Free Republic

“The Church and the heresies always used to fight about words, because they are the only thing worth fighting about.” G. K. Chesterton, The Ball and the Cross. When Pope Francis listed Gender Theory among the most destructive threats we face today, many people had no idea what he was talking about. "Gender" used to be a perfectly respectable word – a grammatical term. In English some pronouns have gender: masculine, feminine or neuter. Living things, on the other hand, are categorized by sex: male or female. Recently, however, on forms rather than being asked for our sex, we...

Quietly on Christmas Eve, the Obama administration changed the rules on handling refugee children who enter the country without their parents and report being victims of sexual assault. All refugee aid groups, including Catholic and other Christian groups, will now be required to refer those girls to facilities that provide abortions. Religious groups that work with refugees are concerned that the new rules may require them to give up federal funding. Dr. Susan Yoshihara of the New York and Washington DC-based Center for Family & Human Rights (C-Fam) first reported the change last week: “Faith-based groups say this is a...

Disappointing progressives yet again, Pope Francis has now condemned contemporary gender theory as denying “the order of creation.” In an interview published in a new book, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, by Andrea Tornielli and Giacomo Galeazzi, (portions of which were also published last month in the Italian daily La Stampa), Pope Francis appears to reject the postmodern conceptualization of gender as a moveable point along a spectrum that is fluid and changeable. He does not accept the progressive claim that gender is socially constructed rather than God-given and instead appears to embrace gender in a traditional “binary” category of...

For as long as anyone at Franklin High School can remember, young men and women have marched in pairs into the school’s graduation ceremony. The band strikes the first note of a processional song. Then come the students two by two — girls draped in green robes, boys in black. For the whole event, the girls sit separate from the boys on opposite sides of a wide aisle. Five other Seattle high schools graduate in a similar way, with gender-specific gowns. At least one school in Shoreline and two in the Lake Washington School District do, too. But Franklin will...

Zaneta Rago, the Director of Rutgers’ Social Justice Center, said that she was surprised there were not more millennials who believed that gender exists on a spectrum. “It's wonderful that approximately half of the respondents understood gender as a spectrum, but that means we're only half way there," she said. Daniella Anconetami, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student, said that she believes in the gender spectrum. She said that she discovered that gender “wasn’t black and white” in high school, and said that her opinions about gender identity changed after meeting someone who was transgender in high school....

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hormone treatment for gender reassignment has been approved for Chelsea Manning, the former intelligence analyst convicted of espionage for sending classified documents to the WikiLeaks website. Defense Department officials said Thursday that the hormone therapy was approved Feb. 5 by Col. Erica Nelson, commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning is serving a 35-year sentence. The Army was providing some treatment but not enough, according to the lawsuit, including psychotherapy from a mental health specialist who lacked the qualifications to treat gender dysphoria. The Federal Bureau of Prisons and many state and...

TV news helicopter pilot Zoey Tur has completed her sex change to join Inside Edition as America's first transgender reporter. Tur, formerly known as Chopper Bob, became famous for filming a mob beating driver Reginald Denny during the LA Riots, and the O.J. Simpson car chase. Following 14 months of hormone treatment Tur underwent successful sexual reassignment surgery in June 2014, transitioning from male to female. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2936989/TV-news-helicopter-pilot-Zoey-Tur-completes-gender-transition-join-Inside-Edition-America-s-transgender-reporter.html#ixzz3QjMtltiO Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

No, that’s not a typo. A city Health Department form for new parents requesting birth certificates asks the “woman giving birth” if she’s male or female. Along with routine questions — mother’s maiden name, mother’s legal name, mother’s Social Security number — is a gender question that has raised a few eyebrows. And just in case the inquiry is not clear, the birth-certificate request provides a convenient check box and asks the question in capital letters. “What is your DATE OF BIRTH, current AGE and SEX?” the form asks in the section clearly marked “Mother/Parent (Woman Giving Birth).” “To be...

Over the last several years, numerous colleges throughout the United States have offered courses that require the textbook "My Gender Workbook," which claims that people can be literally any gender, so long as they have an imagination. These colleges include the UTexas, Vanderbilt, and Keene State College. The book, written by Kate Bornstein, claims that genders are entirely up to you and are limited only by how you feel. At the beginning of the book you are greeted by a character named "Blu." Here is the excerpt: In the book, Bornstein claims that sometimes she decides that she has a...

Saudi Arabia's national airline is allegedly planning to separate male and female passengers on its flights, in accordance to strict rules enforced by the Gulf kingdom. Gulf media report that Saudia will keep men and women segregated onboard, unless they are close relatives. The move follows a spate of complaints from male fliers unwilling to allow other males to sit next to their wives and other female family members.

