Free Republic

Professing Christian couple and TV personalities Chip and Joanna Gaines, known for their HGTV show ‘Fixer Upper’ and the Magnolia brand, are facing criticism for their decision to prominently feature a same-sex couple in their new series, Back to the Frontier. While this is bad enough, a deep dive into her social media history paints an even more disturbing picture. Billy Jack Brawner, a creative director, is married to Sara Brawner. For years they struggled to conceive, enduring three miscarriages and one stillbirth before adopting four children. Shortly thereafter, however, they discovered she was pregnant, and the couple welcomed five...

The founder of a Pride group, who raped an 'extremely vulnerable' boy who he met on Grindr, has been jailed for 13 years. Stephen Ireland, 42, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, raped the child at the flat he shared with his then partner and co-defendant David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on April 19, 2024. Ireland had arranged for the 12-year-old boy, referred to in court as Child A, to meet him at his flat after messaging on dating app Grindr, the court heard. The boy, who had been reported missing at the time, told police they had sex...

A couple of years ago, a new Chick-fil-A restaurant was under construction in my neighborhood. Now, Chick-fil-A and I go way back. I went to high school in Georgia. I well remember the Chick-fil-A in the local mall (well, the only mall) in our small town. While the chicken sandwiches weren’t exactly a revelation, they were a nice change of pace from my usual McDonald’s cheeseburgers. Although I no longer eat chicken, I followed the construction progress of my neighborhood Chick-fil-A restaurant closely. However, it’s what happened when a neighbor posted a photo and an update about our soon-to-be open...

I've never been 'proud' to be gay. Despite being openly gay, happily married, a parent, a public figure. The truth is, I'm proud of my accomplishments. The things I fought for. My career. My family. My grit. Not the things I am by default. Being gay isn't a merit badge — it's a fact of my existence. And that's why I've always had a complicated relationship with Pride Month. When I was a teenager in the '90s, being gay meant living with shame, not pride. It meant keeping your truth under wraps to avoid being bullied, rejected, or worse. Back...

Actor Jonathan Joss — best known for his voice work on the iconic animated TV comedy “King of Hill” — was shot dead by a neighbor in Texas, according to police. Joss, who voiced “John Redcorn” on the long-running cartoon, got into an argument with the neighbor at his home in San Antonio Sunday night when the neighbor pulled out a gun and shot him several times, police said. The unnamed gunman then fled in a vehicle but was arrested just a block away. He was 59 years old. In addition to his character on “King of the Hill,” Joss,...

CNN is taking credit for prompting the firing of The Western Journal founder and former owner Floyd Brown, who only a month ago had taken a senior position at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The piece by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski describes Brown as a “far-right activist” who is a professing Christian and who has made statements in the past critical of the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage. ... In February, President Donald Trump announced that he was naming Ric Grenell as interim director of the Kennedy Center. The president wrote on social media, “Ric shares my Vision for...

The decoration of a Falklands War landing craft in rainbow colours to celebrate Pride has sparked uproar among veterans, who called it “entirely inappropriate” and said, “Our Falklands dead will be turning in their graves.” The Telegraph has more. "Foxtrot 8, which landed Royal Marine and Parachute Regiment soldiers on the South Atlantic archipelago, has been coated in a rainbow vinyl wrap. Portsmouth Historic Quarter, which owns it, commissioned the decoration to mark the 25th anniversary of the ban on homosexuality within the Armed Forces being lifted. But the decoration has been criticised as disrespectful by veterans. A retired senior...

With four hats, including national security adviser, the former Trump rival is defying predictions he’d be a weak player. Marco Rubio is doing big things under President Donald Trump — way more than nearly anyone expected. The secretary of State was once thought of as one of the weakest players in the Trump orbit, a man who wouldn’t last long in the Cabinet because he faced many internal rivals and had major policy differences with Trump and the MAGA base. But Rubio has deftly earned the president’s trust, enough so that Trump this week gave him another powerful job as...

House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday reintroduced the Equality Act, a landmark civil rights bill that would make sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes. The measure, which would amend a federal law that already outlaws discrimination based on race, religion, sex and national origin, faces an uphill battle in a Congress controlled by Republicans, who have long opposed it over concerns it would trample religious freedom rights.

