Free Republic

Former Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas was fond of telling a story about his time stumping for educational change. "My educational policies are based on the fact that I care more about my children than you do," Gramm once said to a woman. "No, you don't," she replied. "OK," said Gramm. "What are their names?" Gramm's fundamental premise is inalterably correct: Parents care more about their children than do the members of the bureaucracy. But parents are being gradually curbed in their authority by precisely those bureaucrats across the West. On Tuesday, a British court condemned a not-yet-2-year-old child...

A California school district says that parents can’t opt out of a new sex education course that will deal with abortion, homosexuality and transgender issues. California passed a law called the California Healthy Youth Act in 2015 to promote “healthy attitudes” about “gender [and] sexual orientation.” The law is meant to teach students about the “effectiveness and safety of all FDA-approved contraceptive methods” and allow for “objective discussion” about “parenting, adoption, and abortion.” The law also gives parents the ability to opt-out of this education and said that the “pupil” shall not be punished academically in any way if they...

How sharper than a serpent's tooth to have a despotic pediatric dentist. Parents who decide, for whatever reason, that they don't like their children's oral care provider should be forewarned. Empowered by government "mandatory reporter" laws, dental offices are now using their authority to threaten families with child abuse charges if they don't comply with the cavity police. Mom Trey Hoyumpa shared a letter last week on Facebook from a dental office called Smiles 4 Keeps in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania. It informed her that if she did not make a dental appointment for "regular professional cleanings" for her child, she could...

An Ohio court has removed a teenaged girl from the custody of her parents because they refused to consent to dangerous and experimental medical treatment. The teenager wants to undergo irreversible treatment (hormones and probably sex-reassignment surgery) that she hopes will alleviate the depression associated with her gender dysphoria based on 1) the scientific facts that such treatment will convert her into a lifelong medical patient and probably fail to alleviate her suicidal tendencies, 2) their religious belief that created reality is unalterable, and 3) their fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their minor child, the parents said no. But...

Parents of a 17-year-old girl lost custody of their daughter for opposing her wish for transgender medical treatments. Judge Sylvia Sieve Hendon of Hamilton County, Ohio has allowed the girl to be taken into the custody of her grandparents – who support her medical transition – allowing them to make decisions that will further along her physical transition to the opposite sex. According to CNN, Hendon ordered that the family’s names not be released. The parents reportedly continued to call their daughter by her given name, rather than a male name, and refused to consent to hormone treatments that were...

COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 14, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Ohio government authorities forced parents to give up legal custody of their daughter after the mother and father said they opposed the girl’s decision to identify as a ‘boy’ and transition to being 'male.' The Hamilton County Job and Family Services took legal custody of the teenage girl, 17, who, according to court records, suffers from gender dysphoria. The teen is currently living with her maternal grandparents. The girl’s name and the names of her parents are under court seal. The minor was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and gender dysphoria after being hospitalized...

COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 14, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Ohio government authorities forced parents to give up legal custody of their daughter after the mother and father said they opposed the girl’s decision to identify as a ‘boy’ and transition to being 'male.' The Hamilton County Job and Family Services took legal custody of the teenage girl, 17, who, according to court records, suffers from gender dysphoria. The teen is currently living with her maternal grandparents. The girl’s name and the names of her parents are under court seal. The minor was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and gender dysphoria after being hospitalized...

For youngest readers, a teddy bear named Thomas would rather be called Tilly — it's 'child abuse,' says one doctor of this overreach. The Wall Street Journal editorial board recently called out Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee for overstepping his executive authority on climate change. But it turns out he’s not the only one in the Evergreen State guilty of overrreach. Teachers in a dozen elementary schools across Seattle have been testing a new set of books and lessons on gender diversity, expression and identity — topics many would agree are outrageously inappropriate for the classroom, especially for young children,...

A Metro Detroit mother is facing jail time because of her beliefs when it comes to vaccinations and her kid. Bredow, a mother of two, has one week to get her son vaccinated and if she does not comply with the order of an Oakland County judge, she will be thrown in jail. According to court documents. the child’s father wants their son vaccinated. Rebecca makes it clear where she stands on the issue.

A lawyer for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has dismissed claims of "fresh" medical evidence in the case of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard (BARF). GOSH referred the case back to the High Court after reports of "new" data from foreign health care experts suggested treatment could improve his condition. Charlie's parents have made several unsuccessful challenges to a decision to end the 11-month old's life support. GOSH told the hearing the evidence was not new but it was right to explore it. Mr. Justice Francis is overseeing the preliminary hearing in the Family Division of the High Court..... Francis...

