Free Republic

The Association of American Universities on Monday released the overall results of a survey that asked students at 27 universities about their experiences with sexual assault and sexual misconduct, drawing responses from more than 150,000 students. [Snip] Here are key data and reactions from universities that participated in the AAU’s joint study of sexual assault this year. ... The survey found that 23 percent of undergraduate women and 5 percent of undergraduate men said they were victims of non-consensual sexual contact – ranging from penetration to sexual touching — due to force or incapacitation. Eleven percent of undergraduate women said...

Complete Headline: Boys can be princesses too! Disney removes gender-labeling on Halloween costumes to make its trick-or-treating attire for 'all kids' Disney has done away with gender-based labels on its Halloween costumes and is instead marketing its vast selection of looks as 'kids' - encouraging children to choose any trick-or-treating attire that appeals to them. The change comes just a month after Target announced that it would no longer be using gender-specific signs in its children's bedding and toy departments, acknowledging that both boys and girls can be interested in princesses and cars.

As April Miller drove to work, still too stunned to grasp the magnitude of the fight erupting around her, an old song crackled over the car radio. "Will you still love me for the rest of my life?" the band Chicago sang. "I can't go on if I'm on my own." Miller pulled over. And for the first time since she and her partner stepped into the vortex of history, she wept. [Snip] The couple has lived quietly together for years, never intending to lead a battle that has consumed their town of Morehead, where Miller is a tenured university...

The Telegraph is given exclusive video and pictures showing the Virginia gunman's home, with cat urine all over the kitchen floor and the discovery of sex toys ... revealing details of the gunman’s life in the days before he murdered Alison Palmer and Adam Ward. [Snip] He left behind an apartment filled with his personal effects, including photographs of himself during his days as a television journalist and posters that appear to be of male pin-ups. In a raid on the apartment on Wednesday, police reportedly confiscated a gay pride flag. They also found "many" sex toys, which may have...

Authorities arrested the CEO of Rentboy.com, which prosecutors called the largest online male escort service, on Tuesday on prostitution charges. [Snip] Subscriptions to Rentboy start at $59.95 per month and advertisements can cost hundreds of dollars. In total, Rentboy.com was able to generate more than $10 million in revenue between 2010 and 2015.

Barely two weeks since its debut, E!’s “I Am Cait” is already in serious trouble. While tabloid interest in and social media chatter about Caitlyn Jenner may remain strong, actual viewer numbers are down — way down! — suggesting that TV’s great transgender hope might actually be a dud on arrival. The problem with “I Am Cait” isn’t its lack of ambition. If anything, the show suffers from an overdose of the stuff. In less than 60 minutes of screen time, “Cait” shifts from “Real Housewives”-type fluff to Lifetime-like melodrama to “60 Minutes”-style seriousness. There are makeup shots and bikini...

‘A safe space for those people who feel they need it’ One of the most gay-friendly universities in the country is becoming even friendlier, by offering to shelter its LGBTQ students from the rest of the school. Indiana University-Bloomington is opening a “thematic residence hall” this fall for students who don’t identify as straight men or women. It will have a particular emphasis on transgender students and those who don’t “subscribe to conventional gender distinctions,” the Herald-Times reported, citing GLBT Student Support Services Office Coordinator Doug Bauder. IU’s Residential Programs & Services (RPS) is less specific than Bauder. It says...

The Boy Scouts of America is expected to end its ban on gay adult leaders on Monday, dismantling a policy that has deeply divided the membership of the 105-year-old Texas-based organization. The Boy Scouts National Executive Board will consider a resolution that was unanimously approved by the organization’s executive committee on July 13. The organization is urging an end to the ban because of "sea change in the law with respect to gay rights."

I'm homosexual and I'm afraid about what my future will be and that people won't like me. This Humans of New York photo showing what it says is a distraught young boy crying because he is gay has gone viral, with thousands of people commenting on Facebook offering advice and words of support. “I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me,” the caption reads. [Snip] “Prediction from a grown-up: Your future is going to be amazing,” [Hillary] wrote. “You will surprise yourself with what you’re capable of and the incredible things...

