American youth sports programs have gained a reputation for being toxic to kids and families, but one league in the South is bucking the trend.
The Swim Association Invitational League in Greenville County, South Carolina, is a recreational swim league where kids at every competitive level learn about discipline, hard work, and handling pressure through the joy of athletic competition. The league is a community bedrock that has brought swimmers and families together for over 60 years and become a quintessential part of summer for thousands.
Three years ago, my family and I left the suburbs of Philadelphia and relocated to Greenville County. Shortly before we moved, I discovered my daughter, who was 7, had an interest in swimming. This was a big deal because for months I’d unsuccessfully tried to find a sport she loved, and after signing her up for soccer, basketball, and softball, I&#8217;d only found that she hated running. But when she participated in a two-week swim program at our local high school and took to the water like a fish, I knew I&#8217;d finally found her sport.
I’m adamant about my kids participating in youth sports because I was an athlete and know sports can be an incredible environment for kids to learn about discipline, perseverance, and teamwork while developing healthy physical habits. Through the highs and lows of playing sports, I learned about handling pressure and overcoming adversity, which were valuable lessons I carried into adulthood. Science <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12220085/#Sec17">backs up</a> the benefits of youth sports <a href="https://odphp.health.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/YSS_Report_OnePager_2020-08-31_web.pdf">participation</a>, which increases physical health while buffering the impacts of stress and anxiety.
But American youth sports have undergone a major mindset shift since I was an athlete. Youth sports have become a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/business/youth-sports-private-equity.html?eafs_enabled=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$40 billion industry</a>, and the low-pressure recreational leagues of the past focused on development and fun have largely been replaced by early sport specialization and high-stakes travel teams. This so-called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/business/youth-sports-stress.html?eafs_enabled=false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“professionalization of youth sports”</a> is causing overuse injuries, athlete burnout, and financial strain for families, threatening to nullify many of the benefits kids gain by playing sports. It&#8217;s also pushing kids to opt out of participating altogether. The American Academy of Pediatrics <a href="https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/aap-voices/calling-timeout-an-extended-one/?srsltid=AfmBOop2bZH0CnZDN87Mj5-of-V4hrKu7k9pQCmQhCL5u-C_RaFmXHAU">estimates</a> that 70% of kids have quit sports altogether by age 13. Too many young athletes are stressed and overworked during a time they should be having fun while playing a sport they love.
The summer SAIL league in Greenville has managed to buck these negative trends and is proof you can still create a competitive, positive youth sport culture in 2026. The SAIL swim <a href="https://sail.swimtopia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">league</a> includes over 30 neighborhood-based teams that collectively represent more than 4,500 swimmers, ages 6-18, from over 1,700 families. Many teams are coached by college students, who are often former SAIL swimmers, and practice is held twice a day for almost two months at the neighborhood&#8217;s pool. I first learned of the league from veteran swim team moms who told me joining a SAIL team would be a huge investment of time and energy but confidently assured  me, “It will all be worth it.” Our family took the plunge and joined a team at the start of our first summer living in Greenville.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1146673" style="width: 856px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1146673" class="wp-image-1146673 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-846x576.jpg" alt="" width="846" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-846x576.jpg 846w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-300x204.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-768x523.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-1536x1046.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/IMG_4692-1-2048x1395.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 846px) 100vw, 846px" />Final race of the night. Photo by Meg Brock.</div>
As a new swim team mom, I quickly discovered summer swim meets are four to six hours of beautiful and overwhelming chaos. Hundreds of kids are running around barefoot, almost indistinguishable in their matching bathing suits and swim caps, playing and laughing together while waiting to swim their races. Parents, who are required to volunteer at every meet, hover at the edge of the pool clutching stopwatches as they try to capture the precise second a swimmer touches the wall. A loud &#8220;take your mark&#8221; repeats over and over again as swimmers in a never-ending line jump off the starting blocks before a cheering crowd. It’s loud, energetic, and overstimulating, but somehow it all works.
Outside of the pool deck is a sprawling encampment of canopies, kids, and camping chairs that rivals any tailgate party you’d find on game day outside of a professional stadium (minus the alcohol). At my first swim meet, I made the rookie mistake of only bringing along two camping chairs. I&#8217;ve since adopted the mindset of bringing everything my family would need for an overnight camping trip, including food, water, foldable chairs, battery-powered fans, and a canopy for shelter.
The meets have 80 events, and each swimmer can sign up for three races and has the chance to make two relay teams, which altogether adds up to just two to six minutes per swimmer — not a lot of time for the amount of effort put in.
Summer swim allows kids at every level, whether they can barely make it across the pool or are elite all-year swimmers, to compete on the same team. New swimmers race against their own personal best while top swimmers race against each other to win and score points for their team. Everyone has something to aim for and the chance to leave the meet feeling like they accomplished something, even if they finished dead last. Every kid, not only the very athletic or single-sport specialized, has the opportunity to compete, grow, and learn valuable lessons. Swim team also gives structure and purpose to the unanchored days of summer and inoculates kids from developing a case of perpetual summer boredom.
In addition to practices and meets, the team brings kids and families together through social events such as movie outings, family meals, and a nostalgic Fourth of July celebration. It provided our entire family with a sense of community when we had just moved to a new place and really needed it. It&#8217;s the only youth sport league I’ve been a part of that brings families together instead of pushing everyone in different directions.
Sometimes at the end of a home meet, the entire team of swimmers, from teens to first graders, jumps into the pool at the same time to celebrate a win. It’s a kind of wholesome fun and feeling of community you usually only see in movies. I’m so thankful my kids have been able to experience it in real life. After three years of being a summer swim team mom, I understand why thousands of families have devoted two months of their summer to this beloved tradition for over 60 years.
Greenville isn’t the only place where this magic happens. There are amazing recreational summer swim leagues all across the country. If you are looking for ways to build up kids and community, I wholeheartedly recommend diving into summer swim. You’ll likely find a youth sports culture you didn’t think still existed and that the practices, the long meets, and all that sweating in the sun will be worth it. It might just become your favorite part of summer. It&#8217;s become mine.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

