Free Republic

A public school district in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, has spent more than $134,000 in legal fees to obtain a permit to install only gender-neutral bathrooms in six of its new facilities, in violation of state code. In the fall of 2017, the Upper Arlington School District successfully passed a $230 million tax to rebuild five elementary schools and Upper Arlington High School. Construction on the high school and four of the elementary schools began in 2019.

An Upper Arlington-based church that was one of the 10 largest in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) officially has left the denomination after disagreements over homosexuality. Most members of the 5,800-member Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, which has three campuses, were troubled by what they viewed as the liberal drift of the ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. On Oct. 31, members voted 558-28 to leave the ELCA. It was a second vote, as required; the first vote passed in June. The ELCA angered some conservatives last year when it voted to allow people in same-sex relationships...

Upper Arlington Lutheran Church voted Sunday to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). A second vote is required before the departure is considered final. Upper Arlington Lutheran, which has three campuses, is among the Lutheran churches that might leave the denomination because of its increasingly liberal stance on homosexuality. The first vote was 538 to leave the ELCA and 48 to stay, an assistant to the Rev. Paul Ulring said. The next vote must be at least 90 days later and probably will be held this fall. Before then, Bishop Callon W. Holloway Jr., leader of the Southern...