Free Republic

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that workers can't be discriminated against based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. Judge Lee Rosenthal - the chief judge in the Houston-based Souther District Court of Texas - ruled that workers are protected from such discrimination under the federal employment law that protects workers based on their gender, the Dallas Morning News reported. The decision came during a case in which a woman claimed she was not hired by Phillips 66, an energy company, because she was transgender. Rosenthal ruled that the woman, Nicole Wittmer, couldn't prove that she wasn't hired...

A biological male weightlifter competing as a woman in the Commonwealth Games lost the gold medal after trying to lift far more weight than was needed for victory. Laurel Hubbard, formerly known as Gavin Hubbard before “transitioning” into a female identity five years ago, was expected to easily defeat Australian weightlifter Deb Lovely-Acason in the finals of women’s 90kg-plus weightlifting Monday. Competing for the New Zealand team, Hubbard suffered a “horror elbow injury” when attempting to set a personal and Commonwealth record by lifting 132 kg (291 lbs). Hubbard was already far ahead of the nearest adversary, Feagaiga Stowers of...

A transgender Kiwi weightlifter may have an unfair advantage over her fellow female athletes when she competes at the Commonwealth Games, an expert has warned. Long-time professional weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, 39, transitioned from a male to a female a few years ago. She will soon compete in the women's 90kg-plus competition on the Gold Coast, despite the protests of an Australian weightlifting chief. In an interview this week, Otago University physiology Professor Alison Heather said men transitioning into women generally have physical advantages.

The abrupt ouster last month of Mike Huckabee from the Country Music Association’s charitable board just 24 hours after his appointment sends a strong signal that Nashville’s cultural revolution is in full swing. An organized right-wing backlash against the removal of the conservative gadfly and presidential aspirant quickly fizzled, and Music City breathed a sigh of relief. The swiftness of the forced departure of Huckabee, who has been vocal about his support for the NRA and objections to same-sex marriage and parenting, underscores how the country music industry has become a nexus of discussion for two of America’s hot-button topics:...

George Washington University is hosting a diversity workshop to battle “Christian privilege” on Thursday of Easter Week at the school’s Multicultural Student Services Center. The training session for students and faculty proposes to educate Christians — especially white ones — concerning their “unmerited perks from institutions and systems all across our country,” according to the ever-attentive folks at The College Fix.

In an odd social narrative twist, Salon released an article titled, “Banning child marriage in America: An uphill fight against evangelical pressure.” Its argument indicates a remarkable double standard.The article opens asserting, “Child marriage is a real problem in the United States, one that isn’t talked about much. Like human trafficking, we assume that child marriage is something that happens in other countries, countries with antiquated world views and gender norms.” It goes on to state, “Between 2000 and 2015, 86 percent of the reported 207,468 child marriages that took place in the United States were between minors and...

The gay hookup app Grindr, which has more than 3.6 million daily active users across the world, has been providing its users’ HIV status to two other companies, BuzzFeed News has learned. The two companies — Apptimize and Localytics, which help optimize apps — receive some of the information that Grindr users choose to include in their profiles, including their HIV status and “last tested date.” Because the HIV information is sent together with users’ GPS data, phone ID, and email, it could identify specific users and their HIV status, according to Antoine Pultier, a researcher at the Norwegian nonprofit...

Liquor! Guns! Bacon! Tits (the birds of course) Happy April Fools Day fellow freepers!

PHILADELPHIA – The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and Chester County Hospital were announced among the 2018 class of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s “Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality Index 2018.” The HRC Foundation is the educational arm of the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization. The Healthcare Equality Leaders were selected based on an annual survey identifying healthcare institutions that lead in efforts to offer equitable and inclusive care for LGBT patients by evaluating policies and practices related to LGBT patients and visitors, such as patient...

FULL TITLE: EXCLUSIVE: How Lesbian mother who plunged off Pacific Highway admitted she 'let anger get out of control' after six-year-old daughter told teacher she had ‘owies’ on her tummy and her back after her mommy hit her One of the lesbian mothers who were found dead on Monday alongside three of their six adopted children after plunging off a cliff in California was previously arrested for assaulting her six-year-old daughter. Court documents exclusively obtained by the DailyMail.com show that Sarah Hart was arrested and charged with misdemeanor domestic assault and malicious punishment of a child December 27, 2010, when...

