Free Republic

Earlier this month, the U.K.’s National Health Service released the Cass Review, a report that urged Great Britain to pump the breaks on the experimental, sterilizing treatments marketed as “gender affirming care.” By contrast, earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education issued its new Title IX regulations, which require public schools to facilitate a school-to-sterilization pipeline. According to the Biden administration, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act now requires schools to treat students who suffer, or claim to suffer, from gender dysphoria as though they were the opposite sex. As the Cass Review argues, this is essentially a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal’s (AFL) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unearthed new documents regarding a radical presentation and plan distributed internally by Assistant Secretary of Health “Rachel” Levine on “Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation.” These records reveal that the Biden Administration is trying to radically change governmental data and statistics on sex in the name of “gender identity.” AFL obtained these documents through litigation against HHS to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for Assistant Secretary Levine’s communications regarding pediatric “transgender clinics,” otherwise known as the genital...

The Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations issued last week avoided using the word “transgender,” but the rules, which go into effect on August 1, are already being interpreted as protecting transgenderism, especially in the use of specialized pronouns when transgender and LGBTQ students demand their use. Throughout the document, the term “gender identity” is used to describe certain actions that the new rules will force all public schools — not just colleges, but all publicly funded schools — to obey or risk being sued and/or losing federal funding. The new rules announced last week define sex discrimination as discrimination...

Parents aren't just fighting to uncover the influence of gender ideology activists in their children's public schools, but their influence with federal policymakers who stand to upend 50 years of policy on sex discrimination in schools by redefining it to include gender identity. The Biden administration has neither turned over its communications with activists related to the development of its proposed Title IX regulations in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, nor given any meaningful update in more than a year and a half, a new FOIA lawsuit alleges. Parents Defending Education said it asked the Department of...

A recently-introduced bill in the state of Illinois would change the definition of “abused child” to include minors whose parents object to their children receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, transgender surgeries, and abortions. House Bill 4876, which was introduced in early February, also shields doctors from liability if they prescribe such treatments to minors who do not have parental consent — and empowers the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to step in and, if they deem it necessary, remove children from their biological parents based on the new definition of an “abused child.” According to the legislation,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) under President Joe Biden has submitted to the U.S. Office of Management & Budget (OMB) its finalized Title IX rule forcing widespread recognition of LGBT “identities” on the American education system in potentially its biggest gift yet to radical gender-fluidity activists. The proposed rule, “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance,” is meant to advance the administration’s priorities on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation” and “Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the...

For context, social workers removed a child from the home of his parents, and tried to find a state willing to perform sex changes. NBC reported that "Republican Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte told The National Desk (TND) Monday state officials acted within their legal limitations by removing a child from parents who objected to their transitioning gender identity." From NBC's coverage, Gianforte said, "“Upon hearing recent allegations related to a child welfare case, I asked Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras – an experienced attorney, constitutional conservative, mother, and grandmother – to review it," Gov. Gianforte said. "Consulting with the director of...

America's leading pediatricians have sparked controversy after suggesting that it is child abuse to deny gender-affirming care to minors. The influential American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said that ‘withholding [gender-affirming care] is harmful to children and amounts to state-sanctioned medical neglect and emotional abuse.’

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said on Friday that he does not "respect" people who are "misbehaving in public and acting like they know what’s right for kids." Cardona gave a video interview with the Associated Press discussing the state of education in the U.S., including the recent Supreme Court decisions on race-based admissions and President Biden’s attempt to relieve student debt. Cardona was also prompted to address his past comments saying that public education was "under attack." "I wonder whether this is something other education secretaries have had to grapple with," AP reporter Collin Binkley asked Cardona. "I [sic]...

A sitting member of the Minnesota House of Representatives published a self-help book for Christian teens who are questioning their sexuality. Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, a first-term legislator who is transgender and identifies as a woman, released a book in 2020 entitled, “Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens.” “Queerfully and Wonderfully Made” contains almost no references to prayer and encourages teens to “limit contact” with adults who do not affirm their choices, including parents. “Please, if your parents are unsupportive, remember this: You are a separate human person from your parents (crazy, right?!). They don’t...

Parents in a Colorado school district expressed outrage after a report said the local teachers union sent out an email to its members instructing them to get rid of evidence of students' transgender information, according to a CBS report. The Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA) email explained to teachers that if they surveyed students on their gender identities, that information should not be stored in records, in a CBS report headlined, "Controversy erupts in Jefferson County after the teachers union tells educators to destroy evidence of student surveys regarding gender identity." The email said, "if you do a questionnaire, please...

