Free Republic

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Monday will announce that he plans to sign a bill that will ban the practice of trying to convert gay children to a heterosexual lifestyle, according to an aide. Christie’s office had previously made clear that the governor doesn’t believe in gay conversion therapy, but it had not said whether he would sign the bill passed by the legislature. Christie said months ago that, despite his personal opposition, he wasn’t sure whether the government should legislate the therapy. “I still have those concerns,” he plans to say Monday. “Government should tread carefully into...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Gov. Chris Christie plans to sign a bill Monday barring licensed therapists from trying to turn gay teenagers straight, making New Jersey the second state to ban so-called conversion therapy, along with California.

Full Title: Revealed: California killer who abducted teenage girl is shot dead in Idaho wilderness 18 years TO THE DAY after his own father committed suicide while holding another 16-year-old hostage James DiMaggio's kidnapping of 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, whom was said to have a 'crush on,' could be a horrific case of history repeating itself, it has been revealed. DiMaggio's father, also named James DiMaggio, shockingly killed himself 18 years ago to the day that DiMaggio was shot dead by an FBI agent in the Idaho wilderness. Hannah was found safe and is expected to be reunited with her father...

The patient, who is gay, doesn't have a problem with his sexual orientation listed on his medical chart, but does take issue with it being labeled a "chronic condition"A patient said a Southern California doctor diagnosed him with "Homosexual behavior" during his first visit to the office for a check-up. Earlier this year, Matthew Moore started seeing a new doctor who suggested he undergo a complete physical. The tests revealed he was B-12 deficient, and had high blood pressure and high cholesterol -- conditions that he called "normal for me." When Moore, who is openly gay, went back to the...

All people are created equal—that is, unless they’re fat. Although overweight and obesity affect two-thirds of Americans, the public is as troubled by obese people as young Haley Joel Osment was when his character declared, “I see dead people” in the supernatural thriller Sixth Sense. Overweight people are presumed lazy, undisciplined, dishonest and unintelligent. More than half of people (61 percent) see no harm in making negative remarks about a person’s weight. Obesity is the last frontier in tolerable prejudices. Whereas discrimination based on age, race, religion, sex and other protected characteristics is illegal, federal law (and most state and...

During a 17-minute speech in the briefing room of the White House, President Barack Obama sought to explain the reason why a large number of African-Americans have had a visceral reaction regarding the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman case. In his remarks, the president tried to contextualize that reaction by highlighting the fraught experiences of African-Americans with the justice system. The justice system has been a perennial concern for African-Americans. This worry stems from the blatant disparities that have plagued the system. In any society, the justice system is a critical institution because of the role that it...

Happiness peaks at age 23 and again at age 69, according to a wide-ranging study just completed by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. The study surveyed 23,161 individuals between ages 17 and 85 and found that life satisfaction was highest for those at ages 23 and 69. According to researchers, people in their early twenties overestimate their future life satisfaction by an average of around 10 percent, before the disappointments of life kick in. As people pass through the next decades, they face declining expectations, hitting their low point during their mid-fifties, when researchers...

Teenagers Arin Andrews and Katie Hill look like any normal young couple posing in their swimwear. It is hard to believe that just two years ago Arin was a girl called Emerald, and Katie was a boy called Luke. Arin, 17, and Katie, 19, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, have both undergone surgeries to change their gender and now are enjoying being in their bodies they always wished for. Just over a year ago Katie, a university student, had gender reassignment surgery, thanks to an amazing $35,000 donation from an anonymous donor who read her story in a local newspaper. Now, Arin,...

Assembly member Tom Ammiano has introduced a bill that would require public schools to allow children to change their gender identities, and then have access to the bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams of that gender. I have nothing but sympathy for people who feel they are trapped in the wrong body. I cannot think of anything that would be harder for a person to do than tell the world that he is a she or she is a he. Still, I do not like Ammiano’s bill because it overrides parental authority and basically encourages kids to change their gender...

In May 2013, John Rosemond — America's longest running newspaper columnist—received an astonishing order from the Kentucky attorney general: Stop publishing your advice column in the Bluegrass State or face fines and jail. The attorney general and Kentucky's psychologist licensing board believe that John's column, which is syndicated in more than 200 papers nationwide, constitutes the "unlicensed practice of psychology" in Kentucky when it appears in a Kentucky newspaper. Kentucky's crackdown is part of a national surge in the abuse of occupational licensing laws to censor advice. On July 17, 2013, John joined the Institute for Justice to fight back...