May 30 2025 (1 of 1)-2

The Youth Sports Tradition Defying America’s Broken System

Americana

Parenting

summer

Swimming

Upstream

youth sports

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the third article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. Read <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">part one</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wpath-files-trans-org-admits-need-for-detransitioner-protocols-while-pushing-child-sex-changes?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WPATH+FILES%3A+Trans+Org+Admits+Need+For+Detransitioner+Protocols+While+Pushing+Child+Sex-Changes">part two</a>.
***
World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) members discussed how to help female inmates overcome “internalized transphobia” and learn to affirm &#8220;transgender&#8221; men living in women&#8217;s prisons.
Michelle Webb, a gender affirming program administrator for the Washington State Department of Corrections, suggested female inmates have &#8220;open and frank&#8221; discussions with &#8220;trained staff&#8221; to better understand the needs of men wanting to “live their authentic lives&#8221; in women&#8217;s prisons, messages from the WPATH online member forum show.
“The cis female population should have open and frank discussions with trained staff, with community experts, to understand why the [transgender and gender diverse] females want to be in an affirmative environment,” wrote Webb in the online forum. &#8220;They [are] not trying to take resources; they are not getting ‘more than’ cis females, they are just looking to live their authentic lives and have equity.”
<div id="attachment_1142127" style="width: 672px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142127" class="wp-image-1142127 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-662x576.jpg" alt="" width="662" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-662x576.jpg 662w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-300x261.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7-768x668.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH7.jpg 1115w" sizes=" (max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px" />Screenshot of messages from a WPATH member forum obtained through a public record request.</div>
Webb explained many men had a difficult time integrating into women&#8217;s prison and were &#8220;not accepted by the cis females.&#8221;
“[Transgender and gender diverse] females living in the cis female facilities have all mentioned something they call the ‘mask’ meaning the mask they wore in the male facilities, the mask that kept them safe, it allowed them to blend in and not draw attention to themselves,” wrote Webb. “When individuals were moved to the female facilities, they found it difficult to drop the mask and this made their integration into the female facilities extremely difficult, they were often not accepted by the cis females and on occasion were ostracized.”
WPATH&#8217;s medical guidance, the Standards of Care Version 8, has been cited in <a href="https://disabilityrightswa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DOC-Complaint-2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">multiple</a><a href="https://transgenderlawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Class-Action-Trans-Women-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> lawsuits</a> demanding prison systems implement policies that <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69717615/1/kingdom-v-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">affirm</a> gender ideology and provide &#8220;gender-affirming&#8221; healthcare.
Amie Ichikawa, an <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/people/amie-ichikawa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ambassador</a> at Independent Women and co-founder of the nonprofit <a href="https://www.womaniiwoman.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woman II Woman</a>, told The Daily Wire transgender activists have treated female inmates as “support animals,” forcing them to cater “to the fleeting feelings of male inmates who identify as women.”
&#8220;Departments of Corrections across the country have let WPATH bully them into sacrificing female prisoners to be used like support animals,” Ichikawa said. “Never, at any point, should a woman need to be reprogrammed to accommodate a male inmate. This is just a peek into the female future if we do not stop this attack on their existence.”
Ichikawa says the effort to include men in women&#8217;s prison is making incarcerated women &#8220;invisible.&#8221;
“Prison is already a difficult place to be. The aggressive, forced acceptance of gender ideology as some kind of state-sanctioned religion has pushed incarcerated women completely out of the spectrum of concern,” Ichikawa told The Daily Wire. “They barely had any visibility or relevance before this started trending, so they are almost invisible now.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142131" style="width: 691px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142131" class="wp-image-1142131 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-681x576.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-681x576.jpg 681w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-300x254.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6-768x650.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH6.jpg 979w" sizes=" (max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px" />Screenshot of messages from a WPATH member forum obtained through a public record request.</div>
The Daily Wire obtained the WPATH forum messages through a public record request to the Washington Department of Corrections, which has some of the most <a href="https://disabilityrightswa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/17-1-Declaration-of-Danny-Waxwing-Exhibit-A.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical</a> transgender prison policies in the nation. Washington State is being <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-notifies-washington-investigation-whether-housing-biological-men-womens" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigated</a> by the Department of Justice for forcing women to be housed with men, in possible violation of their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-doj-investigating-prison-system-that-forces-women-to-share-cells-with-violent-men?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=12&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+DOJ+Investigating+Prison+System+That+Forces+Women+To+Share+Cells+With+Violent+Men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">constitutional right</a> to safe incarceration. The America First Policy Institute filed a <a href="https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/assets/uploads/files/AFPI_WDOC_Complaint_04.27.26.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> against the Washington Department of Corrections in April 2026 that alleges two women living in a Washington State Women&#8217;s prison were assaulted by a “six-foot-four, ‘biologically intact’ male” with a history of violence against women, housed in a women&#8217;s prison because he self-identifies as female.
Leigh Ann O&#8217;Neill, America First&#8217;s chief legal affairs officer, told The Daily Wire women should be able to rely on corrections staff to prioritize their physical safety over the feelings of men.
&#8220;While women incarcerated in state prisons should be able to rely on corrections officials to protect their physical safety and support their rehabilitation, these officials were instead coordinating with WPATH over ways to make male inmates feel more comfortable in women’s prisons,&#8221; O&#8217;Neill said.
&#8220;These emails raise serious questions about the influence WPATH has exerted over correctional policies affecting some of the most vulnerable women in government custody,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Female inmates should never be treated as collateral damage in the pursuit of an ideological agenda. Department of Corrections has a legal and moral duty to protect the women in their custody from foreseeable physical and sexual harm — not to prioritize the comfort of male inmates over the safety, dignity, and rights of women.&#8221;
Webb&#8217;s comments were in response to a post by a psychologist who asked WPATH members what skills “transgender” males needed to learn to adapt to life in women’s prisons and find “joy in their identities,&#8221; records show.
“I am still trying to identify all the things transgender women need to know about being in a female facility versus what they learned in a male facility,” wrote the psychologist. “I am open to ideas that folks have, things they have heard from women about what they learned about how to do time in a women’s facility.”
<div id="attachment_1143613" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1143613" class="wp-image-1143613 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-1024x474.png" alt="" width="1024" height="474" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-1024x474.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-300x139.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath-768x355.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath.png 1284w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
The psychologist said they were designing a transgender integration unit to help men adapt to life in a women’s prison for the Colorado Department of Corrections, writing that &#8220;cultural forces&#8221; worked against men trying to integrate into women&#8217;s prison.
&#8220;There are structural and cultural forces acting against their individual success,&#8221; the psychologist wrote. &#8220;We can train staff all we want but the larger culture and social beliefs impact how custody staff behave. There are cultural issues that transgender women will have to face no matter how much we train the staff or other incarcerated people.&#8221;
The Colorado transgender integration unit was created as part of a <a href="https://www.ktvq.com/news/national-news/colorado-legal-settlement-would-raise-care-and-housing-standards-for-trans-women-inmates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">settlement</a> from a class action lawsuit filed by transgender inmates who claimed they faced <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transgender-women-in-prison-colorado-lawsuit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discrimination</a> in Colorado prisons.
The Washington Department of Corrections did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">INSIDE WPATH PART ONE: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wpath-files-trans-org-admits-need-for-detransitioner-protocols-while-pushing-child-sex-changes?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WPATH+FILES%3A+Trans+Org+Admits+Need+For+Detransitioner+Protocols+While+Pushing+Child+Sex-Changes">INSIDE WPATH PART TWO: Trans Org Admits Need For Detransitioner Protocols While Pushing Child Sex-Changes</a>

teen behind the cage or woman jailed, unhappy girl hand sad hopeless at fence prison in jail, no free and freedom struggle teen concept.

