Free Republic

The alarmists were right. Ten years after the Obergefell decision enacting same-sex marriage nationwide, its opponents — smeared then and now as cranks and bigots — have been vindicated. Same-sex marriage was sold to the public through a campaign of lies, and the lies are hurting people. It is therefore no wonder that support for same-sex marriage seems to have peaked, and may even be starting to decline, especially on the right. Of course, GOP leaders, whether from MAGA or the old establishment, have no stomach for the fight. They just want the issue to go away. They and the...

A group of Minnesota high school softball players is suing Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL), alleging that the state’s transgender athlete policy violates federal law and harms female athletes. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a national legal organization, filed the federal lawsuit Monday on behalf of Female Athletes United (FAU), a group of Minnesota girls who say they have been forced to compete against a biologically male athlete in high school softball. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, claims the state’s current policy allowing males to compete in...

PORTLAND (WGME) -- The Supreme Court has ordered the Maine House to restore the vote of censured Representative Laurel Libby (R-Auburn). Libby was censured by the Maine Legislature after she posted the name and image of a transgender minor online. As part of the censure, she could not speak or vote on the House floor until she apologized, which she refused to do. In her lawsuit before the Supreme Court, Libby didn't contest the censure but the punishment, saying it violated her First Amendment rights and those of her constituents. Maine’s attorney general filed new paperwork both in district court...

A federal judge has ruled against censured Maine State Rep Laurel Libby, siding with State House Speaker Ryan Fecteau. Libby filed a federal lawsuit after she was censored in the House chamber over a social media post that depicted a high school trans-identified male winning the state championship, despite President Donald Trump’s order banning trans-identified males competing in women’s sports. District Judge Melissa R. DuBose wrote in her ruling, "After carefully considering the case law, the details presented by the parties about the House governing rules, and the process by which the House adopted the Resolution and imposed the censure...

The Illinois school district that faced national scrutiny for allegations of forcing middle school girls to change in the same locker room as a transgender student has been referred to the Department of Justice. The law firm America First Legal (AFL) made the criminal referral of the district Deerfield Public Schools 109 to the DOJ on Tuesday, urging the department to investigate the district and middle school where the allegations occurred for potential violations of federal and state law. AFL alleged the district violated Code § 241, also known as the "Conspiracy against rights" statute, which makes it a federal...

Readers of The Sacramento Bee's coverage of a rally for legislation pitched as protecting girls, women and parental rights at the California statehouse Friday would have no idea someone shot at the house of the volleyball coach who helped inspire the bills and spoke at the rally, or even that San Jose State University fired her for exposing a male on her women's team. The Capitol newspaper's omission of the shot fired through Melissa Batie-Smoose's window Monday while she was at home in a virtual meeting with a lawyer, confirmed by local police Thursday, and her unwilling departure from SJSU...

Several women who were former college athletes filed a lawsuit Tuesday after being forced to compete against a man and share changing rooms and bathrooms with him in 2022. Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski all competed on the University of Pennsylvania’s (UPenn) swim team when transgender-identifying male athlete Lia Thomas was allowed to join the team and use the women’s facilities. The women are suing UPenn as well as Harvard University, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Ivy League Council of Presidents for allegedly violating Title IX by discriminating against women and causing them “emotional harm,”...

A Texas high school official resigned over the controversy surrounding an undercover video showing him telling a parent how to place a biological boy in girls' sports. Reny Lizardo resigned as executive director of campus operations for the Irving Independent School District after the hidden-camera video led Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to call for his immediate termination. The video was obtained and published by Accuracy in Media. The video shows an alleged parent expressing concern to Lizardo about "transphobia" and "bigotry" her transgender daughter might experience if the family moves to the area of the district. "Could you legally...

The murder of a US Border Patrol agent near the Canadian border appears to be linked to a radical leftist trans militant cult accused of killings across the country. Around a week before the Jan. 20 attack, federal law enforcement had been surveilling German national Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt and University of Washington student Teresa “Milo” Consuelo Youngblut. Staff at a Lyndonville, Vermont motel alerted authorities about seeing the duo with a firearm and black tactical clothing. When law enforcement visited them, the pair claimed to be looking at property in the area and promptly checked out of the motel on...

The owner of a well-known Orlando LGBTQIA+ nightclub and another man rumored to be a school teacher are facing serious federal charges involving minors. Federal court documents have painted a disturbing picture, raising significant questions and sparking widespread community concern. Allegations Against Southern Nights Owner Richard Kowalski, owner of Southern Nights, an LGBTQ+ nightclub located on Bumby Avenue in Orlando, has been indicted by a federal grand jury. Alongside him, Eric Patrick has been named in the same indictment. The charges stem from alleged criminal activities occurring between July 1, 2020, and February 10, 2021. The pair faces multiple serious...