The theology program at the Jesuit-run College of the Holy Cross has taken on a new tone ever since the school appointed a gender-obsessed Chair of New Testament Studies who claims Jesus was a “drag king,” a new article contends. Writing for The Fenwick Review, Elinor Reilly of the Holy Cross class of 2018 argues in a March 26 article that Professor Tat-Siong Benny Liew’s “unconventional readings of Scripture” have brought “a new theological perspective to Holy Cross.”

The University of California-Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center has a new pronoun guide that adds “yo,” “xie,” “ey,” “en,” and “ve” to the list of gender-neutral pronouns. The “What are Pronouns?” guide invites students to choose personal pronouns other than he or she, positing that all students should be given “the opportunity to state the pronoun that is correct to use when referring to them” during class.

The theology program at the Jesuit-run College of the Holy Cross has taken on a new tone ever since the school appointed a gender-obsessed Chair of New Testament Studies who claims Jesus was a “drag king,” a new article contends. Writing for The Fenwick Review, Elinor Reilly of the Holy Cross class of 2018 argues in a March 26 article that Professor Tat-Siong Benny Liew’s “unconventional readings of Scripture” have brought “a new theological perspective to Holy Cross.”

Not all is as it seems at the organization behind a nationwide grassroots movement that seeks to make the National Rifle Association “politically radioactive.” Within 24 hours of last Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 dead, gun control activists had concocted No NRA Money, an organization behind a national grassroots pledge campaign that seeks to “break the NRA’s stranglehold that has thwarted meaningful progress on common sense gun policy.” But No NRA Money’s claim to be a grassroots movement is questionable. Hidden within the HTML code running No NRA Money’s website is a link to...

For his return after a 3 week whirlwind tour in California where a lot of things were going on, John's message this week concentrates mostly on Israel, Syria and the Middle East where "A Lot is Going On." From Israel finally admitting that they took out the Syrian nuclear reactor over 10 years ago, to the rapid progression of Turkey into an enemy of Israel and NATO, John looks at the latest issues that are coming to the forefront of this week's prophetic outlook. Oh, yeah..and he briefly mentions the new "Youth Movement" headed up by the foul-mouthed David Hogg,...

When Edward Snowden decided he wanted to release details about the NSA's intelligence operations to the public, he reached out to Laura Poitras, a 49-year-old film maker and political activist opposed to the war on terror. As the Washington Post noted on Monday, Poitras had "the odd distinction of sharing a byline in The Washington Post and in London’s Guardian newspaper last week on two blockbuster stories." snip But perhaps it isn't such a mystery why the U.S. government might want to question Poitras if you simply crack open John R. Bruning's 2006 book, The Devil's Sandbox: With the 2nd...

The White House announced Friday that the Trump administration would implement its ban on all transgender service in the military "except under certain limited circumstances." It would also stop all use of Defense Department or Homeland Security resources to fund new sex reassignment surgeries, except to protect the health of individuals who have already begun treatment to reassign his or her sex. The announcement was expected, since it was part of President Trump's executive memo in August 2017 renewing a former transgender military service. According to the White House memo, "transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria -- individuals...

On 23 May 2014, Elliot Rodger, a 22-year-old college dropout, became the world’s most famous ‘incel’ – involuntary celibate. The term can, in theory, be applied to both men and women, but in practice it picks out not sexless men in general, but a certain kind of sexless man: the kind who is convinced he is owed sex, and is enraged by the women who deprive him of it. Rodger stabbed to death his two housemates, Weihan Wang and Cheng Hong, and a friend, George Chen, as they entered his apartment on Seville Road in Isla Vista, California. Three hours...

A student Resident Advisor (RA) at Providence College has reportedly been threatened with rape after posting a flyer that expressed a traditional view on marriage. According to LifeSiteNews, RA Michael Smalanskas has faced severe student backlash since displaying the poster on a bulletin board in early March, with upset classmates gathering outside of his dorm room and endangering his safety.

When Tifanny Abreu slammed the volleyball over the net, her frizzy ponytail flying behind her, most spectators at a recent game moaned out loud: another point for the visitors. But not everyone in the stands was rooting against her. Even when Ms. Abreu travels with her team to away games, she often has a small, loyal group of fans cheering her on. This game in a satellite city of São Paulo, played more than 200 miles away from her team’s home base, was no exception.