Inside WPATH: Trans Org Wants Female Inmates To Overcome ‘Transphobia’ And Share Prisons With Men

Child Welfare

FOIA

Gender Transition

Prison

Transgender

WPATH

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the second article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. You can read part one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">here</a>.
***
Members of the world’s leading transgender medical organization admitted protocols were needed to help transgender patients “detransition” back to their real sex while publicly recommending children receive sex-change surgery.
In a private online forum, members of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) asked for advice on treating the complex medical needs of patients wanting to return or &#8220;detransition&#8221; to their real sex after undergoing sex-change surgeries such as vaginoplasty, breast augmentation, double mastectomy, hysterectomy, and oophorectomy. WPATH members acknowledged in the forum the brutalized bodies of detransitioners needed specialized care and these struggling patients were often forsaken by the medical community which gave them their scars.
“Curious if anyone or any institutions have protocols or policies related to ‘de-transition’ &#8211; either request to reverse any gender-affirming surgeries or put people back on prior hormonal state,” wrote Dr. Christopher Terndrup, the <a href="https://medicine.vumc.org/divisions/general-internal-medicine-public-health/education/lgbtq-healthcare-fellowship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">associate director</a> of the LGBTQ+ Healthcare Fellowship Program at Vanderbilt Health, in a message thread titled “De-transition Protocols/Policies.”
<div id="attachment_1143623" style="width: 677px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1143623" class="wp-image-1143623 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-667x576.jpg" alt="" width="667" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-667x576.jpg 667w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-300x259.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1-768x664.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH4-1.jpg 875w" sizes=" (max-width: 667px) 100vw, 667px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
Several WPATH members responded and expressed a need for formalized detransition protocols, writing that a lack of medical guidance left detransitioners feeling &#8220;ignored&#8221; as they try to reclaim their broken bodies.
“We really need the clinical pathways. People will ask how to go off testosterone or how to restart testosterone and I’ve asked various MDs and gotten different responses. Often, folks who are choosing to detransition feel like they have to do this all on their own,” wrote a psychologist. “When folks restart testosterone there can be mood shifts as well. When people alter their hormones, a lot of regret arises about choices they have made and it seems like it&#8217;s helpful to offer patients a non-regret focused frame — ie, that they are embracing who they are at this moment and taking positive steps to embody themselves, etc.”
Members suggested creating a specific group to develop medical guidance for detransitioners and noted transgender patients should receive psychological therapy for a period of time before undergoing any identity changes.
“I still think that we should be developing protocols to handle this regardless of how many detransitioners there are,” wrote a psychologist. “I think it&#8217;s important.”
Dr. Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer at Do No Harm, told The Daily Wire there is an &#8220;undeniable need&#8221; for detransitioner medical protocols.
&#8220;There is a critical and undeniable need for detransitioner protocols — a reality acknowledged even by WPATH’s own members. Yet this is the same organization that has ignored systematic review upon systematic review as it promotes harmful and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures for minors,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire. &#8220;This contradiction cannot be brushed aside: it exposes a fundamental inconsistency in which life-altering interventions are championed for minors on the one hand while the reality of those who later seek to reverse them has unfortunately been minimized and gone unaddressed.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142883" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142883" class="wp-image-1142883 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1024x416.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="416" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1024x416.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-300x122.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-768x312.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-1536x623.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH11-2048x831.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
In the Standards of Care Version 8, WPATH recommends that children have access to irreversible sex-change surgeries without any <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-identifying-biden-official-allegedly-behind-push-to-ditch-age-guidelines-for-transgender-procedures-docs-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">age minimums</a>. The group calls the choice to detransition &#8220;proportionally rare&#8221; but tells healthcare providers they &#8220;should be prepared to support adolescents who detransition&#8221; without providing formal protocols to accomplish this.
&#8220;We have limited ability to know in advance the ways in which a child’s gender identity and expressions may evolve over time and whether or why detransition,&#8221; the standards read.
In a separate post, a physician&#8217;s assistant asked for insight on managing the estrogen needs of a young woman who had her breasts, uterus, and ovaries removed while she self-identified as a &#8220;trans male.&#8221;
“The patient more recently has been experiencing an evolution/shift in gender identity as genderfluid/feminine learning, wanting to detransition,” wrote the physician&#8217;s assistant in the thread titled “DETRANSITION: Optimal estrogen therapy for patient detransitioning.”
&#8220;This is a complex case with much more to it and I will not be able to go in depth here, but I did want to ask the group specifically your thoughts/experience with detransition and optimal dosing of estrogen for such a patient.&#8221;
The young woman was in her 20s and wanted to detransition. But because she had no ovaries, her young body could not produce the needed estrogen and was in a surgically induced post-menopausal state.
Miceli told The Daily Wire that without external estrogen replacement therapy, the patient is at risk of developing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and other health complications.
&#8220;Hormone therapy becomes a lifelong medical requirement following this irreversible procedure,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This reality makes the development of detransition protocols all the more essential, ensuring that hormone management is guided by clinically appropriate, evidence‑based standards rather than left to an ad hoc practice.&#8221;
The post brought out strong opinions on detransitioning on the forum thread. One member called on WPATH to “take a leadership role” in researching the “phenomenon of detransition.&#8221;
Marci Bowers, a highly influential transgender surgeon and former president of WPATH, called the patient’s situation “tragic” and wrote that one of WPATH’s great challenges was to “help patients sort through their gender diverse feelings&#8221; before receiving &#8220;irreversible treatment.&#8221;
“If ever there was a challenge to the WPATH professional community, it is to help patients sort through their gender diverse feelings prior to undergoing irreversible treatment. Though there can always be a silver lining, cases like this seem tragic,” wrote Bowers. “I don&#8217;t feel that greater caution or limits are what are required but rather, brakes, hypothetical questioning, I&#8217;m not entirely sure. How can we do better for our patients in avoiding these rare outcomes?”
One WPATH member disagreed that the situation was tragic, writing, “sometimes, like many things in life, people need to go ‘too far’ before they realize where they want to be.”
The physician assistant who asked for help later noted the young woman wanting to detransition had &#8220;severe dysphoria dating back to childhood&#8221; and was thoroughly evaluated before having surgery to remove her reproductive organs. She noted in the future it might be helpful to educate young transgender patients seeking sex-change surgery on the “potential benefit” of keeping their ovaries, “just in case.”
&#8220;They had ongoing support from a comprehensive mental health team and family. They were very much identifying as a trans man most of their life with severe dysphoria, depression, and suicidality,&#8221; wrote the physician&#8217;s assistant. “There is nothing I think anyone in our team could have done differently to prevent this or &#8216;do better.&#8217; I&#8217;m not sure if we have any data or idea of how gender identity might evolve or change over time, but that seems to be what is happening at least with this patient over time.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1142893" style="width: 452px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142893" class="wp-image-1142893 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-442x576.jpg" alt="" width="442" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-442x576.jpg 442w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-230x300.jpg 230w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-768x1001.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14-1179x1536.jpg 1179w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH14.jpg 1432w" sizes=" (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
Miceli said these messages reveal the &#8220;profound tragedy&#8221; detransitioners face after undergoing irreversible gender transition treatments.
&#8220;Dr. Bowers&#8217; comments within the WPATH Member Forum acknowledge a truth the organization does not confront publicly: the profound tragedy faced by individuals who seek to detransition after irreversible sex‑rejecting surgeries. In fact, WPATH has systematically downplayed and obscured this reality by minimizing detransition and framing regret as rare,&#8221; Miceli told The Daily Wire. &#8220;These interventions create lifelong anatomical changes and permanent dependence on exogenous hormones, effectively placing patients in chronic medical care.&#8221;
Bowers declined to provide a comment to The Daily Wire. WPATH and Vanderbilt Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trans-surgeon-admits-some-patients-may-not-maintain-their-vagina-due-to-brutal-complications?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Inside+WPATH%3A+Trans+Surgeon+Admits+Patients+May+Experience+Painful+Complications">INSIDE WPATH PART ONE: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications</a>

