Free Republic

San Diego State's men's basketball team took the court Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but California's multistate travel ban meant the trip to Wichita, Kansas, was more arduous than usual. Under a California law that took effect last year, state universities and public agencies are prohibited from using state money to travel to Kansas and seven other states with laws deemed discriminatory toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday handed down the longest suspension in its history to a judge who refused to marry gay couples in the state, but stopped short of removing him from office. Marion County Circuit Court Judge Vance Day had come to the attention of authorities after allegations he had refused to marry gay couples and had broken gun laws. In 2016, an ethics commission recommended that Day be removed from office. Instead, the court ordered Day suspended for three years. Despite public attention garnered by Day's actions toward gay people following same-sex marriage...

A courageous Georgia MassResistance activist was arrested and jailed and humiliated by the authorities after legally protesting in front of the Georgia State Capitol against the LGBT agenda. She had been demonstrating on the same spot – a public sidewalk – for nearly three months and had previously been assured by police that it was legal to be there. Marquitta R. Ford has been protesting and lobbying public officials because businesses in Georgia have begun allowing men in women’s restrooms – and the government refuses to take action to protect women. She and her friends have recently experienced several terrifying...

Anderson Cooper is a single man. The CNN anchor and his boyfriend, Benjamin Maisani, have called it quits after nine years together. “Benjamin and I separated as boyfriends some time ago,” Cooper, 50, said in a statement to Us on Thursday, March 15. “We are still family to each other, and love each other very much. We remain the best of friends, and will continue to share much of our lives together.” The best of friends, indeed. The journalist and the 45-year-old nightclub owner, who were first linked in 2009, attended a benefit for the Windward School in New York...

Shepard Smith may report some items that anger viewers of Fox News Channel, but that hasn’t kept the 21st Century Fox-owned cable-news outlet from keeping him in its lineup. Fox News said Thursday that it signed the anchor to a new multi-year deal.

A prominent Lutheran seminary with two campuses in Pennsylvania is having a stormy moment of reckoning over the early-career, "conversion therapy" work by its first-year president. That moment reached a climax at the United Lutheran Seminary Wednesday, with the school's board of trustees voting to end the Rev. Theresa F. Latini's tenure as president. Latini, who answered some questions from PennLive via email Wednesday night, called the board's action unfair. "I have been scapegoated by an historically divided institution resistant to unification," she wrote, "and have been given little chance to respond to the accusations against me." United Lutheran Seminary...

Adam Rippon is back in the news, this time from rumors that he is producing a reality show with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. The news is likely to ruffle some feathers, as Rippon has become a polarizing figure — perhaps unfairly. Rippon, 28, is a 2018 Winter Olympics athlete and medalist. He received significant attention for being one of the first openly gay athletes to represent Team USA at a Winter Olympics and the first openly gay male athlete to win a medal in a Winter Olympics. But throughout the Olympics, it seemed as though Rippon made headlines just...

The Family Research Council (FRC) said in a statement Tuesday that the nomination of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State will enhance the administration’s goal of a return to “American values and principles” and make support for human rights and religious freedom a priority. “President Trump has been an agent of change in Washington,” said FRC president Tony Perkins in a press statement. “It is hard to identify another federal agency that is in more need of change than the State Department, which has historically and consistently been at cross purposes with American values and principles. Mike Pompeo is a...

FULL TITLE: Transgender visitor at a prison files lawsuit after she was ordered by guards to remove her underwear because a screening machine detected 'unknown object' in her pants A transgender woman who tried to visit her incarcerated brother has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Louisiana prison officers ordered her to remove her underwear and show her genitals before she could leave the facility. Donald Nelson, a 48-year-old New Orleans resident who goes by the name 'China,' said in the complaint filed Tuesday that officers at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola insisted on searching her vehicle after she refused...

A transgender woman is suing Tinder on behalf of other transgender people living in the Portland area, claiming it rejects all transgender people from the dating service. Ariel Hawkins claims in a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, a few days ago she edited her profile to disclose that she was a pre-op trans woman. She says Tinder immediately deleted her account. She says the company sent her email saying she violated its terms of service ... but didn't point her to any term and refused to explain the basis for the rejection.

