Free Republic

Officials in the Tamalpais Union High School District must complete a series of steps to ensure nondiscrimination after a federal investigation determined they violated Title IX rules by inadequately responding to allegations of sex-based harassment in 2017 and 2018. A transgender student was harassed allegedly by another student. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced its decision Saturday, which included a five-page resolution agreement outlining the steps the district must take before federal officials will close the case. One of those steps includes providing up to $5,000 to reimburse the family of the transgender...

The rights of LGBTQ students would become enshrined in federal law and victims of campus sexual assault would gain new protections under new rules proposed by the Biden administration on Thursday. The proposal, announced on the 50th anniversary of the Title IX women’s rights law, is intended to replace a set of controversial rules issued during the Trump administration by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. For the first time, the rules would formally protect LGBTQ students under Title IX. Nothing in the 1972 law explicitly addresses the topic, but the new proposal would clarify that the law applies to discrimination based...

President Biden struggled to correctly use the latest politically correct acronym to refer to homosexual and transgender Americans during a “Pride” event at the White House. During his speech, Biden vowed to defend “LGBTQL” Americans before correcting himself. “I,” he added, correcting himself, “Excuse me – ‘plus’ Americans.” The president also misread the word “lesbian” as “liberation” when he was reading the title of an executive order he signed at the event. Biden’s executive order instructs the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to create new sample policies for states to enact in order to...

Multiple resignations at Bishop Barron's Word on Fire after allegations into staffer's personal lifeOrganization's former highest-paid employee was accused of sexual misconduct outside of workFrustrated by poor communication and a workplace culture they say has been warped by secrecy and hypermasculinity, at least a half-dozen Word on Fire employees in recent months have resigned from the Catholic outlet founded by Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron.Those who remain at the Illinois-based multimedia nonprofit are working in an environment that a few recently departed workers described to NCR as beset by low morale, damaged trust and a "boys' club" culture that...

U.K. health authorities have urged anyone who tests positive for the monkeypox virus to abstain from sex until their symptoms have cleared. In new guidance released Monday, the U.K. Health Security Agency also recommended that previously infected persons continue to use condoms for a period of eight weeks after the virus has passed, as a precautionary measure. The health agency said the risks to the general public remain low, but encouraged people to contact a health professional if they notice any unusual rashes or lesions. The advice comes after Britain recorded an additional 71 cases of the virus over the...

A jury on Friday found Hollywood architect and film academy member Jeffrey Cooper guilty of three counts of child molestation. The two-week criminal trial began May 9 at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys, four years after Cooper was arrested and a grand jury indicted him on eight counts involving two children. Cooper, a resident of Calabasas, pleaded not guilty. The jury convicted him on three felony charges of a lewd act on a child involving one of his accusers. Jurors, however, were unable to render a verdict on five counts against Cooper involving the other accuser. Judge...

Philadelphia's School District encouraged its staff to attend the largest free transgender wellness conference in the world, where extremely explicit content was shared in the name of breaking down barriers. The annual event was held online, organized by the Mazzoni Center, which under the leadership of Sultan Shakir works to improve health and wellbeing among the LGBTQ community in Philadelphia. The School District, led by Superintendent William Hite, emailed teachers and school staff on their mailing list in July 2021 to invite them to attend, describing it as an opportunity to 'learn more about the issues facing the trans community.'...

A federal judge is standing by a previous ruling that an Indiana transgender student must be allowed to use the boys restroom. Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, an Obama appointee, has denied a motion from the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville to put on hold a previous injunction forcing John R. Wooden Middle School to allow the transgender student to use the boys bathroom, WTHR-TV reported. Pratt ruled the district failed to show evidence that proved it would suffer "irreparable harm" if the student was allowed to use the boys restroom. "In addition, the School District has not presented any new...

Lori Lightfoot @LoriLightfoot To my friends in the LGBTQ+ community—the Supreme Court is coming for us next. This moment has to be a call to arms. 8:56 PM · May 9, 2022·

On Thursday, it was finally officially announced that Jen Psaki would be Joe Biden’s press secretary no longer. Following months of reporting that she had long since secured a deal to host an opinion program on MSNBC, a major ethics violation as she continued to operate within her official capacity, May 13th will now be her last day.Her replacement, Karine Jean-Pierre, has taken to the podium several times over Biden’s tenure, and you’ll be less than shocked to learn she’s just as dishonest as Psaki.But she’s following in her soon-to-be-former boss’ footsteps in more ways than one. Like Psaki, Jean-Pierre...