US-JUSTICE-GENDERS

Inside WPATH: Trans Org Admits Need For Detransitioner Protocols While Pushing Child Sex-Changes

detransitioner

gender ideology

marci bowers

transgender surgery

One Democrat senator admitted to being &#8220;blinded&#8221; by his own political assumptions during the COVID-19 pandemic as Dr. Anthony Fauci repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman confessed he regrets allowing political partisanship to influence his rejection of the &#8220;Right-wing theory&#8221; that COVID came from the Wuhan lab in China during the early days of the pandemic. Fetterman said the so-called lab leak theory, which was branded as a conspiracy by the legacy media, had “seemed to make sense,” but added that it “became a very partisan thing.” 
“Early on, there was the theory that the virus could have emerged from the lab, and early on that became like a ‘Right-wing&#8217; kind of theory and I thought it seemed to make sense,” said Fetterman. “Now there was a really advanced lab that was close by, and then you have this unknown virus out. But that became a very partisan thing, and now it seems now it&#8217;s a more and more emerging theory that it would have come from the lab.” 
Fetterman, who was uncharacteristically dressed in a suit at the hearing, said he hopes the next time America faces a crisis, it is not “blinded by the partisan idea that maybe the truth might come from a side that&#8217;s different that you are,&#8221; as he “might have been” blinded.  
&#8220;Americans should be willing to pursue truth no matter where that may have emerged,” said Fetterman.   
Fetterman was the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania throughout the COVID pandemic and worked alongside Democratic Governor Tom Wolf and trans-identifying Secretary of Health Rachel Levine to implement some of the most draconian mitigation policies in the nation, including extended school closures and forcing senior citizens to die alone in nursing homes. 
Fetterman adamantly supported Wolf and Levine’s policies, including a <a href="https://lvb.com/dr-rachel-levine-issues-expanded-mask-wearing-order/">universal masking mandate</a> that required children as young as 2 years old to be masked whenever leaving home. He also <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/fetterman-on-rising-coronavirus-cases-in-pa/">begged</a> Pennsylvanians to “just wear a mask” in a November 2020 video. Wolf implemented a <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/12/no-more-indoor-dining-casinos-and-theaters-will-close-and-new-limits-on-retailers-pa-gov-tom-wolf.html">second lockdown</a> in Pennsylvania in December 2020 that extended to January 2021 and further devastated local businesses during the holiday season.   
Fetterman noted during the hearing that members of his family had died from COVID and also said he grieves for people who lost their businesses due to pandemic decisions and will “never be the same.”  
&#8220;During the pandemic I was lieutenant governor so we were in the middle of all of that maelstrom, trying to find the right balance between protect life and protect the economics of all of it,&#8221; said Fetterman. “I&#8217;m not sure if we got it all right or wrong, but without a doubt I continue to question myself.” 
Fetterman is an outspoken supporter of transgenderism and supports the inclusion of men in women’s sports. In a March 2025 post on <a href="https://x.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1896728606812028954?s=46&amp;t=ZAoIkqhiKpZyQayFV_2XbQ">X,</a> Fetterman wrote, “The small handful of trans athletes in PA in a political maelstrom deserve an ally, and I am one.”