A Swiss physician named Johannes Hofer coined the term nostalgia in the late 17th century to describe what he considered to be a cerebral disease unique to Swiss mercenaries fighting wars far from home. Fast forward over three hundred years to the present day and nostalgia is everywhere. Old movie franchises are resurrected and rebooted, songs and albums that represent “the classics” for any given generation are remastered and rereleased, and old video games are given a high definition facelift and resold. Communities and civic organizations all over the nation host retro-themed recreational events (e.g., classic car shows, blast...

Yes, definitely. But hear me out. Every homeschooling parent knows about the “S” word—socialization. We’ve all had conversations with concerned relatives who wonder if our kids are being properly socialized. Read any article about homeschooling in a mainstream media source and inevitably, the comments section will fill up with concerns about it. Never mind that we also talk about socializing puppies or that it’s something we do at after-work Happy Hours, and that children who are caught socializing too much in school are reprimanded. People who don’t know anything about the homeschooling family down the street have “grave concerns” about...

Terrorism causes fear, and we overreact to that fear. Our brains aren't very good at probability and risk analysis. We tend to exaggerate spectacular, strange and rare events, and downplay ordinary, familiar and common ones. We think rare risks are more common than they are, and we fear them more than probability indicates we should. Our leaders are just as prone to this overreaction as we are. But aside from basic psychology, there are other reasons that it's smart politics to exaggerate terrorist threats, and security threats in general.

(CNN) -- A transgender first-grader who was born a boy but identifies as a girl has won the right to use the girls' restroom at her Colorado school. The Colorado Rights Division ruled in favor of Coy Mathis in her fight against the Fountain-Fort Carson School District. Coy's parents had taken her case to the commission after the district said she could no longer use the girls' bathroom at Eagleside Elementary. In issuing its decision, the state's rights division said keeping the ban in place "creates an environment that is objectively and subjectively hostile, intimidating or offensive." The Transgender Legal...

Danielle Sheridan, age 8, was born a boy. Before she was 3, she began telling her parents she was a girl. It wasn't a phase. She was insistent. She identified with Cinderella. She wanted to grow up and marry a prince. She began dressing like a girl at home. “We kept it in our home only because of our fear of society. We wanted her to be happy, but we wanted her to be safe,” said her mom, Leah Sheridan, 35. Finally, her daughter said she didn’t want to live if she had to live as a boy. “She said...

The stress of the attacks on 9/11 caused an estimated one million former smokers to pick the habit up again, according to a Weill Cornell Medical College public health study. The research is the first to look at the net costs to society of terrorism-induced smoking in the United States after 9/11 and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Though there is a general consensus that stress is a "very large motivator for individuals to use substances," the stress effects of large-scale events on substance use has not been widely studied. "This study provides the first unbiased estimate of the effect...

I've had about ENOUGH about the bullies at school. Taught my kids to FIGHT as long as they don't start it. But they've really 'jumped the shark' on this one. I guess we can expect 'gov intervention' on this? Seriously?

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis. It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any racial characteristics. Germans may be more susceptible to...

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) — As Father’s Day approaches, children are reminded to appreciate their dads and the impact on their lives. Today dads around the city were honored a week in advance of Father’s Day. Celebrate Fatherhood 2013 was held this afternoon at the Collegiate School Aquatics Center. While these dads and their children enjoyed the moon bounce and competed in contests, an alarming amount of children in the area won’t have fathers around to celebrate the holiday. First Things First, an organization dedicated to keeping dads involved in kids’ lives, reports that 60 percent of all families in the...

I believe that the Obama administration is conducting psychological warfare on conservative Americans. Not only that but it is also waging this war on all Americans who previously viewed themselves, their country, their Constitution and their overwhelming belief in God as a force for good in the world. The psychological warfare began with an apology tour in which President Obama publicly “confessed,” presuming to speak for all of us, for the shortcomings of America and our supposed contributions to tyranny and all manner of evils around the world. This confession planted in the American mind the notion that our values...