Tag: lgbt

Video Shows Fort Worth Cop Ticketing a Preacher for ‘Offensive’ Speech at Pride Event

A Fort Worth Police officer ticketed a preacher in late June, claiming the content of his speech was offensive. This week the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division launched an inquiry into the incident to determine if the officer violated the First Amendment.

The widely circulated video of the confrontation shows an officer and a protester during the Trinity Pride Fest on June 27. “If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem,” said Officer Sara Stogner.

“That’s a constitutional violation of our rights,” responds David Grisham, a street preacher and retired federal law enforcement officer. The two continue to argue when Stogner asserts, “OK, then I’ll write you the ticket, and we’ll go from there.”

“Wait, you’re going to ticket us for offensive speech?” the cameraman asks incredulously. To which the officer confidently responds, “Yes, absolutely.”

Stogner continues to claim she can ticket the two men for disorderly conduct “if someone complains that your language or what you’re saying is offensive.”  

But that’s not how the First Amendment works, according to legal experts. “The First Amendment does not allow government officials to shut down speech simply on account of it being ‘offensive,'” said Brennan VanderVeen, program counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “The government can restrict certain types of conduct or restrict noise above a certain volume level,” he continued, but citing someone because people are offended by the content of protected speech is “precisely what the First Amendment does not allow.” 

Grisham was ultimately cited for misuse of a bullhorn during a protest, a citation he argues isn’t supported by the city’s noise ordinance, reports WFAA, an ABC News affiliate. Grisham’s civil rights attorneys announced on July 3 their intent to challenge the citation, arguing Stogner failed to issue a decibel check in accordance with the city’s noise ordinance and Texas code, which presumes an unreasonable noise to be in excess of 85, and instead cited Grisham for “engaging in peaceful and protected speech.” 

In response to growing online backlash, Fort Worth Police Chief Eddie Garcia told WFAA on Monday that his department takes responsibility and is currently instituting department-wide First Amendment training. “We just trained up our command staff again with refresher courses. We’re going to be training our sergeants. We’re going to be training our officers,” said Garcia. “We are not a perfect profession,” he continued, “and officers will make mistakes from time to time.” Garcia did not mention any ways in which Stogner would be held personally accountable or liable. 

“Actively training police officers around First Amendment standards would be a positive step,” said VanderVeen, who added that “government officials being unaware of basic First Amendment standards is a persistent problem.” 

So much so, it seems, the Justice Department is also looking into the incident and has asked the Fort Worth city attorney for information to help the agency determine if an investigation is necessary, reports Fox News. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring all Americans—regardless of the content or viewpoint of their speech—are protected from unlawful restrictions on expressive activity,” wrote Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon.

The City of Fort Worth, Texas, has 30 days to provide the DOJ with further information.

The Justice Department is right to ensure Grisham’s freedom of speech has not been infringed, and doing so is consistent with the agency’s core mission to protect civil rights. But the move stands out against a backdrop of the agency’s alleged First Amendment violations since President Donald Trump took office, including subpoenaing journalists, coercing social media companies to remove immigration officer tracking apps, and attempting to unmask anonymous online critics. 

But for now, Americans can rest assured that the Justice Department can still do the right thing every once in a while.

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NYU scholar argues philosophical case against men competing in women sports

Called a ‘dictator’ for his position

Philosophy, not “empirical studies,” can prove why men should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports, according to a New York University scholar.

Professor Daniel Kodsi laid out his case in a new paper in the Journal of Controversial Ideas and expanded on his arguments in comments to The College Fix. The paper and comments came prior to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling affirming that states can prohibit gender-confused men from competing in women’s sports. 

Kodsi and his co-author, John Maier, wrote this paper based on a version of an amicus brief they helped write in the Supreme Court case.

The paper argues “that it is justified to exclude male people, and only male people, from certain spaces—sports teams, leagues, events and competitions—set aside for female athletes.”

“More generally, it argues that it is justified to organize sports around the biological distinction between male people and female people,” they wrote.

Kodsi told The Fix via email that his paper’s argument was not based on scientific studies, but solely on philosophical reasoning.

“A key point we attempt to drive home is that no ‘empirical studies’ are needed to establish that men who identify as women may justifiably be excluded from women’s sports, just as no empirical studies are needed to establish that adult athletes from Switzerland may justifiably be excluded from junior sports,” he said.

His argument is focused on promoting women’s rights within their sports, not motivated by unjust discrimination against men.

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Transgender Person Who Fled the United States for the Netherlands Now Complains About Being Harassed by Muslims There

A transgender person who was born a male but now identifies as a woman, fled the United States of America for the Netherlands, apparently believing there would be greater freedom there. This same person was recently interviewed and complained about being harassed by Muslim migrants in the Dutch country.