John Fetterman

Fetterman Admits He Was ‘Blinded’ By Partisanship During COVID

Anthony Fauci

COVID

COVID-19 Vaccine

Face Masks

Lockdowns

Pennsylvania

Rand Paul

Senate

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) is the world’s preeminent transgender medical organization and a leading force in the push for minors to receive transgender medical interventions, including sex-change surgeries. The group&#8217;s medical guidance, called the Standards of Care Version 8, informs clinical practice, insurance policy, and government regulations throughout the United States.
Systematic reviews and legal investigation have shown the SOC-8 to be built on faulty methodology and politicized science. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against WPATH in June 2026, stating the organization has “misled parents and children about the medical consensus and medical necessity, as well as the safety and effectiveness” of child sex-change interventions.
WPATH members receive access to a member-only<a href="https://wpath.org/membership/membership-information/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> forum</a> that discusses various topics related to transgender medicine and policy. Through a public records request The Daily Wire uncovered almost 250 pages of messages from WPATH&#8217;s member-only forum written between June 2024 and November 2024. The messages offer a glimpse into the organization&#8217;s cultural reach and challenge some of its public-facing recommendations. 
This is the first article in The Daily Wire&#8217;s investigative series on the uncovered WPATH messages. 
***
A pioneering transgender surgeon acknowledged that genital surgeries leave patients with painful complications and a burdensome recovery process many cannot cope with.
Members of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) discussed the pain and complications of vaginoplasty, a genital sex-change surgery, in an online member forum in the summer of 2024. <a href="https://wpath.org/about/ec-bod/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marci Bowers</a>, a transgender surgeon and Immediate <a href="https://wpath.org/about/ec-bod/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Past-President</a> of WPATH, wrote in a message that some patients don&#8217;t want to &#8220;maintain their vagina&#8221; due to &#8220;pain and discharge&#8221; after surgery.
&#8220;Just because someone does not wish to maintain their vagina because of pain and discharge, jumping to regret should not be our first response,” wrote Bowers.
<a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/vaginoplasty-for-gender-affirmation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vaginoplasty</a> is a procedure that involves removing a penis, scrotum, and testicles, and using the genital tissue to surgically construct a vagina. If the patient doesn’t have enough genital tissue to complete the procedure, surgeons may borrow tissue from the <a href="https://www.stilleraesthetics.com/our-services/colovaginoplasty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">colon</a>. WPATH calls the final product a &#8220;<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4058296/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neovagina</a>,&#8221; which is a large wound that requires lifelong dilatation to prevent <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/vaginal-stenosis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vaginal stenosis</a>, a condition where scar tissue in the vagina hardens and narrows.
&#8220;Vaginal Stenosis after vaginoplasty with symptoms and no desire to keep canal&#8221; was the subject of a WPATH forum message thread obtained by The Daily Wire through a public record request.
“I have been seeing quite a few patients recently who after vaginoplasty stop dilating and do not desire to keep the canal,” wrote a nurse practitioner to start the thread. “They have come to see me with symptoms of pelvic pain, accompanied by bleeding and discharge for a few weeks before symptoms resolve.”
A physical therapist replied to the message that pain and bleeding after vaginoplasty surgery are “very common.”
“Regarding the issue of pain, it is very common in many cases, especially during the first three months, due to the surgery itself and the muscle tension it generates, as well as bleeding and secretions,” wrote the WPATH member. “Bleeding can be due to the operation itself since they have internal wounds that will expel a bloody fluid or slight bleeding during dilations.”
<div id="attachment_1140619" style="width: 950px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1140619" class="wp-image-1140619 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="482" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3.jpg 940w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3-300x154.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-3-768x394.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" />Screenshot of a WPATH member forum message obtained by The Daily Wire through a FOIA request.</div>
Patients are typically recommended to dilate for <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/vaginoplasty-for-gender-affirmation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">30 to 60 minutes</a> at least 3-4 times a day during the initial post-operative period, a painful time commitment. Bowers suggested the pain and effort needed to keep the genital wound flexible might not be “worth the time” for some patients.
&#8220;Dilation is crucial but not for everyone,&#8221; wrote Bowers. &#8220;For some, it just isn&#8217;t worth the time expended or the pain experienced, if that is the case at all. Or sexual situations can change.&#8221;
A social worker asked if patients expressed “any desire to de-transition” when deciding to stop dilating after surgery. Bowers responded that the “first response” of members should not be to assume a patient has regretted their sex-change surgery if they no longer wish to &#8220;maintain their vagina.&#8221;
Patients who don’t follow dilation recommendations risk losing the ability to experience penetrative sex because the surgically created vaginal canal will lose flexibility without dilation. A psychologist, who described himself as a “post-op trans woman,” responded to Bowers with his personal experience of stopping dilation after genital surgery.
<div id="attachment_1142813" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1142813" class="wp-image-1142813 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-1024x353.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="353" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-1024x353.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-300x104.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8-768x265.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/wpath8.jpg 1026w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />A screenshot of a message obtained through a public record request by The Daily Wire.</div>
“I’m speaking largely from experience, as a post-op trans woman who stopped dilating after a certain point and is completely fine with that. I have various friends and clients who have reached a similar point,” wrote the psychologist. “It has nothing to do with regret, I’m so happy to have my body as it is. It’s entirely about how I choose to use the body I have. It’s still good to have the (narrow) vaginal canal that I have, but because I don’t engage in penetrative sex I’ve felt no need to maintain dilation.”
WPATH does not recommend any minimum age minor patients should meet before receiving vaginoplasty surgery in its medical guidance, <a style="font-size: 16px;" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Standards of Care version 8</a>. The only time-connected guardrail WPATH provides in the guidelines is that minors should receive 12 months of cross-sex hormones before undergoing the permanent sex-change surgery, with some exceptions. The Federal Trade Commission <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-states-sue-world-professional-association-transgender-health-over-deceptive-claims-regarding-treatment-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alleged</a> WPATH had misled the public regarding the safety and necessity of pediatric transgender medical interventions, including vaginoplasty, in a June 2026 <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/WPATH-Complaint-Redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> it filed against WPATH.
“It is inherently harmful and unsafe to surgically remove a child’s healthy and functioning genitals,” states the lawsuit. “Nevertheless, WPATH deems it ‘medically necessary’ for treating dissatisfaction with or distress about sex traits.&#8221;
Bowers&#8217; name appears in the lawsuit 18 times, and Bowers is described as advocating for males to receive vaginoplasty surgery as minors because they have the parental support needed to endure the brutal post-operative dilation schedule.
“Some transition doctors, including Dr. Bowers, believe performing the surgery while the boy is a minor still living with his parents is preferable, rather than when the boy is living in a communal setting with limited privacy,” states the FTC lawsuit. “This is in part due to the brutality of the procedure. Recovery from vaginoplasty requires the patient to ‘dilate’ the new wound 3-4 times daily for months so that it does not heal.”
<div id="attachment_1140621" style="width: 968px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1140621" class="wp-image-1140621 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH.jpg" alt="" width="958" height="570" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH.jpg 958w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-300x178.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/WPATH-768x457.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 958px) 100vw, 958px" />Screenshot of a WPATH member forum message obtained by The Daily Wire through a FOIA request.</div>
The FTC lawsuit alleges Bowers made more than a million dollars in 2023 “mostly from performing transition surgeries.”
In a separate WPATH forum thread, <a href="https://www.childrens.com/doctor-profile/laura-elizabeth-kuper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laura Kuper</a>, a psychologist at <a href="https://www.childrens.com/doctor-profile/laura-elizabeth-kuper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Children’s Health</a> in Dallas and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220215063252/https:/www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/SOC%20v8/SOC8%20Full%20Contributor%20List%20-%20FINAL%20UPDATED%202222.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-author</a> of WPATH’s &#8220;nonbinary&#8221; chapter in the Standards of Care, asked peers to recommend “US-based surgeons” with expertise in performing vaginoplasty on patients who had early pubertal suppression in a September 2024 message. Giving young males puberty blockers stops the growth of male genital tissue and makes it more difficult to perform a vaginoplasty surgery.
One doctor said pubertal suppression prevents “the growth of the vagina,” during a private WPATH symposium in September 2022, according to<a href="https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2024/01/16/exclusive-top-pediatric-doctors-admit-in-unearthed-video-that-child-sex-changes-are-way-more-invasive-than-advertised/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reporting</a> from The Daily Caller.
Bowers responded that the surgeries “are not easy” and require “experience and technical skill.”
“Laura — as you may be aware, limited skin is a severe limitation for those with early puberty blocked, both cosmetically and for attaining depth,” Bowers wrote. “These cases are not easy, and I would state that a critical combination of experience and technical skill is required, meaning the list of qualified surgeons is not large. We have performed approximately 100 of these procedures thus far with approximately 15 each summer. There are also several excellent surgeons in excellent institutions which may have similar numbers.”
Kuper was a pediatric psychologist at the now-shut-down Children&#8217;s Health GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support clinic. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a February 2026 <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-files-landmark-lawsuit-against-childrens-health-and-dallas-area-doctor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> against Children&#8217;s Health that alleges gender-affirming practitioners subverted Texas state law and continued <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-attorney-general-says-radical-doctor-broke-the-law-to-give-minors-sex-rejection-interventions?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=37&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Texas+Attorney+General+Says+Radical+Doctor+Broke+The+Law+To+Give+Minors+Sex-Rejection+Interventions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">providing minors</a> with sex-change medical interventions after the state&#8217;s ban went into effect on September 1, 2023.
Other messages acknowledge that transgender voice surgeries, which seek to make an individual&#8217;s voice sound more like the opposite sex, are “not usually effective” and have uncertain outcomes.  
“Voice is one of the hardest things to achieve primarily because surgical options are not usually effective,” wrote a WPATH member in the forum. 
“If your patient chose to pursue surgery, they would need to accept the science and physics behind the intention of the procedures as well as the unknowns in terms of outcome,” wrote an ears, nose, and throat doctor.   
In the SOC-8, WPATH lists “voice therapy and/or surgery” as a “medically necessary gender-affirming” medical intervention. Transgender voice surgeries are explicitly covered by some <a href="https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-need-medical-dental-or-vision-care/transhealth-program">state</a> <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/oha/hsd/ohp/pages/gender-affirming-care.aspx">insurance</a> plans. 
WPATH did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment. Dr. Bowers declined to provide a comment to The Daily Wire. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Children&#8217;s Health did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests to obtain a comment from Laura Kuper.