A 19-year-old Texas councilman whose nude photos from a dating app were exposed is defending the snaps as “freedom of expression,” according to reports. Cross Coburn, who identifies as gay, said he believes homophobia is behind the X-rated photo leak, which came to light Monday when an envelope with the pics was anonymously delivered to Groves City Hall, where he is the youngest sitting councilman, news station KDFM reported. “I felt like I was being harassed; discriminated against because I’m a young gay man on City Council,” Coburn told the news station. He claimed that the screenshots of raunchy conversations...

Modern medicine can’t reassign sex physically, and attempting to do so doesn’t produce good outcomes psychosocially. Here is the evidence. Contrary to the claims of activists, sex isn’t “assigned” at birth—and that’s why it can’t be “reassigned.” As I explain in my book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, sex is a bodily reality that can be recognized well before birth with ultrasound imaging. The sex of an organism is defined and identified by the way in which it (he or she) is organized for sexual reproduction.

Fort Lauderdale has elected its first openly gay mayor.... ...Dean Trantalis, 64, a Wilton Manors attorney, defeated Bruce Roberts, 70, the city’s former police chief, to replace longtime mayor Jack Seiler, who could not run because of term limits. Trantalis will be the city’s first openly gay mayor....

LGBT activists wasted no time in attacking President Donald Trump's new pick to run the State Department, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. "Mike Pompeo's longstanding opposition to LGBTQ equality makes him a reckless choice to lead our nation's diplomatic efforts," Chad Griffin, president of the LGBT group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) said in a statement Tuesday. "The decision to nominate anti-LGBTQ Mike Pompeo could have serious consequences for the United States and LGBTQ people around the globe. The State Department has a crucial role to play in advancing human rights — a role which was already rapidly declining under Tillerson. This...

Sex “reassignment” doesn’t work. It’s impossible to “reassign” someone’s sex physically, and attempting to do so doesn’t produce good outcomes psychosocially. As I demonstrate in my book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” the medical evidence suggests that sex reassignment does not adequately address the psychosocial difficulties faced by people who identify as transgender. Even when the procedures are successful technically and cosmetically, and even in cultures that are relatively “trans-friendly,” transitioners still face poor outcomes.

Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar has criticized the Trump administration for its record on gay rights and says he will bring up the topic with Trump when they meet on Thursday of this week. “What I intend to say is that for the vast majority of people around the world including people from gay lesbian transgender backgrounds, we have always seen America as a beacon of freedom,” the Taoiseach, who is gay, said. “This is the land of the free, the home of the brave. This is where the LGBT rights movement began.” He added: “It is really tough to...

Waitrose is offering a gender-neutral card for Mother's Day in a bid to make the celebration more inclusive. The supermarket is offering cards celebrating 'Happy You Day' in its range of Mother's Day gifts in order to make them appropriate for transgender people. It comes alongside a Scribbler card reaching out to same-sex couples with the message: 'Two Mums Are Better Than One'. Waitrose said the idea was 'broadening out who the cards can go to, whether it's grandmas or transgender mums', according to the Sunday Times

At first it looks little different from any other teen drama, but Fox's "Love, Simon" is as significant a milestone for LGBT inclusion as "Black Panther" was for racial diversity. While the DVD aisles of superstores the world over groan under the weight of stories of callow first love, never before has a mainstream studio romantic comedy been told from the perspective of a gay teenager. "Everyone, myself included, can relate to Simon and his journey, and trying to find yourself and come to terms with yourself in a way that feels comfortable," the film's 22-year-old star Nick Robinson said...

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is calling himself “a proud feminist” and says all men should support women’s rights and gender equality. […] He said changing “the unequal power dynamics” that underpin discrimination and violence against women is “the greatest human rights challenge of our time.” He called that a goal “in everyone’s interests.” …

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has said he is concerned Irish whiskey could be targeted as part of the escalating trade war between the US and the EU. Speaking on the first day of his week-long visit to the US, Mr Varadkar said when he hears the EU threaten to put import tariffs on US bourbon, it concerns him that Irish whiskey could also be hit with tariffs. “When I hear bourbon whiskey I think the next response could be tariffs against Irish whiskey,” he said. Speaking at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Mr Varadkar warned that a cross-Atlantic...