How many times have we seen something like this before?

People on the left who flee the United States of America looking for something better, almost never find what they are seeking. In fact, they usually end up learning a hard lesson about how much better life is in the United States.

John Nolte writes at Breitbart News:

The Dutch town of Ter Apel has a population of just 10,000 and was just sabotaged by its own government.

Over 2,200 asylum seekers were dumped on this town, most of them young, Muslim men. The center used to house asylum seekers tops out at 2,000, so, according to local news reports, “between 40 and 100 asylum seekers have spent their days outside the centre.”

Naturally, this influx of hostile foreigners who are not interested in integrating has deteriorated conditions. Violence has become enough of a problem that the “Red Cross and the Dutch Council for Refugees… have withdrawn their aid workers from the grounds around the Ter Apel asylum reception after rising violence, culminating in two stabbings last week, have left the area too dangerous to continue operating in.”…

“It’s scary. It’s legitimately scary. I decided that my mental health is degrading so substantially, being here, that I just need to get out,” the dude in a dress said. “The situation I have in the U.S. as a trans person — not good, right? — but here I will be hurt or killed.”

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Transgender DSA Member and Former AZ Democratic Party Vice Chair Arrested After Allegedly Breaking into Home Wielding Knife and Duct Tape – Claims He Was Roleplaying

A former Arizona congressional candidate and ex-Democratic Party leader was arrested last week on charges of felony burglary at an ex-partner’s home. 

The suspect, Brianna Westbrook, has run for federal and state offices, including a failed 2018 bid for US Congress and losses in Democratic primaries for the Arizona State Senate and Arizona House of Representatives in 2018 and 2022.

According to ballotready.org, Westbrook’s professional experience includes serving as the Southwest Regional Co-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America Immigrant Rights National Working Group from 2019 to the present, and a past stint as Arizona Democratic Party Vice Chair from 2019 to 2021.

Westbrook was reportedly arrested after a former partner told the police that Westbrook allegedly “pushed her way” into the victim’s home, while carrying a knife and duct tape, according to 12 News Phoenix.

Following a struggle inside the home, Westbrook reportedly threatened the victim and another individual inside the home before Westbrook reportedly “took off running,” according to records.

According to court documents, officers found “a knife, tape, and gloves” after conducting a search.

Westbrook, however, told police it was a “big misunderstanding” and that they were acting out a role-playing scene, which the victim has denied.

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Hilarious Video Resurfaces Showing Toronto Police “Combatting Transphobia” After Citizen Trolls “2SLGBTQ+ Liaison Officer” Driving Transgender Cop Car

The Toronto Police Department is coming under fire after a video resurfaced, in which they combat transphobia in response to a citizen trolling their trans-friendly police division. 

The video, titled “2SLGBTQ+ Liaison Officers Combatting Transphobia In Toronto,” was posted on the official Toronto Police channel in June 2024.

Sgt. Rob Chevalier, the Toronto Police 2SLGBTQI+ Liaison Officer, and a black man identified as “Nevada” are seen in the video discussing an incident where a driver pulled up to the Toronto Police pride SUV and trolled the duo.

Chevalier says he was assisting with a case, where Nevada was apparently a victim, and drove her home for her safety.

“He drove me home in the fabulous pride SUV, and as he was driving me home, we reached a stoplight, and then an individual in a pickup truck came up to us,” Nevada says before the video cuts to an Instagram video from the incident. The man pulls up to the car and asks, “Are you guys cops or you just identify as cops?”

Chevalier is seen asking the driver, “What does it look like I am?” and the driver hilariously responds, “I have no idea. Reality doesn’t exist anymore.” This apparently prompted the department to actually post a video of the exchange in an effort to combat “transphobia.”

“Part of me was shocked, but part of me was not shocked,” Nevada said of the event. “I am a trans woman; I’ve been transitioning for eight years. I get harassed and vilified every day of my life.”

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Democrats Can’t Kick the Trans Obsession

I watched the New York Pride Parade on livestream. The parade is a major event in NYC, attended by well over a million people. Today, 11 years after Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage, the movement that once celebrated equality alongside most Democrats looks very different. The near-complete embrace of trans rights as seen in the parade, especially as it affects children, is likely to harm the Democratic Party in coming elections. (FYI, I’ll use the word “gay” as shorthand here for the various constructions, the most complete of which is the unhandy LGBTQQIP2SAA+.)