(ga) — MARCIBOWERS–TRINIDAD, COLORADO, JUNE 6, 2007– Dr. Marci Bowers performs the transgender operation on Courtney Ridley in the Trinida’s Mount San Rafael Hospital to the tunes of Jimmy Buffet, Pink Floyd and others during the three-hour surgery. In

Inside WPATH: Trans Surgeon Admits Patients May Experience Painful Complications

vaginoplasty

Vikings landed on the shores of the United States in early June, and while their numbers are few, they’re dominating American pop culture this summer.
Team Norway and its biggest star, 6-foot-5 Erling Haaland, are having an outsize impact on American hearts — and World Cup soccer — as they dazzle fans with their on- and off-the-field antics. Haaland has been a breakout star of the World Cup as he led Norway to historic success.
The world has enjoyed watching Haaland and his Norway teammates gather on the field after a win and lead fans in their viral post-game celebration, the Viking row. The celebration has been such a sensation that Google created a <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/erling-haaland-celebrated-google-viking-155607179.html">celebratory animation</a> of rowing Vikings that pop up when you search “Erling Haaland.”
Norway’s men’s soccer team went viral before the World Cup began when they released a team photo titled “<a href="https://www.artsy.net/artwork/david-yarrow-the-vikings-are-coming-colour">The Vikings Are Coming</a>,” captured by renowned British Photographer David Yarrow, in early June. The team is dressed like Vikings in the photo and posed in front of a fjord filled with Viking longships, holding ancient weapons as if they were going into battle.
The image is serious but playful, and it foreshadowed things to come: Norway&#8217;s players were going to war on the soccer pitch, and they were going to have a great time doing it. Haaland <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cjdpd18xx5lo">reportedly</a> played a substantial role in making the team Viking photo happen. He also played a substantial role in securing Norway&#8217;s first World Cup appearance in <a href="https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/norway-team-profile-history">28 years</a> and has already scored seven <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/put-every-bit-pressure-english-113000056.html">goals</a> since tournament play began.
Haaland, who has over <a href="https://www.instagram.com/erling/?hl=en">60 million</a> Instagram followers, is a worldwide soccer legend at age 25. In his first season with his club team, Manchester City, he helped win a prestigious <a href="https://www.mancity.com/news/mens/erling-haaland-manchester-city-and-career-stats-so-far-63916947">treble</a> of soccer titles, the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, in a single season. He’s been awarded the Premier League Golden Boot, for scoring the most goals of any striker in the league, three times.
When Norway unexpectedly beat legendary soccer favorite Brazil to reach its first World Cup quarterfinal match in the nation&#8217;s history, Haaland seemed genuinely shocked by the win in a post-match vlog <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhXZ62GERi8">posted</a> on his YouTube channel. He told his fans, “This still doesn’t feel real because it&#8217;s just so far off. I could never think of this happening, which also make its so crazy in my head that we actually managed to beat Brazil and go through.”
While many professional athletes are known for their ego and arrogance, Haaland comes across as humble, grateful, and playful amid astonishing success. His happy-go-lucky attitude is a part of what makes Haaland such a likable player and person.
“We just played football and enjoyed it,” Haaland said about the Brazil match in the vlog. “I remember I said it right before the game started, &#8216;Guys, no matter what happens, just smile and enjoy it.&#8217;”
No one is enjoying the World Cup as much as Haaland, who has been documenting his experiences in America on his YouTube channel. A video titled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xld5GNGVvyc">Haaland takes over America</a>!” shows him loving American culture as he tries out a southern accent, using the phrase “Y’all,” and has a blast attending a professional ice hockey game with his teammates.
“The national anthem was incredible. Amazing. I had goosebumps all over,” Haaland said in the video. “I never, ever expected this. Atmosphere is unreal.”
After scoring the winning goal against the Ivory Coast in Norway’s first knockout round game, Haaland headed to <a href="https://wildbillswestern.com/">Wild Bill&#8217;s Western Store</a> in Dallas to buy himself a cowboy hat and boots. He posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIwcSp99PoY">10-minute video</a> of the excursion, showing him and colleagues endearingly enjoying Texas hospitality and culture. Before leaving the Texas store, Haaland purchased a shirt that says “Y’all Can Kiss My Dallas” and posted a photo of himself wearing the shirt along with a cowboy hat and boots on Instagram, with the simple caption “Howdy!”
The picture went viral, and Americans loved seeing Haaland&#8217;s embrace of local culture. The image is now the front image on <a href="https://wildbillswestern.com/">Wild Bill&#8217;s Western Store</a>, which thanked Haaland for the visit in a social media post, writing, “As a family-owned business, moments like these mean the world to us. Thank you for stopping by and spending time with our team.”
My son, who is a huge soccer fan, has been watching every video Haaland posts. I think he’s a fantastic example for him of what it looks like to work hard and be successful while not taking yourself too seriously. In the online world that is often full of narcissism and despair, Haaland’s positivity and joy are refreshing to see. They remind us all that the pursuit of excellence doesn’t have to be devoid of joy.
A June social media post from Haaland showed he was largely unrecognized while walking around New York City. If Norway miraculously makes it back to the area for the World Cup final, that anonymity will be impossible to replicate. Soccer-shy Americans have embraced Haaland and his team of Vikings to the extent that fans are clamoring to <a href="https://nymag.com/strategist/article/erling-haaland-hair-ties.html">buy the</a> hair ties he uses.
Regardless of the outcome of their quarterfinal game against England, Norway players are already winners. They have one of the best and most likable soccer players on their side, have exceeded their own expectations, and have secured the Viking row as one of soccer&#8217;s GOAT celebrations.
They&#8217;ve shown the world that Vikings are still warriors today — and they&#8217;re also a lot of fun.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