A Maryland district court denied parents’ appeal to reinstate an opt-out policy in Montgomery County Public Schools on Thursday. The case, Tamer Mahmoud v. Monica B. McKnight, hinged on whether the district’s May decision to rescind its opt-out policy for LGBT curricula violated parents’ right to direct the religious instruction of their children. The court concluded that, “the plaintiffs’ asserted due process right to direct their children’s upbringing by opting out of a public-school curriculum that conflicts with their religious views is not a fundamental right.” Parents sought a preliminary injunction that would authorize opt-out options once school begins on...

California lawmakers are considering legislation that critics warn could criminalize parents’ speaking out at school-board meetings or otherwise criticizing school officials. Passed by the California Senate in May and now under consideration in the Assembly, SB 596 would amend state law to classify causing “substantial disorder” at a school-board meeting or engaging in “harassment” of a school employee as a misdemeanor punishable by fines and imprisonment. It would also broaden the definition of “school employee” to include “any employee or official of a school district, a charter school, a county office of education, a county board of education, the state...

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed two bills banning “conversion therapy” for minors who identify as homosexual or transgender, turning healthcare providers and parents who do not accept their children were “born in the wrong body” into criminals. Media coverage of the bills focuses on therapy “intended to change a person’s sexual orientation” but alsos ban therapy aimed at persuading girls they are girls and boys they are boys, rather than “transgender”. House Bill 4617 defines conversion therapy as “any practice or treatment by a mental health professional that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including,...

The Constitution does not require public schools to notify parents when their children adopt a gender identity at odds with their sex or receive parental consent "before using alternative names and pronouns" for their children, according to a federal court in California. U.S. District Judge John Mendez said he was observing judicial restraint by dismissing Aurora Regino's lawsuit alleging Chico Unified School District actively hide from Regino her fifth-grade daughter's stated identification as a boy. The district said it was bound by state law that gives students the sole choice to disclose. California may soon pose a new threat to...

Despite two circuit courts ruling against HHS regulations seeking to compel genital mutilation surgeries by health care providers, HHS secretary Xavier Becerra threatens to find ways around the judicial restraints. Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra threatens states and organizations that don't provide sex reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers for minors: "If you want that Medicaid dollar to come to your state, we're going to make sure you check the box." pic.twitter.com/YtwZXBEBfM — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 26, 2023Is there any other life-altering, irreversible change that the federal government wants children to be able to decide on by themselves?Is there any...

My home state of California is Bizzarroland, totally over the edge. It was bad enough, but now it has crossed the Rubicon and blown up the bridge and burned the boats. The Golden State is set to take away parental rights and create a police state where a court and judge must (not may) affirm a child’s chosen made-up gender “identity.” But that same California requires permission for a minor to get a tattoo. Make sense of it. I can’t. Soon in California, if the Democrat super-majority gets its way, confused children can be taken from a parent(s) and chemically...

On Sunday, left-wing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a bill to protect minors’ access to experimental, irreversible transgender surgeries and hormone treatments. The new measure will prohibit state courts from enforcing laws of other states that may authorize a child to be taken from their parents for providing transgender surgeries and treatments. In addition, it will not not allow state courts to consider gender transition care for children as child abuse. The bill also prohibits state and local authorities from cooperating with out-of-state agencies regarding “gender-affirming” care in New York, according to a report from NBC News. Hochul...

A couple of years back, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus decided to stick it right back in the faces of all the parents who were claiming the LGBTQ community was coming for their children — by performing a song called, "We're Coming for Your Children." But not to groom them … rather, to teach them tolerance and acceptance. And how to hook up with adults on Grindr. And the word for when you're having both your testicles sucked by two people at the same time. Here's a link to the video if you can stomach it. On Friday, some...

Ellison told the Minneapolis-based retail titan to “stand firm in the face” of violence, intimidation and discrimination against its LGBTQAI+ customers, despite not citing any examples. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has co-authored a letter to the CEO of Target that suggests he would use the powers of his office to ensure that Target is not intimidated into “pulling some Pride merchandise from stores.” In a June 20 letter Ellison and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell wrote to Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO the Minneapolis-based retail titan, they expressed concern over Target’s “choice to pull Pride merchandise,” which Ellison...