Free Republic

A Kennebunk, Maine, town official has stepped down from her liaison role with the local school board after facing backlash for suggesting that critics of a transgender athlete policy have "pedophilic tendencies." Vice Chair Leslie Trentalange, who serves on the Kennebunk Select Board, made the comments during an Oct. 20 Regional School Unit (RSU) 21 meeting that focused on the district’s transgender-student athlete policy. The policy, consistent with state law, allows students to join sports teams and use facilities matching their gender identity. Parents and community members across Maine have protested similar policies, arguing they violate Title IX protections Trentalange,...

A former Navy pilot, first elected to Congress in 2018, will be New Jersey's next governor. Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill defeated former Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, according to a race call by The Associated Press, capping a closely-watched gubernatorial election that some polls predicted would be a coin flip. Sherrill's victory marks the first time since the 1960s that New Jersey voters have elected a governor from the same party three terms in a row. Her victory is also the second major win for Democrats on Tuesday, following Abigail Spanberger's win for Virginia governor. The race was also one of...

In the wake of the horrific mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, where two young children were gunned down and 17 others wounded during a school Mass, CNN anchor Jake Tapper has sparked outrage by focusing on the “correct” pronouns for the deranged transgender shooter. The depraved male shooter was born Robert Paul Westman but legally changed his name to Robin M. Westman in 2020 and began identifying as “female.” On Wednesday, he opened fire from outside the church windows, targeting helpless children and parishioners inside. Westman, 23, later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities recovered a...

A potential 2028 Democratic presidential nominee has joined a lawsuit that would block President Trump from placing a ban on sex change surgeries for minors. He then took it even farther and criticized his state's Senate bill that would ban biological men from competing in women's sports. The Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, in a statement to Fox News Digital, said: I am suing the Trump administration alongside 16 other states for threatening baseless civil investigations and criminal prosecutions against healthcare providers in Pennsylvania and trying to take medical decisions away from parents and local communities. The freedom to make...

Trump administration restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary youth violate the Constitution and undermine state laws that require equal access to medical treatment, according to a lawsuit filed today by Attorney General Rob Bonta and 14 other states and the District of Columbia. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, targets a January executive order that makes it U.S. policy not to “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender transition for people under 19. The order threatens to pull federal funding from medical institutions that provide this type of care.

A Colorado family has fled the US for New Zealand over concerns their nine-year-old transgender daughter could be persecuted if they stay in America. Parents Brandon and Candace, who would not reveal their last name over safety fears, left Denver earlier this month with their kids Holt and Chase.Chase, nine, came out as transgender several years ago and the family started planning a way out after President Donald Trump returned to the White House. The day he did, Trump signed an executive order stipulating that there are only two genders, the family said that within 24 hours they had decided...

The Republican’s transphobic policies are sparking panic among LGBTQ+ people, triggering a 10-fold increase in asylum applications so far this year. “In the first 24 hours after Trump’s re-election, we received 1,177 requests for assistance from the United States. Fifty-one percent of these requests were from trans people: 35% from trans women, 16% from trans men,” says Timothy Chan, spokesperson for Rainbow Railroad, an NGO with offices in Canada and the U.S. that helps LGBTQ+ people experiencing persecution and violence start a life in another country. Panicked by a government that threatens their civil rights, many LGBTQ+ Americans, especially trans...

In 1984, you could be tortured in Room 101 for believing that 2 + 2 = 4. Likewise, in Colorado you can be set upon by law enforcement for calling someone by the name their parents gave them or even for referring to them with factually correct pronouns. Leftist Governor Jared Polis has signed into law House Bill 1312: The law expands the state’s antidiscrimination laws, which apply to settings like workplaces and schools, to include provisions related to using a person’s chosen name and referring to them how they wish. “Antidiscrimination” is the Liberalese euphemism for government-imposed discrimination benefiting...

A school board in Colorado cannot remove sexually explicit, profane, and “transgender” books from school libraries because the school board is conservative, according to a federal judge touted as the first openly lesbian judge west of the Mississippi. The ACLU’s Colorado chapter filed a suit on behalf of two minors, the NAACP Wyoming State Area Conference, and the Authors Guild, claiming that the school district engaged in viewpoint discrimination when removing the books. The judge granted a preliminary injunction in March, forcing the Elizabeth School District (in Elizabeth, a suburb southeast of Denver) to restore the books. Judge Charlotte Sweeney...