Cote D’Ivoire v Norway: Round Of 32 – FIFA World Cup 2026

How One Viking Turned America Into His Biggest Fan

erling haaland

Norway

vikings

LGBTQ activists in Seattle believe a sharp influx of transgender young adults is causing a civil emergency — and they want taxpayer help.
The <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/lgbtq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seattle LGBTQ Commission</a> asked Mayor Katie Wilson in a May 2026<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DYfRlKWm3yM/?img_index=2&amp;igsh=MWRkd2toYWwwNjdnMQ%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> letter</a> to declare a civil emergency caused by a mass influx of “transgender and gender-nonconforming” individuals relocating to the city. The commission has asked the city officials to fund cash-strapped LGBTQ+ groups providing shelter and relocation services to transgender refugees.
&#8220;Due to the rapid influx of 2SLGBTQIA+ persons seeking refuge in Seattle for increased safety needs, civil rights protections, and access to essential services the Seattle LGBTQ Commission formally recommends that City leaders declare a civil emergency that ensures an effective and empathetic response to protecting these internally displaced persons (IDPs) at a time of urgent crisis for our community,&#8221; states the letter.
Transplants are coming to Seattle from red states such as Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Kansas, and Idaho &#8220;due to anti-trans legislation, threats to personal safety, and barriers to healthcare and legal recognition,&#8221; according to the letter, which lists several transgender-affirming groups  &#8220;already responding to this crisis.&#8221; The listed groups include Gender Justice League, Seattle&#8217;s LGBTQ+ Center, and Traction, a nonprofit that helps &#8220;red state refugees&#8221; relocate to the Pacific Northwest through its<a href="https://tractionpnw.org/open-arms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Project Open Arms</a> initiative.
&#8220;Hundreds of thousands of Two-Spirit, transgender, nonbinary, gender-diverse, and gender-nonconforming (trans+) people and their families are seeking to escape legislative persecution and violence,&#8221; states Traction&#8217;s<a href="https://tractionpnw.org/open-arms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> website</a>. &#8220;Our goal then and now is to support U.S. &#8216;transplants&#8217; – trans+ people and their loved ones displaced by violence and persecution – seeking safer, more welcoming places to live.&#8221;
C. Michael Woodward, executive director of Traction, told The Daily Wire it&#8217;s had more than 1600 applicants for relocation services since President Trump&#8217;s election but has only been able to help around 130 individuals move, due to resource limitations.
&#8220;I&#8217;m 63 and transitioned nearly 30 years ago. I&#8217;ve been doing trans+ and LGBTQ+ advocacy for almost that long, too,&#8221; Woodward told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Even so, I never once imagined we&#8217;d be doing this kind of work for our community, but here we are.&#8221;
Woodward said the group does not work with unaccompanied minors and has not been &#8220;presented with the opportunity to work with any emancipated youth&#8221; but would &#8220;handle those on a case-by-case basis.&#8221;
Traction is working to build &#8220;a nationwide network of groups doing similar work in other states,&#8221; according to its <a href="https://tractionpnw.org/open-arms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1132095 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece.jpeg" alt="" width="1010" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece.jpeg 1010w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece-300x171.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/07/megs-piece-768x438.jpeg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1010px) 100vw, 1010px" /></div>
Screenshot from June 25, 2026, Seattle City Council Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy Changes meeting.
Many of Seattle’s transgender transplants are “young adults,” according to<a href="https://www.seattle.gov/lgbtq/who-we-are" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Kody Allen</a>, co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and a social worker at a youth homeless shelter, who spoke on a panel about 2SLGBTQIA+ Communities in Seattle at a June 25, 2026,<a href="https://www.seattlechannel.org/mayor-and-council/city-council/2026-2027-select-committee-on-federal-administration-and-policy-changes?videoid=x188271" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> city council meeting</a>.
&#8220;In my day job, I am a program manager for a homeless shelter. We have seen a massive increase in trans&#8211;specifically&#8211;and queer young adults who are coming here from other states,&#8221; said Allen. &#8220;We are turning away 10, at least 10 young adults a night, and we are the biggest shelter in the city. And many, many, many of our clients are trans refugees who have come here.&#8221;
The meeting focused on how changes in federal policy have impacted local funding. Members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ panel discussed how Seattle could build long-term infrastructure to provide social services, such as housing, to the city&#8217;s growing number of transgender refugees. Allen warned groups that provide &#8220;queer&#8221; and &#8220;trans specific healthcare&#8221; are facing a funding crisis and may not be able to stay open throughout the year.
&#8220;If these community-based organizations that are specifically for queer people close, the impact that would have, obviously on the people who use those services, but also every other community-based organization in the city who are also experiencing decreased funding because of the federal&#8211;this federal administration&#8211;would put a huge strain on the system,&#8221; Allen stated.
Dominque Stephens, who was <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DVsCsq_DAG_/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appointed</a> by Mayor Wilson as Seattle&#8217;s special advisor on LGBTQ+ affairs, told city council the Mayor&#8217;s office was planning to create transgender homeless shelters.
&#8220;We want to make sure that we&#8217;re doing this in a very intentional way,&#8221; said Stephens. &#8220;We know that in our shelter expansion, there will be a trans specific site that will be stood up.&#8221;
Stephens explained the mayor formed a Trans and Queer Community Stabilization Interdepartmental Team to create long-term transgender infrastructure as the group figures out &#8220;what we do in terms of folks who are migrating here.&#8221;
Seattle City Councilwoman <a href="https://www.seattle.gov/council/members/alexis-mercedes-rinck" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alexis Mercedes Rinck</a> said Seattle needed to &#8220;stand firm&#8221; in welcoming &#8220;queer and trans people.&#8221;
&#8220;Across the country we have seen intense attacks against queer and trans people, both with hostile legislation and physical violence,&#8221; said Rinck at the meeting. &#8220;So, I want to say loud and clear, while we know we have more work to do here in the city of Seattle we need to stand firm in being a welcoming city for queer and trans people.&#8221;
A total of<a href="https://familypolicyalliance.com/help-not-harm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 27 states</a> have passed legislation protecting minors from receiving harmful sex-rejecting medical procedures such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries.
Washington State took a major step towards becoming a transgender sanctuary for minors when former Governor Jay Inslee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/washington-to-allow-shelters-to-keep-runaway-children-from-parents-if-child-seeking-transgender-surgery-abortion?row=0&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;rowType=Web+Search+Overlay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed SB 5599</a> into law in May 2023.  The law allows homeless shelters to shield runaway minors seeking transgender medical procedures without contacting their parents. International Partners for Ethical Care Inc. filed a lawsuit challenging SB 5599 in<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67697823/international-partners-for-ethical-care-inc-v-inslee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> August 2023</a>, arguing it violates the fundamental rights of parents. After being dismissed by a lower court, the Supreme Court announced in June 2026 that it would<a href="https://aflegal.org/press-release/u-s-supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-america-first-legals-landmark-case-defending-parents-right-to-challenge-laws-that-hide-their-childrens-gender-transitions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> hear the case on appeal</a>.
&#8220;SB 5599 is directed toward families in Washington state, and sets up a terrifying scenario for parents whose kids have fallen prey to gender ideology,&#8221; a representative from International Partners for Ethical Care told The Daily Wire. &#8220;A child can run away from home in Washington to seek &#8216;gender affirming care&#8217; and the state authorities or shelters where the child may be found are not required by law to notify the parents of the child&#8217;s whereabouts with any urgency.&#8221;
Florida, Idaho, and 14 other red states filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of the plaintiffs. The coalition of states expressed concerns the law could impact parents across state lines, writing they &#8220;fear that their own residents whose runaway children cross state lines may be harmed by Washington’s law&#8221; in the<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/25-840/396471/20260217151332802_Intl%20Partners%20v.%20Ferguson%20-%20Amicus%20Brief%20for%20Filing.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> brief</a>.
International Partners for Ethical Care agreed the law could impact parents nationwide, telling The Daily Wire, &#8220;Nothing in the law&#8217;s language that would prevent it from being applied to children who arrive in Washington from other states.&#8221;
The Daily Wire asked the Seattle LGBTQ Commission and Mayor Wilson&#8217;s office for information on how many of the transgender refugees were 18 and under but did not receive a comment. Mayor Wilson did not provide any additional information on the transgender shelter expansion project discussed at the city council meeting.

