Free Republic

Protecting children from confusion or from harmful experimental 'treatments' is neither abuse nor neglect, but under the Equality Act, it would be treated as such.Consider the following scenario, rooted in the actual experiences of some parents. Your 14-year-old daughter, who has never before questioned her gender identity, comes home from school one day declaring herself to be a boy after hearing a transgender teenager speak at a school assembly. She persists in her claims and demands cross-sex hormones, even though her experiments with a transgender identity seem more about winning peer approval in school and on social media than about...

A North Carolina legislator best known as the architect of the state’s so-called bathroom bill three years ago is racking up contributions and endorsements as he runs in the repeat of a congressional race marred by a ballot fraud scandal. State Sen. Dan Bishop of Charlotte is a leading contender among 10 candidates in next week’s GOP primary in the 9th Congressional District special election. The state elections board unanimously ordered the new election after Mark Harris, the Republican in last year’s race against Democrat Dan McCready, used a political operative accused of improperly collecting mail-in ballots. Harris opted not...

When I was a cop, I spent some time working with an undercover unit that handled all sorts of cases, including prostitution rings, gang violence, drug manufacturing and movement, Internet child pornography, etc. I was never good at the reverse prostitution stings because I have always been a very healthy-looking girl, so it never really worked. I even had a gentleman drive by only to stop and hand me a McDonald’s sandwich, and then drIve away. I still do not know what to think about that gesture, especially since we had previously caught him on numerous occasions for soliciting other...

Fair Oaks Police District – An investigation is underway after a 15-year-old boy reported being filmed while using the bathroom at Red Robin in the Fair Lakes area on December 26. He saw a figure over his head and noticed a cell phone pointing at the urinal which appeared to be recording him. When he confronted the person, he realized the suspect was an employee of the restaurant. The victim left the bathroom and told his mom, who then notified restaurant staff. The victim’s family left the location and called us. Officers responded to the restaurant in the 13000 block...

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – As Texas Governor Greg Abbott delays making a decision about whether to call state lawmakers back to work for a special legislative session, the heads of some of the largest tech businesses in the world sent a message to the state leader. Fourteen big business CEO’s, including the heads of Apple, Microsoft Corp., Facebook, IBM, Amazon and Dell Technologies, sent Abbott a letter concerning Texas’ “bathroom bill” proposal that targets transgender people.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra won’t lift a ban on publicly funded travel to North Carolina even though the Southern state repealed the law that California Democrats condemned as discriminatory against gay and transgender people. North Carolina’s repeal of its House Bill 2, the so-called “bathroom bill,” late last month persuaded the NCAA to lift its own ban on sponsoring championship collegiate sporting events there. Becerra found the repeal inadequate, noting that North Carolina’s new law bans local governments and universities from passing their own anti-discrimination laws. A number of civil rights organizations, such as Equality California, denounced North Carolina’s repeal...

North Carolina lawmakers filed a bill on Monday that would pull North Carolina and NC State from the Atlantic Coast Conference if the conference boycotted the state again amid the fallout of House Bill 2. House Bill 728 says that if a college conference boycotts North Carolina, then state schools that are a part of that conference would be prohibited from extending the grant of media rights to that conference. The ACC and NCAA had pulled championship events out of North Carolina until HB2 — known as the “bathroom bill” — was repealed. The bill, which was widely decried as...

Dear Roy Williams: If you can't tell the difference between what is a male, and what is a female, perhaps it is you who has a "bullsh*t" problem. In case you missed it, after their win over Miami in the quarterfinal round of the ACC basketball tournament, Williams was asked about the impact (on recruiting and media attention) of having the ACC tournament in a big city such as New York (the site of this year's tournament), as opposed to a city like Greensboro, North Carolina (a frequent host city). Williams answered, "It used to be much more [important to...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The NBA is warning Texas over a proposed "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people that is similar to a North Carolina law that prompted the league to move the All-Star Game out of that state. The NBA on Friday joined the NFL in suggesting that Texas will be overlooked for future big events if lawmakers pass a bill requiring people to use bathrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate. NBA spokesman Mike Bass says an environment where people are treated "fairly and equally" weighs heavily when the league chooses host locations. Texas has three...

KXAN obtained the latest estimates from the CVB showing 22 groups have expressed concern about the bill. If all were to cancel their convention bookings, the impact would be severe. Austin would lose an estimated 145,890 total hotel room nights and a total estimated economic impact of $109,683,377 between now and 2021. That equates to 4-5 groups a year. The Austin Convention Center hosts an average 60 big groups annually, a spokesperson told KXAN.