Sacramento-area Assemblymember Maggy Krell forced Assembly lawmakers to consider her sex-trafficking bill on the floor last week. It blew up into the biggest controversy Sacramento has seen in a while. Assembly Democrats confronted a floor maneuver to force a vote on Krell’s bill to treat all solicitations of Californians under age 18 the same, as a way to battle sex trafficking. Democrats amended the bill over Krell’s objections.

During a portion of an interview with Portland, Maine ABC affiliate Channel 8 WMTW released on Thursday, Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) said that the opposition to allowing biological men to play women’s sports “is driven, in large part, by a lot of lack of information or misinformation.” Frey stated, “I think some of the public sentiment is being driven by a lot of half-truths or untruths, right? There have been transgender athletes — student athletes in Maine for years, for years and years and years. Safety, privacy have always been a consideration, not just for transgender students, by the...

This happened last weekend at the University of Maryland. A female fencer named Stephanie Turner chose not to compete against a trans woman named Redmond Sullivan at an event called the Cherry Blossom Open. As the match began, Turner took a knee and removed her mask. For this she was given a "black card" and ejected from the competition. Here's the video. 🤺🚨Historic Protest: Female Fencer Takes a Knee in Bout Against Male Opponent, Faces Immediate DisqualificationAfter receiving a black card for refusing to compete against a man, Redmond Sullivan's female opponent was expelled from the @USAFencing event at the...

Women’s fencer Stephanie Turner refused a match against a transgender opponent at the Cherry Blossom Open in Maryland this past weekend, opting to take a knee instead. When Turner learned that she would be facing off against transgender fencer Redmond Sullivan, she wanted her protest to be caught on video and decided to take a knee just before the match began. She had already participated in warmups and competed in four bouts that day. Take a look: Woman immediately disqualified and expelled from a @USAFencing event after refusing to face a male opponent.This type of protest needs to be mirrored...

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said agents detained Ozturk because she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” “Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student who was granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of [[Hamas]], a foreign [[terrorism|terrorist]] organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” the statement read. “A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”... However, Ozturk was already...

Nearly a week after verbal stumbles in the only vice presidential debate, Democrat Tim Walz used his debut campaign appearance on a Sunday news show to try to fend off criticism of his stand on abortion rights and “own up” to past misstatements.The interview on “Fox News Sunday” reflected a broader media blitz by presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate as the Democrats seek to garner public attention in the final 30 days of the campaign against Republicans Donald Trump and JD Vance.Harris has taped an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that will air Monday night. She is...

On Thursday, a federal court ruled that parents in Maryland do not have a right to opt their children out of classes which teach pro-LGBT curriculum. According to the Washington Free Beacon, the group of parents had filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), demanding that the district revive a policy that allowed them to pull their children out of classes that discussed books and other materials featuring LGBT characters. The policy was first enacted in January but then repealed in March. “The Court concludes the plaintiffs’ asserted due process right to direct their children’s upbringing by opting...

Carlos Santana delivered a speech laced with anti-transgender remarks during a recent performance in Atlantic City, New Jersey, telling the audience, “A woman is a woman, and a man is a man.”

The coordinated attack on trans rights in state legislatures across the US is built on a foundation of hateful paranoia and right-wing lies. But however unpopular anti-trans bills are, the human costs are real: thousands are migrating from anti-trans states.

A district judge appointed by Joe Biden has ruled that parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, have no right to opt their children out of the school’s woke LGBTQ curriculum. United States District Judge Deborah L. Boardman ruled against the Muslim-led group of parents who did not want their children exposed to far-left propaganda about sex and gender. The parents sought an injunction before the first day of school on August 28 after the district changed its policies in March to no longer allow parents to opt their children out of being assigned books that advocate pride parades, gender transitioning, and...

I’ve just experienced another attack on social media. The harassment on X, as Twitter now calls itself, usually lasts around 36 hours, and while most of the nasties are trolls and bots, I can’t pretend that the hundreds of comments don’t have an effect. I’m a priest, progressive, outspoken. No point in complaining. But a disturbing new aspect of these bombardments are the repeated and constant false accusations of pedophilia – not a libellous dribble, but a flood. It’s not really about me of course, and I’m in good company. Last month in Belleville, Ont., when Justin Trudeau was swarmed...