoolers about consent. The board is expected to take a final vote on any changes in the sexual education curriculum in November. Some proponents of the changes called the rejection "especially...

The final frontier is continuing to bring audiences inclusive characters played by members of underrepresented communities in Hollywood. The third season of CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery will introduce the first non-binary and transgender characters in Gene Roddenberry’s iconic franchise that celebrates diversity via a sci-fi lens. Blu del Barrio will make their screen acting debut as the non-binary character Adira, who is highly intelligent with a confidence and self-assurance well beyond their years. They will find a new home on the USS Discovery and form an unexpected bond with Lt. Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh...

Meet the privileged, university credentialed white chick who thinks rioting and looting in the name of ‘social justice’ is cool and should be advocated because, well, white privilege. “A fresh argument for rioting and looting as our most powerful tools for dismantling white supremacy” Recently NPR gave Ms. Vicky a platform for promoting zer post-communist platform: Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police. It gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected. And also it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine...

San Francisco state Senator Scott Wiener has introduced a new bill to decriminalize adult men having sex with boys and he and his allies in the media are smearing all opposition as "homophobic" and "anti-Semitic." From The Federalist, "No California Shouldn't Decriminalize Adult Sex With 14-Year-Olds": LGBT activists have pushed reasonable notions of equality to its limits with obscene perversions. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco -- the same lawmaker who co-sponsored a bill in 2017 to remove the felony penalty for knowingly exposing another person to HIV -- has introduced a bill, Senate Bill 145 to give judges more...