Free Republic

Search... Florida Democrats Send Letter to DeSantis to End Non-Existent 'Book Bans' Amy Curt They're really grasping at straws in Florida. Having been relegated to a super minority, the Florida Democrats are begging Ron DeSantis to end the non-existent book bans in Florida schools. Florida Democrats pen letter calling for Gov. Ron DeSantis to end book bans https://t.co/PfitPMDEdd — The Hill (@thehill) December 8, 2023 The Hill explains: A group of Florida Democrats urged state Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to end his administration’s current initiative of banning books in the state. In a letter sent Thursday, the group wrote to...

U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona took a swipe Thursday at Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ parental rights law. Cardona took a trip to Iowa to visit the Perry Community School District and the Des Moines Area Community College to learn about the college's teacher apprenticeship and pipeline program. Before discussing the state of rural education in the Hawkeye State, Cardona had an interview with the Des Moines Register to talk about Reynolds' parental rights law. "What I'm seeing here in Iowa, what I'm seeing in other places, is an overreach of state government," the Education Secretary told the...

ORLANDO, Fla. – An Orlando performing arts venue has paid a $5,000 fine in a settlement agreement after allowing children into a “sexually explicit” Christmas drag show last year, according to state records. On Thursday, a newly released consent order revealed the Plaza Live Foundation agreed in August to pay the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations a $5,000 fine as part of a settlement with the state. he venue also agreed not to allow anyone under 18 years of age into any performance “which contains, depicts, or simulates any activities” that violate the state’s obscenity laws, the order...

Holidays bring family together and whenever the conversation starts with, “I don’t want to start an argument but…” an argument is likely to ensue. Because my sister and I have nearly diametrically opposed political views, mine conservative and hers liberal, I guess she felt comfortable in asking my opinion in the defense of what she must see as right-wing, conservative-driven efforts to ban certain books from school libraries. She claimed that this wave of book-banning and censorship was a renewed force of current origin, at least in its intensity and numbers. She declared that nothing good ever came from censorship....

Lacking power at the state level, conservatives are leaning into local governance to protest California’s progressive politics. The fight in Huntington Beach could be a harbinger of what’s to come.

Although most people think of Charleston, South Carolina, as a charming historic city (it is one of the world’s top vacation destinations), it was also one of the pivotal players in the American Revolution. Now, to the extent that we’re seeing a second American Revolution playing out, one that centers around the left’s desire to control and destroy our children, South Carolina is again playing a role. I wrote before about the school board battle and Moms for Liberty. This time, the war involves the mayoral battle and…Moms for Liberty. Moms for Liberty, as you know, has a very simple...

Tenth-graders at a Missouri high school last week had to watch a slideshow on “oppression and privilege” that appears to violate state law by using information from a Planned Parenthood affiliate that lists abortion clinics on its website. The website of the Planned Parenthood affiliate tells teens about “porn literacy” and “hookups” for casual sex. The class of sophomores at Webster Groves High School near St. Louis watched a slideshow titled “Being an Ally,” which lists so-called oppression categories as “racial,” “class,” “gender,” “sexual orientation,” “religion,” and “immigration status.” “It’s wrong to teach that different categories of human beings are...

Florida Democrats speaking out on censorship during National Banned Books Week. Party Chair Nikki Fried says Governor DeSantis is to blame for the fourteen-hundred books being removed from school libraries. Florida law requires schools be more transparent and give parents a chance to have input on selecting school library books. It also creates a process for school districts to ban books through a public hearing and vote by the school board.

Chaya Raichik, the creator behind the Twitter account Libs of TikTok, had been anonymous until she was doxed by Taylor Lorenz.But Lorenz’s attempts to silence Raichik backfired spectacularly and Libs of TikTok has grown to over 2.5 million on X.Raichik’s page chronicles radical leftists by reposting videos that Liberals publish themselves on social media, often chronicling public school teachers indoctrination of children to a radical leftist agenda.In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Raichik promised to become even more involved in s fighting the culture war against the types of leftists she regularly exposes with her account.Recently, a parent in Cherry...

I apologize for being gross, but it's necessary. You have to be shocked into recognizing the moral horror of what a part of the nation's largest teacher's union is doing. It is unspeakable, but we have to speak about it. The most effective work that the irreplaceable Christopher Rufo does is simply to get documents from institutions, and post them in full to the web, so ordinary people can see what kind of corrupt, racist or otherwise depraved people run these institutions. His latest is from the LGBTQ+ caucus of the National Education Association (NEA), the country's largest teachers union,...