LINCOLN, R.I. (WPRI) – A man wanted by Warwick Police for video voyeurism has been arrested by Lincoln Police on the same charge. Lincoln Police responded to the Target at the Lincoln Mall on Jan. 14 after Loss Prevention found a small camera mounted in the store’s family bathroom. Lincoln Police received a photo of the suspect who they said was later identified as Umit Cakmak, 41, of Providence.

Despicable. Faithless. Conniving. Liberal. As was reported earlier this week, a deal was struck between North Carolina’s lawmakers and the Charlotte City Council to mutually repeal both HB2 – the “bathroom bill” – and the Charlotte ordinance that made the bathroom bill a necessity, for the safety and privacy of the state’s citizens. Outgoing Governor Pat McCrory had announced that he would call a special session to repeal HB2, pursuant to Charlotte repealing the ordinance – and agreement that all parties seemed to agree with.

The ACC officially has a new location for its football championship game. The conference announced Thursday morning that the game will move to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. The move comes two weeks after the conference, following an NCAA decision, decided to move all of its championships outside of the state of North Carolina because of House Bill 2 (HB2), a state law that requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates instead of the gender with which they identify.

New York City kicked off a social media advertising campaign on Monday to combat negative perceptions of Muslims and counteract increasing instances of threats and violence, officials said. Showing an array of photographs of Muslim men and women, the campaign reads “I am Muslim. I am NYC”, according to the New York City Commission on Human Rights. The campaign is aimed at addressing negative depictions and rhetoric, officials said.

My oldest granddaughter is 15, and thanks to North Carolina’s HB2, if a 15-year-old boy in her school identified as a girl, he would not be allowed to play on her sports team or share her locker room. I for one am glad that North Carolina, my home state since 2003, has taken a stand for common sense, for safety, and for privacy, yet the NBA is punishing the state for protecting its residents, announcing that it will pull next year’s All Star game from Charlotte. What hypocrisy; what bigotry; what intolerance. The NBA is now the National Bullying Association.Let...

Dave Matthews Band will donate the proceeds from their upcoming concert in Charlotte to five organizations fighting North Carolina’s recently enacted transgender bathroom law. Unlike other artists who have cancelled concerts in the state in opposition to the law, Dave Matthews Band will go ahead with its scheduled May 27 show at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte. In a brief statement on their website, the band announced that a portion of proceeds from the performance would go to five organizations working to fight the law: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal, ACLU of North Carolina, Equality NC...

But poverty-stricken seamstresses making some of the clothes in the MAS Holdings ­factory in Sri Lanka earn just £4.30 a day. It would cost them more than a month’s wages to buy a pair of Beyonce’s £100 leggings. The workers, mostly young women from poor rural villages, can only afford to live in boarding houses and work more than 60 hours a week to make ends meet. Most are reluctant to speak out for fear of losing their jobs. Campaigners insist the women are being exploited and treated like slaves. " We have to share the shower block with the...

resident Obama’s done lost his mind. He’s just flushed the civil rights of men and women, boys and girls, to pee in peace and shower without having naked, sexually confused or sexually predatory members of the opposite sex ogling them, or intentionally exposing their genitalia for a cheap thrill. Reports Fox News: “The Obama administration has sent a letter to every public school district in the country telling them to allow transgender students [meaning students pretending to be the opposite sex] to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their chosen gender identity, as opposed to their birth certificate. …...

Hi, I’m Derek Hunter and I’m a straight, white male. I’m 6 feet 5 inches tall, have brown hair and two different color eyes. At least, that’s how I actually am. But thanks to an insane group of pandering, division-loving progressive leftists, I am now free to claim to be, or “identify” in the current socially acceptable parlance, as anything I want. It’s good to know the president has enough free time to worry about such things as people’s right to use whichever bathroom they want. I was afraid he’d be bogged down with the fight against ISIS or his...

Burr calls NC GOP governor 'off base' for seeking congressional action North Carolina's senior senator said his state's Gov. Pat McCrory is "off base" in calling for congressional intervention to resolve a state dispute over restroom access for transgender people. "I've never seen Congress get involved in judicial matters and this is turned over to the court system now," Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr said Tuesday. "So, I think the governor's off base."... Burr said he would rather see the issue remain in the courts. "That's where they chose to put it,” he said. “I would have preferred that they...