One of the most noticeable changes in the Pride Parade was the replacement of the once-ubiquitous rainbow flag with the “trans flag,” adding pink, brown, white, and black. Trans people were present in large numbers, had their own floats, and were noticeably name-checked by most of the speakers and signs I saw. 

As in years before, Democratic politicians were also quite visible. But this year the senior pol, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), was booed. Some in the crowd turned their backs on him, and when the parade paused, they shouted out about how he did not support trans rights. Chuck yelled back he was the first major politician to ever attend a Pride Parade, back in the ’90s. Meanwhile, the all-in, modern trans-supporter Mayor Zohran Mamdani got some of the biggest applause of the day.

In Gallup polls from 1996 only about a third of Americans supported same-sex marriage. But by the mid-2010s, the figure had flipped and remained about two-thirds into the 2020s. This change culminated in the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. In 2024 the Republican Party even removed opposition to marriage equality from its platform. Importantly, the Court ruling followed—not preceded—the broader cultural shift. 

The emphasis that led to acceptance of gay rights was driven by several factors, key among which was the emphasis on marriage involving consenting adults, many of whom were already cohabitating in various statuses. Advocacy focused on the universal human rights already part of American law and society, such as the right to work, to own property jointly, and so on—nothing more than asking people to accept someone else’s private life. It did not include sexual “rights” for children.

Then something happened concurrent with the first election of Donald Trump. While it once was sufficient to support basic rights, the Pride Parade started to include overt anti-Trump messages. Signs started to read “Trans rights are human rights,” and the new flag was debuted. Far from “celebrating victory, defending the gains, and staying vigilant while winding down as a movement that had achieved its core objectives,” many gay groups did the opposite. They radicalized. 

Democrats increasingly viewed gay activism as an important component of their electoral coalition. The letter Q and the term “queer” came to symbolize the idea that one’s sexuality was a political act. In the 2016 presidential election, gay voters embraced Hillary Clinton, promoting irrational fears as bizarre as Trump endorsing imprisoning gays in concentration camps. This voting pattern reflected a broader social shift, where identity-based politics became increasingly central to how one voted. The Democrats took full advantage of this, fanning the flames further in the next election cycle with careful allotments by gender identity (as well as race, disability, etc.) throughout the Biden administration, especially in the military.

The move from basic rights to gender identity made things much more complex as Trump took office a second time. 

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Mexico’s First Openly Gay Mayor Slain in Guadalajara as World Cup Highlights More Than 135,000 Disappearances and more Journalist Killings

Mexico’s hosting of the 2026 FIFA World Cup was meant to showcase national pride, soccer passion, and cultural unity before a global audience. Instead, the tournament has unfolded against the backdrop of some of the country’s deepest crises: cartel violence, forced disappearances, killings of public officials and journalists, and protests by families searching for missing loved ones.

The July 7 killing of Benjamín Medrano Quezada, Mexico’s first openly gay mayor, brought those realities into even sharper focus.

Medrano, 59, was shot and killed in Guadalajara, Jalisco, after leaving an ice cream shop in the Santa Elena de la Cruz neighborhood. According to authorities, gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire multiple times, striking him in the head and face.

Medrano served as mayor of Fresnillo, Zacatecas—one of Mexico’s largest municipalities and a strategic corridor for drug trafficking—from 2013 to 2015 before later serving as a federal deputy. He made history as one of Mexico’s first openly gay mayors and was also known as a singer, businessman, and owner of a gay bar in Fresnillo.

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OF COURSE: Texas Democrat James Talarico Is Campaigning With Doctor Who Performed Trans Surgeries on Minors

James Talarico, the far left candidate running for U.S. Senate in Texas, seems to be a single-issue candidate. Every time his name comes up, so does the topic of ‘trans children.’

He is obsessed with the issue and has talked about it extensively. For him, it doesn’t seem to matter how the public feels about this.

Now we are learning that he is even campaigning with a doctor who has performed transgender surgery on children. How is this supposed to appeal to the voters of Texas?

FOX News reports:

Talarico campaigns with surgeon who operated on transgender minors: ‘Wolf in sheep’s clothing’

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is facing questions after fundraising with a “female-to-male” top surgeon who previously operated on minors shortly after saying that he does not support sex-change surgeries for children.

Talarico, a progressive Democrat, state lawmaker and Presbyterian seminarian, is running a highly competitive race to flip a Texas Senate seat for the first time in decades. He is opposing Republican state attorney general Ken Paxton. The seat is critical to both parties’ hopes of holding a Senate majority this next session.

During an appearance on the “Unity Over Division” podcast on June 8, Talarico responded to criticisms that he supports gender transition for minors by stating, “I oppose gender reassignment surgeries for minors.”