Another radical-left Democrat has contracted a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and is proposing a hopeless strategy in response. And the Trump White House has taken notice. On Monday, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI), a native of India, flew back into DC after yet another unwarranted congressional vacation and decided to file a whopping SEVEN articles of impeachment against President Trump. And unsurprisingly, the catalyst for Thanedar filing articles of impeachment was Trump daring to deport a dangerous MS-13 gangster and alleged wife-beater. “Trump has already done real damage to our democracy,” Thandedar whined. “But defying a unanimous 9-0...

Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation formally repealing the state’s long-unenforced ban on recognizing same-sex “marriage,” a largely-symbolic gesture for LGBT “equality” ensuring the state status quo would remain if the national one changed in the future. Senate Bill 24-014 strikes from the Colorado legal code language stating marriages can only be recognized as valid if “between one man and one woman.” It passed the state House 45-14 and the state Senate 29-6 and was signed into law on April 7. The statutory repeal follows a ballot initiative that passed last November removing the traditional definition of marriage from...

Idaho’s chief lawyer has asked the city of Boise to comply with a new law that limits what flags may be flown by government buildings and warned that the state may try to withhold sales tax revenues if the city refuses. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador wrote a letter to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean on Tuesday requesting that she take down the prohibited flags outside city hall — as of Wednesday morning, the city displayed a Pride flag and a flag honoring organ and tissue donors, along with an American flag, city of Boise flag, state of Idaho flag and...

WASHINGTON – The Mayor of Hyattsville, Maryland, Kevin Ward died Tuesday in an apparent suicide, officials said. He was 44-years-old. Ward’s body was reportedly found in a park in McLean, Virginia.

High level excerpt:Antisemitism on campus lawsuitsBacklash against Harvard’s initial response to antisemitism accusations Former President Claudine Gay’s ‘unacceptable’ testimony to Congress Former president Claudine Gay accused of plagiarism Harvard refuses to comply with Trump administration’s demands

Gayle King used a gay slur while retelling a joke on live TV. The broadcast journalist was interviewing comedian Matteo Lane — who is openly gay — about his new cookbook, “Your Pasta Sucks,” when she quoted one of his jokes back to him. “You embrace being gay and your homosexuality,” King, 70, said to Lane, 38, who had been freely discussing his sexual orientation throughout the chat. “And I’m wondering — where did this come from? The funniness that you were able to combine with cooking and and your stand-up, too?” Lane explained that he comes from “a large...

A lawmaker in Washington on Thursday likened legislation aimed at banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports in the state to racial segregation in the United States, arguing that those across the aisle are "making a lot of the same arguments today." Washington Democratic state Rep. Kristine Reeves spoke during an executive session of the House Education Committee on Thursday morning where members of the committee introduced SB 5123, a bill that aimed to expand protections for students, including gender expression and gender identity. "I recall a time in our country’s history not that long ago … where people...

"Homophobia is alive and well still."Nathan Lane has been an esteemed star of stage and screen for many years now. That should mean he would at least be in contention for any role he set his eyes on, but things haven’t always been that easy. As an out gay man, Lane has faced rampant homophobia throughout his career, leading him to believe that “Hollywood figured out nothing when it comes to me,” as he shared in a new interview with Vanity Fair. “I’ve been able to, I think, shift the perception a bit about me, but there’s always going to...

As if coming up with a great baby name wasn’t hard enough. Newborns can’t even control their own movements, but that isn’t stopping New Jersey hospitals from asking parents for their baby’s preferred pronouns and sexual orientation. Inspira Health’s “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Questionnaire” requires new parents to “identify” their babies as either “Male, Female, Transgender, Gender Queer,” or “Additional gender category.”

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) declared Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that President Donald Trump lied blatantly in a mocking tone during his speech to a joint session of Congress. Host Chris Hayes said, “You were in that room last night if I’m not mistaken. There was a very long section. We played a little bit, but I mean, that whole section on the fraud and Social Security went he did a long riff each age bracket reading out these numbers, you could hear the boos, which I think were coming from Democrats. What was your reaction in that moment to...

Everything you suspected might be going on in the Federal Government these past four years is turning out to be true. For instance, if you thought radical transgenderism was being pushed on agencies and employees to the detriment of the government's core mission, it looks like you can take off the tin foil hat. One whistleblower says it's all true, and it's probably worse than you imagined. ... National Security Agency's Interlink messaging program was used by federal employees to engage in debauched conversations about transgender fetishes and transitioning. ... While the mainstream press screams bloody murder over the Trump...