A San Francisco high school may be the first in the country to offer an LGBT studies course. The course will cover terminology, and the broad history of LGBT issues. “We’ll look at what it’s been like for gay men, what it’s been like for lesbian women ...

It’s official — Caitlyn Jenner can now use the ladies’ room. The US Department of Labor has issued guidelines to private businesses that say transgender employees should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to use the men’s or ladies’ room. “The core belief underlying these policies is that all employees should be permitted to use the facilities that correspond with their gender identity,” according to OSHA guidelines released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Labor Department. The National Center for Transgender Equality had requested the guidance.

At the 1976 summer Olympics in Montréal, Bruce Jenner won the gold medal for the men’s decathlon, setting a world record with 8616 points. In July, Jenner will be honored with another award, this time for a much different “achievement.” On Monday, Time reported that at ESPN’s ESPY Awards, the former world’s greatest male athlete will receive the acclaimed Arthur Ashe Award for coming out as a transgender.

A former Virginia Democratic lawmaker who became a pariah in the state legislature after a sex scandal involving a teenage receptionist has announced that he plans to marry the woman, a day after he acknowledged fathering her 9-week-old baby. Joseph D. Morrissey, 57, told a news conference on Thursday that the woman, Myrna Pride, gave birth to their baby about a week before she turned 19. She is still employed at his law office, he said. [Snip] Morrissey also said that he was father to a total of four children born out of wedlock with different women. Last December, Morrissey,...

More than 1.5 billion people now live in countries that allow people to identify as neither male nor female on passports, but the U.S. immigration system doesn’t have a way to process these documents.

A public hearing is taking place Wednesday morning in the Massachusetts State House to look into a controversial sex survey given to middle school and high school students. [Snip] The survey asks students if they are homosexual and if they are transgender. It also asks if they have had oral or anal sex and if they have performed such acts with up to six people. Whether or not they have carried a gun, smoked cigarettes, consumed alcohol and how much also appear on the questionnaire, as well as whether they have taken drugs, such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Vicodin. It...

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is clarifying — but not stepping back from — surprising comments this weekend in support of former Olympian Bruce Jenner's decision to come out as a transgender woman. "If he says he's a woman, then he's a woman," Santorum told BuzzFeed during a roundtable discussion in South Carolina on Saturday. Santorum continued: "My responsibility as a human being is to love and accept everybody. Not to criticize people for who they are."

Smith College, the largest of the all-female Seven Sisters schools, is changing its policy to accept transgender women. [Snip] Other women's colleges, including Mount Holyoke and Wellesley, also have changed their policies to admit transgender women.

Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is pretty bullish on the Supreme Court recognizing a national right to same-sex marriage, he told Seth Meyers on Tuesday's Late Night, though he said he hadn't read much about the oral arguments that took place earlier in the day. He's excited, Frank added, because he has a husband, and because "I cannot wait to see Justice Scalia's reaction. I'm speculating that like Rumpelstiltskin he will stamp his foot and go up in a puff of smoke." Meyers laughed, "That would be something to see."

In an interview with ABC Friday, Bruce Jenner said he is transgender, and also Republican. [Snip] According to a July Gallup poll, 21 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans are Republican or lean Republican ... Note: Bruce Jenner's current name and a male pronoun is used in this post, as he has not requested a new name or pronoun be used.

The Girl Scouts are concerned about falling membership and a declining number of adult volunteers, so a Girl Scout staffer in Salt Lake City cooked up the idea to start a troop headquartered in the area’s “gay pride center.” The idea is to attract “transgender” youth and children living with an LGBT parent. Shari Solomon-Kleba told the Associated Press, “Girl Scouts is all about empowering girls to become leaders who make the world a better place. Why not at the Pride Center?”