Days later, he participated in an Austin “Pride for Talarico” fundraiser that featured Dr. Dustin Reid, a female-to-male breast surgeon who confirmed with Fox News Digital that he previously operated on minors in “rare” cases prior to Texas banning the practice. He said that he no longer performs these surgeries in line with Texas law.

Speaking with Fox News Digital over the phone, Reid confirmed his participation in the event in support of Talarico. He said that “in the past, on a case-by-case basis, I would do that [female-to-male surgeries on minors] but not since they made it illegal in Texas.”

There are plenty of reasons to oppose Talarico’s candidacy, but this issue could be the one that sinks him.

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REPORT: So Many Transgender People Are Moving to Socialist-Run Seattle That it’s Overwhelming the City’s Nonprofits

Back in April, Seattle’s socialist Mayor Katie Wilson laughed at the idea of millionaires fleeing the city over the prospect of new and higher taxes.

She is seemingly unconcerned about the fact that downtown Seattle is becoming a ghost town with tons of unoccupied commercial space. On the other hand, she is probably overjoyed that transgender people are migrating to Seattle in huge numbers.

In fact, so many of them have moved there in recent months that the nonprofit community in the city, which offers various services, is completely overwhelmed.

Breitbart News reports:

Report: Transgender People Leaving Red States Are Draining Democrat-Run Seattle’s Nonprofits

Increasing numbers of transgender people are reportedly leaving red states for Democrat-run Seattle, Washington, and a nonprofit in the area is struggling to keep up with the demand.

The group called Traction has assisted over 1,000 transgender people in moving to the area since 2024 but it and other nonprofits, according to a Washington Post article published on Tuesday, are running out of resources.

“Though trans people make up just 1 percent of the population in Washington state, the nonprofits that help them say their budgets are drained and their staffs are stretched so thin that last month the Seattle LGBTQ Commission asked Mayor Katie Wilson (D) to declare a civil state of emergency. Such a declaration would free up general fund dollars to bolster the nonprofits’ finances as they help transplants find housing and jobs,” the outlet said.

The report also cited a poll that suggested about 400,000 transgender adults left red states not long after President Donald Trump beat former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election…

“If the city chooses not to declare a state of emergency, commission leaders said, they worry what will happen not only to Seattle’s LGBTQ+ organizations but also to ones that help all city residents. Many of the newcomers need shelter, food aid, and subsidized health care. And the city’s homeless population has already reached a record high this year,” the article stated.

Even the Washington Post is reporting on this.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson Is Neither A Biologist Nor A Qualified Justice

Being a justice on the United States Supreme Court requires legal brilliance, intellectual rigor, strict discernment of and adherence to facts, and logical consistency. Clearly, not every justice on the current court meets these criteria.

This was demonstrated in the courts’ recent “trans” sports decision that now reasonably permits schools, under Title IX, to let biological sex be the determinant of who can and cannot compete on high school and college sports teams. In sum, this was a case about fundamental human reality and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s bold and incoherent dissent from it.

In their landmark 6-3 decision, the majority (Kavanaugh, Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Barrett) describe the primary plaintiff — identified as “B.P.J.” in the case — as a biological male who “identifies as female.”

This boy is West Virginia’s Becky Pepper-Jackson, who consistently dominated girls in track and field events. Kristen Waggoner, President of Alliance Defending Freedom, an organization that helped argue this case before the court, said Pepper-Jackson took wins from more than 470 girls over 1,400 competitions. He stole two regional and one state championship from deserving female athletes. In addition to beating girls in sports, Pepper-Jackson also threatened them with sexual assault in the locker room, Waggoner explained to a CNN host.

The majority thankfully never referred to this sexually abusive boy as “transgender” nor by female pronouns, but simply as B.P.J. They chose to not play the gender ideology language game. That was certainly not true for the minority justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson.

They confess “B.P.J. is also transgender” while ignoring the fact that no one is transgender. It is a made-up term with no objective scientific backing. Even the American Psychiatric Association (APA), who regularly carries water for trans ideology, confesses “transgender is a non-medical term” which merely refers to one’s subjective gender-atypical belief or physical presentation. The APA explains the term is used interchangeably with other meaningless ideological words such as “gender non-conforming, genderqueer, bigendered and agendered.”

Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson then write these nonsensical words: “Her sex was identified as male at birth, but she has known from the time that she was ‘very little’ that she is a girl.” 

This is the deceptive talk of gender ideology. These three justices reflexively side with and parrot the child’s obvious mental illness, all while sitting on America’s highest court.

This is bad enough already, but certainly not the worst of it.

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