A Pennsylvania middle school is being blasted for conspiring to conceal a student's decision to identify as non-binary from their parents while launching an LGBTQ+ club for students to join. An email exchange between several teachers and a counselor at Charles F. Patton Middle School allegedly reveals that the school was attempting to hide the student's preferred pronouns 'they/them' from their parents, Fox News reported. In one of the emails obtained by Fox News Digital, the school counselor informs the teachers that when referring to the student, ''She' is fine too, but [the student] likes 'they/them' the best.' The counselor...

The clinician warned that parents had been 'sold a lie' that allowing their children to live at a young age as the opposite gender to their birth sex was not a psychological risk. She said the 'trans' lobby has convinced people not to worry about children 'socially transitioning' because it was reversible but, she argued, this is wrong as children whose gender change was affirmed by the adults around them commonly find themselves in an 'impossible situation' when they reach puberty.

After a draft Supreme Court opinion seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade, which has protected the constitutional right to abortion for nearly five decades, was leaked this week, activists said they began to worry that other landmark rulings – on which modern LGBTQ+ rights hinge – may be targeted next. Protections stemming from cases like Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated discriminatory sodomy laws, and Obergefell v. Hobbs, which legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S., will not immediately disappear with the overturning of Roe, but they may be weakened.

Forty-five percent of young LGBTQ people seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021, according to a survey published Wednesday by the LGBTQ mental health nonprofit the Trevor Project. It's the third consecutive year that rates of suicidal ideation have increased among LGBTQ youth, the organization said. "We must recognize that LGBTQ young people face stressors simply for being who they are that their peers never have to worry about," CEO and executive director of the Trevor Project Amit Paley said in a statement. For the nonprofit's fourth edition of its National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, researchers surveyed nearly 34,000...

An upcoming Apple TV special featuring the characters from the Peanuts comic strip will promote same-sex families in the latest example of children’s programming incorporating LGBT-related content. On Friday, Apple TV released a trailer for an upcoming Mother’s Day special titled “Snoopy Presents To Mom (and Dad), with Love.” The special, scheduled for release Friday, stars the characters from the Peanuts comic strip including Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, Woodstock and others. The trailer lists some tips on celebrating Mother’s Day, accompanied by video footage of Charlie Brown’s attempts to provide his mother breakfast and cake for the...

‘Outreach’ website hopes to inspire online L.G.B.T. community for CatholicsJames Martin, S.J., has been serving the marginalized ever since he joined the Society of Jesus. He has worked with street gangs, the sick and dying, refugees in East Africa and prison inmates and people experiencing homelessness.“So the L.G.B.T. work just sort of made sense,” Father Martin, editor at large for America, said in a recent interview. “One of the universal apostolic preferences of the Jesuits now is walking with the excluded…. Jesus went to the margins. That’s where this community is right now in the church. They’re the most marginalized...

Some German Catholics Insist Reform Discussions Include Gender Identity and PolyamoryAs regular Bondings 2.0 readers know well by now, German Catholics continue to lead on LGBTQ equality in the church. Today’s post features several updates from the country.#OutInChurch Panel Seeks Discussion Beyond HomosexualityPanelists in a Diocese of Limburg event were insistent that conversations about reform in the church include questions of gender identity and polyamorous relationships. Eric Tilch, a gay church worker, criticized public discourse around LGBTQ issues as focusing “too much on homosexual men” and monogamy. He commented, per the diocesan website’s report (via Google Translate):“‘I can only feel...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday ordering a central Indiana middle school to allow a transgender student to have access to the boys restroom. The order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt requires John R. Wooden Middle School to allow the seventh-grader identified only as A.C. to have access to the restroom while litigation continues. Pratt cited Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. “The overwhelming majority of federal courts — including the...

Teaching has been my passion for the past 12 years. I am proud to call myself an educator. For the first two years, I taught first grade. It prepared me to effectively teach kindergarten while also focusing on kids’ social and emotional development. I have enjoyed working in Florida schools over the past six years, as has my partner, Jeramiah, who is also an educator. However, recently there has been a major cause for concern. I have been stricken with fear over how Florida’s new law limiting discussions of LGBTQ+ discussions in school will affect me as a person and...

[Catholic Caucus] Catholic Priests Criticize New Code of Conduct in Swiss Diocese as ‘Attempt to Implant LGBT Ideology’CHUR, Switzerland — A group of priests in the Swiss diocese of Chur has raised concerns over a new code of conduct for the prevention of assault, claiming that it violates “the doctrine and discipline of the Catholic Church” in several instances. The clerics described the diocesan code as an attempt to “implant LGBT ideology in the Church under the guise of assault prevention, thereby undermining the Church’s doctrine of faith,” reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.Bishop Joseph Bonnemain of Chur signed...