Huge win for girls and women everywhere!!! This morning, a federal court ruled in favor of reality. Biden's Title IX rewrite has been vacated nationwide.

Taylor Starling, a high school cross-country runner at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, lost her spot on the varsity team earlier this season to a transgender transfer student. Multiple parents of students at Martin Luther King have told Fox News Digital that the school has allowed the trans athlete to compete on the varsity cross-country team despite missing practices for academic reasons. These parents include Starling's father, longtime firefighter Ryan Starling, and construction subcontractor Dan Slavin, father to Kaitlyn, another runner on the team. "The fact that the male athlete was able to compete while attending less...

The University of Minnesota tried to pay children as part of a program to push “transgender dolls” on them. It is not certain if any children actually participated in the program, according to the Daily Wire, which covered the incident on Tuesday. The initiative, which was organized by the school’s National Center for Gender Spectrum Health (NCGSH), was announced on Feb. 27 on Instagram. “We are looking to hear from transgender and gender diverse children between the ages of 5 and 10 years old and their parents about a new hands-on activity to help talk about gender and bodies! Compensation...

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a high-profile case involving the right of transgender minors to receive gender transition care, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, in one of the most closely watched, potentially impactful cases slated to come before the high court this year. The case, United States v. Skrmetti, centers on a Tennessee law that bans gender-transition treatments for adolescents in the state. The law also takes aim at health care providers in Tennessee who continue to provide gender-transition treatments to transgender minors, opening them up to fines, lawsuits and other liability. The petitioners in...

Pennsylvania police arrested a trans-identified male suspect on terrorism charges after allegedly threatened to kill former President Donald J. Trump at his Penn State University rally on Saturday, the Lexington Herald Leader reported. Paul J. Gavenonis, 74, of Spring Township, a registered Democrat who uses she/her pronouns, has been charged with misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct. Gavenonis was taken into custody on Friday and booked into the Centre County Correctional Facility. Gavenonis is being held without bail. According to police charging documents, Gavenonis was apprehended while trying to obtain a parking pass at Penn State University on...

Much of the scrutiny on so-called gender affirming care in the U.S. was made possible by the American medical establishment's own public recordings of practitioners candidly discussing the gruesome and lucrative nature of surgeries, hormone therapy and the lifelong medical management they require, and how to overcome parental opposition to child transitions. Perhaps the most oft-cited authority promoting puberty blockers, which the Food and Drug Administration has known increase suicidality since 2017, belatedly ensured a vocal critic of the organization couldn't get further ammunition to stir up trouble at its annual conference last week in Orlando, where the featured speaker...

Students in a Southern California school district could be forced to choose between rooming with a transgender-identifying student or missing out on an overnight school field trip. If parents complain about their child rooming with a transgender-identifying student of the opposite biological sex, staff in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District listen to the parents’ concerns, then say that the child’s rooming assignment isn’t the parents’ choice, according to emails from 2021 and 2022 obtained by the Center for American Liberty and shared with The Daily Signal. The only option for students who are uncomfortable staying in a room with transgender...

The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday to uphold a Lone Star State law that effectively bans gender experimentation on children.In an 8-1 decision published on Friday, the highest court in the state confirmed the legislature’s May 2023 law prohibiting health care professionals from castrating and mutilating minors does not violate the state constitution, as a trial court had previously concluded.In fact, Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle, joined by Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, Justice Jeff Boyd, Justice John Phillip Devine, Justice Jimmy Blacklock, Justice Brett Busby, Justice Jane Bland, and Justice Evan Young, affirmed in her majority opinion that the state...

Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy unveiled the Nashville Covenant School mass shooter's personal writings earlier this month, but no mainstream news outlets appear to have reported about the revelations, and only one has reported on the subsequent legal battle that Leahy faces for uncovering the documents. Additionally, while journalists' rights organizations traditionally would have provided counsel to a reporter like Leahy in court, few are willing to comment on the case, and Leahy is being represented by America First Legal and Daniel Horwitz, a Nashville-based attorney who focuses on the First Amendment. Outlets such as Fox News, CNN, The...

A retired Nashville-area police officer alleges that a psychologist who treated [the] shoot[er] in the 2023 Covenant School massacre referred her to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center psychiatric department before the killings. The claim was made by Tuesday by retired Metro Nashville Police Department Lt. Garet Davidson. He said that shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, who took her own life on the day of the killings, was referred to the medical center for treatment after she had fantasies about violence, according to a report from the Tennessee Star.