A Texas middle school teacher has been fired after assigning her students a graphic novel version of Anne Frank's Diary - which references male and female genitalia. Officials within the Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District confirmed that a teacher was let go and that the book had not been presented for prior approval. In the graphic novel adaptation of the famed diary, Anne Frank details her exploration of her own body parts and her sexuality while going through puberty. Upon learning of the book's use in the curriculum, parents voiced their outrage while talking with KFDM, saying students were required to...

"All Boys aren't Blue" and "Gender Queer" WATCH: Senator Kennedy reads excerpts of two books during Senate hearing. This is what the left wants your kids to read. In school. Why would DeSantis ban this??

Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) read excerpts from the pornographic children’s books “Genderqueer” and “All Boys aren’t Blue” during a Senate Judiciary hearing Tuesday, prompting a Democrat witness who opposes “book bans” to admit that the words were “disturbing.” Democrats decried the banning of such books during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to examine “How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature.” The Democrats’ three witnesses included Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who crafted legislation in his state to outlaw book bans on pornographic books for children, and Cameron Samuels, a 17-year-old student activist who uses “gender neutral pronouns they/them” and compared...

Former President Barack Obama wrote a letter defending LGBTQ+ books in children’s schools and public libraries as Republican-led states move to restrict them amid growing concern from parents.“Today, some of the books that shaped my life—and the lives of so many others—are being challenged by people who disagree with certain ideas or perspectives,” Obama tweeted along with a letter. “And librarians are on the front lines, fighting every day to make the widest possible range of viewpoints, opinions, and ideas available to everyone.” [Obama wrote]

As you may or may not have heard, last week, the Montana State Library Commission elected to sever its relationship with the American Library Association: Montana State Library Commissioner Tamara Hall spoke out Tuesday after the Montana State Library Commission became the first state library commission to cut all ties with the American Library Association (ALA) this week because of its self-described "Marxist lesbian" president. Hall stated that ALA president-elect Emily Drabinski’s "avowed Marxist philosophy" is in "direct competition" to the commission's "oath of office" to uphold both the U.S. Constitution and Montana’s. The commissioner added that her board's vote...

Senate Republicans accused President Joe Biden Wednesday of creating "the largest child trafficking ring in U.S. history." The video accompanying the statement, which contains remarks from various senators, including Ted Cruz (Texas) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), echoes recent remarks made by Tim Ballard, the former Department of Homeland Security agent whose relentless pursuit of child traffickers across the globe is the subject of the massively successful new film "Sound of Freedom." Cruz says in the footage that "the Biden administration has utterly failed to secure the border and has encouraged parents to send their minor alien children on dangerous trips...

Joe Biden is illegally blocking parents from removing sexually explicit books from school libraries. In conjunction with that, he is also forcing a DEI Library code of conduct on schools that prevent the removal of pornographic and age-inappropriate sexual material. The administration is usurping parents’ rights to decide what is not age appropriate in a library. Biden and his ‘advisers’ are bullying parents into keeping sexually explicit material in school libraries. In other words, the State will decide when children must be exposed to it, not the parents. THE TAKEOVER The assault began with an investigation of Forsyth County Public...

The Biden regime has devised a deceitful scheme to shut down citizen efforts to remove schoolbooks containing LGBT themes, obscenity, or explicit sexuality. How do they plan to accomplish this? The Department of Education’s (DoE) Office of Civil Rights is now monitoring book challenges across the country for “discriminatory” actions, specifically related to books with any “LGBTQI+” content. But here’s the problem with their plan: There is no federal law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender identity, queer identity, intersex identity, or plus identity. So, there is no solid basis for the DoE’s intervention in what should,...

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — This was a virtual nightmare for educators and parents. Officials in a South Florida school district are investigating after students in an online science class were exposed to a live sex act on their screens, the Sun-Sentinel reported. According to the newspaper, Thierry “Ted” Victor was teaching environmental science at McArthur High School in Hollywood on Sept. 2 when he saw the live video, according to a letter he sent to administrators. As Victor viewed the Microsoft Teams video conferencing session, he said he saw a female performing oral sex on a male, according to the Sun-Sentinel,...

Dozens of Muslim and Christian parents showed up Tuesday at a Maryland school board meeting to protest a new policy that would stop letting parents opt their children out of reading LGBT books in school. A large and vocal group of parents and other demonstrators protested outside the Montgomery County Public Schools headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, where the school board was preparing to discuss the rule change. The group of parental rights demonstrators appear to be majority Muslim in video clips from the protest that were posted to social media. The protesters chanted “Not Your Children,” “Protect Our Children,” and...