Hollywood recently unveiled yet another of many feature films for the holiday season, this one the ambitious World War II era character study, Unbroken. It was directed by Angelina Jolie, and while I haven’t seen it yet, the topic looks fascinating. When it came time for the red carpet activities, though, Jolie’s family had to step in for her and do a quick turn for the cameras. Here’s one photo from the event, featuring husband Brad Pitt and several of their children.That’s a handsome group of fellows, isn’t it? But if you look a bit closer there’s a bit of...

Welcome to California, home of the finest, most progressive school system in the country. And if your 13 and 14 year old children are attending Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California, they can learn all sorts of amazing things. For example, they are probably right up to date on the best water based lubricants for intercourse, the best way to beat a pesky, sexually transmitted infection, and the wide range of options they have regarding which gender they would like to be. Along with local area groups, some parents are irate that their childrenÂ’s sex ed class at Acalanes High...

In single-sex classes, which are common for sex education, students must be allowed to go to the class of the gender they consider themselves to be rather than their actual gender, the U.S. Department of Education directed schools that receive federal funds in a Dec. 1 memo. The memo, from the department's Office for Civil Rights, provides guidance for K-12 schools for when they are allowed to have same-sex classes or extracurricular activities and remain in compliance with Title IX, a 1972 law to protect against gender discrimination in education programs that get federal aid. Schools may divide students by...

[Barf Alert] Gender equality must guide 2015 climate deal, U.N. envoy says By Megan Rowling, Reuters LIMA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Gender equality must be a key part of a new global climate change deal due to be reached in Paris next year even though achieving it will be a struggle, U.N. climate envoy Mary Robinson said on Tuesday. The former Irish president said the 2015 agreement should drive climate policies that take both women's and men's needs into account and must include gender equality as a guiding principle. [excerpt. hurl here]

exual dysfunction is not unique to the twenty-first century—nor, certainly, to the West. Japan's "herbivores"—men who shun sex and prefer saving money and going on long walks to riding motorcycles and flirting with girls—have been well documented and are regarded by social scientists as the best example of male sexuality turning in on itself. But although the sexodus, a new retreat into solitude by Western males, has a different flavour to it and dramatically different aetiology from previously observed social crises, many characteristics are identical. And what's troubling about men throwing in the towel in both East and West is...

Minnesotans are currently facing a fast and furious onslaught by the transgender lobby, which seems to be dictating policy to the Minnesota State High School League. The MSHSL decides policy for all extracurricular activities in public, private, religious, and home schools. It’s currently in the process of outlawing all sex distinctions in high-school sports. On December 4, it plans to install an athletic policy granting transgender students the choice to play on either boys’ or girls’ teams. In this scheme, there would be no accounting for sex differences in high school sports on the field or in locker rooms, bathrooms,...

Minnesotans are currently facing a fast and furious onslaught by the transgender lobby, which seems to be dictating policy to the Minnesota State High School League. The MSHSL decides policy for all extracurricular activities in public, private, religious, and home schools. It’s currently in the process of outlawing all sex distinctions in high-school sports. On December 4, it plans to install an athletic policy granting transgender students the choice to play on either boys’ or girls’ teams. In this scheme, there would be no accounting for sex differences in high school sports on the field or in locker rooms, bathrooms,...

There are more important things in life than politics. One of those things is happening as I write. Most of the world is oblivious to it. The press corps has completely ignored it. But it may be one of the most consequential events in the early twenty-first century. It is called Humanum. In Rome, at the Vatican, an interfaith gathering is occurring to discus marriage. Leading voices in the Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Mormon, Muslim, and Christian communities have gathered to support and strengthen each other in the struggle against growing anti-faith norms toward marriage and family. Pope Francis opened the...

Dating website OKCupid has begun offering select users twelve options to describe their sexual orientation. Some may consider the idea that there are twelve sexual orientations bizarre in itself — but what’s really bizarre is, according to screenshots of the feature, the site is also allowing people to select “up to five” of those twelve to describe themselves. That’s 1,585 combinations. And how could the same person be five different sexual orientations at once? Here are the twelve choices: Demisexual: no sexual attraction toward any person unless they become deeply emotionally or romantically connected to someone Asexual: does not experience...

American activists against “reparative therapy” asked the UN Committee on Torture to define the practice as a form of torture and a violation of international law. At issue is the treatment sought by persons who struggle with unwanted same-sex desires. Many therapists still offer the treatment to those who ask for it, even though professional organizations for the therapeutic community say same-sex desire is not a form of mental illness and discourage this kind of therapy. There is a movement in the United States to ban all such therapy by law. Already, New Jersey and California have banned reparative therapy...