TORONTO, June 1, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne Liberals have passed what critics describe as “totalitarian” Bill 89 by a vote of 63 to 23 on the last day before Queen’s Park adjourns for the summer. Pro-family advocates warn Bill 89 gives the state more power to seize children from families that oppose the LGBTQI and gender ideology agenda, and allows government agencies to effectively ban couples who disagree with that agenda from fostering or adopting children. Bill 89, or the Supporting Children, Youth and Families Act, 2017, repeals and replaces the former Child and Family Services Act that...

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Minnesota mother against her teenage child along with school officials and healthcare providers on the grounds that they violated her parental rights by treating her son with a hormone therapy to start transitioning into a girl even though he hadn't been granted court approval to be legally emancipated from his parents. Senior U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson dismissed the suit this week, saying Anmarie Calgaro's claim was "meritless," according to the StarTribune. Calgaro filed the suit, with the help of lawyers from the Thomas More Society last November, against...

TULSA, Oklahoma, April 12, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — An Oklahoma mother allowed her daughter to go on an educational field trip only to have her return with a three-year chemical contraceptive implant inside her arm. Langston Hughes Academy hosts an annual sex-ed class by Youth Services of Tulsa. When Miracle Foster's daughter wanted to learn more, she allowed her to visit the clinic. But Youth Services of Tulsa is part of the Tulsa Area Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaborative, whose PregNOT program began in 2010 with $1.5 million in tax funding from the Obama Health and Human Services' Office of Adolescent Health....

LONDON, England, April 13, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — A UK judge has ruled it is in a child's best interest to “die with dignity” rather than to allow his parents to seek additional medical treatment. Connie Yates and Chris Gard want to take eight-month-old son Charlie to the United States for treatment of a rare disease. A GoFundMe account has given them enough money to do so. But Charlie needs to remain on life support to make the trip and Justice Francis determined it is in the "best interests of the child" to withdraw his feeding tube and breathing machine. Charlie...

Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is newly in favor of mandatory vaccination, he says, after learning more about the science of immunization. In 2011, Johnson tweeted “No to mandatory vaccines,” but asked in an interview with VPR Wednesday about his position, Johnson said he now believes that vaccinations should be mandatory.

New York’s highest court has expanded the definition of parenthood by ruling that former same-sex couples have the right to seek visitation and custody of children even when they aren’t the biological or adoptive parent. The Court of Appeals decision Tuesday resolves two cases of former same-sex couples in which the biological mothers kept the children and their ex-partners sought legal standing to see them. …

Under the guise of fighting “violence against children,” the Obama administration has joined forces with socalist foreign regimes and various United Nations agencies in a “global partnership” to wage war on parental rights. The controversial worldwide initiative, which aims to criminalize spanking and smacking as disciplinary tools, among other things, is part of the UN's Agenda 2030, also known as the “Sustainable Development Goals.” Essentially, the UN is betting that framing the assault on families as a bid to end “violence against children” — something nobody in their right mind would oppose — will make it easier to pursue the...

This piece is co-authored by Emmett McGroarty, senior fellow at American Principles Project.Narrowly viewed, the unlawful “guidance” letter issued by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, implicitly threatening schools that refuse to allow both sexes to access all restrooms, locker rooms, dormitories/sleeping quarters, and probably sports teams, represents a leftist assault on student privacy. But the attack is much broader than that, actually targeting fundamental realities on which human civilization is based. Rather than write a book on that subject, let’s focus on one strand that should especially disturb parents: The guidance is yet another in a long series...

Holly Ray, principal of Bear Branch Elementary in Magnolia Texas has new rules this year and they are making parents and teachers furious! Already well known to be an overbearing gestapo, Holly Ray removed the bike rack, and made the new rule at the beginning of the school year and reinforced it in March. Only way you can get to and from school is in a car or bus! Parents stay in your car! Holly Ray demands!

A British father has been banned from taking his son to a church after the boy's Muslim mother won a controversial court order preventing the boy from attending. The father – a non-practising Muslim who has forged close connections to his local Christian community and is divorced from the boy's mother – has been warned that he could be denied access to the nine-year-old if he attempts to take him to church or to a leisure centre it runs. Now the father, who was born in the UK to Pakistani parents, is challenging the ruling made by District Judge Williscroft...