Scenes from the Seattle Pride Parade, Sunday, June 25, 2017. (AP Photo/seattlepi.com, Genna Martin)

Massive Influx Of Transgender Refugees Is Causing ‘Civil Emergency’ In Leftist City

LGBT

Parental Rights

Seattle

Washington State

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
You&#8217;ve probably seen the viral slogan that pays homage to one of the finest displays of all-American spunk in our history.
The phrase &#8220;Americans: We&#8217;ll cross a frozen river to kill you in your sleep on Christmas. Not kidding. We&#8217;ve done it before&#8221; can be found on<a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/1629178171/americans-well-cross-a-frozen-river-to?gpla=1&amp;gao=1&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_custom2=21500569332&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_custom1=_k_CjwKCAjw0o3SBhBVEiwAh28-jZnPcliDgHl8lsUJQFL77m-64UirfGjHarQC7XsD1iWXBKLzu-ZFIRoCOEsQAvD_BwE_k_&amp;utm_content=go_21500569332_164907277083_707558291651_pla-1231918577499_c__1629178171_560099097&amp;utm_campaign=shopping_us_-home_and_living_d&amp;gad_source=4&amp;gad_campaignid=21500569332&amp;gbraid=0AAAAADtcfRL-ma_EFwdA9hs_yE2WJ3eEL&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw0o3SBhBVEiwAh28-jZnPcliDgHl8lsUJQFL77m-64UirfGjHarQC7XsD1iWXBKLzu-ZFIRoCOEsQAvD_BwE&amp;dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> mugs</a>, t-shirts, and memes. The humorous mantra describes when General George Washington led his struggling army across the Delaware River in the freezing cold to launch a surprise attack on Hessian troops stationed in Trenton, New Jersey, on Christmas night in 1776. It was a pivotal moment in the Revolutionary War, when the future of our fledgling nation was grim and unclear.
In the weeks leading up to that surprise attack, Washington and his men experienced a <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/fort-lee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">series of defeats</a> from the British in New York, forcing the Continental Army to retreat across New Jersey onto the shores of the Delaware River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Continental Army was demoralized, greatly outnumbered by the British, and in desperate need of new enlistments.
In a letter to his brother written on<a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-07-02-0299" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> December 18, 1776</a>, Washington described how the British “pushed us from place to place till we were obliged to cross the Delaware [into Pennsylvania] with less than 3,000 men fit for duty&#8221; and shared his fears of failure.
“If every nerve is not strained to recruit the New Army with all possible Expedition I think the game is pretty near up,” Washington wrote. “We are at present in a very disaffected part of the Provence, and between you and me I think our affairs are in a very bad way.”
The brutal cold of Pennsylvania&#8217;s winter was rolling in, and Washington’s men<a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/so-hard-a-winter" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> lacked</a> food, shelter, and shoes. Washington and his army weren&#8217;t receiving needed support from “disaffected&#8221; locals who focused on their own lives and remained apathetic toward America’s campaign for independence.
“These people would yield to, but not rally to, whoever held power. They had no strong political attachments and preferred to go about their daily lives with as little disruption as possible,” describes Kimberly McCarty on the Washington Crossing Historic Park<a href="https://www.washingtoncrossingpark.org/how-did-bucks-county-feel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> website</a>.
<div id="attachment_1124299" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1124299" class="wp-image-1124299 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/DSC_9543-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Meg Brock</div>
The effort for independence needed a sizable morale boost if the nation was to survive. To garner support for the war effort and encourage the Continental Army,<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Paine" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Thomas Paine</a>, an English-American revolutionary writer, published the first pamphlet in a series called “<a href="https://americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/war/text2/painecrisis1776.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The American Crisis</a>” on December 19, 1776.
“These are the times that try men&#8217;s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman,” Paine wrote. “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: It is dearness only that gives everything its value.”
Washington was so moved by Paine’s words that he had “The American Crisis”<a href="https://www.amrevmuseum.org/read-the-revolution/the-american-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> read</a> to his troops in Bucks County on December 24, 1776, as they prepared for the surprise attack on Trenton.
The next day, while others celebrated the merriment of Christmas, Washington gathered his army and began crossing the Delaware River during a harsh winter storm. Unlike the “disaffected,” these men were willing to put aside their own comfort, safety, and livelihoods to secure American independence. It took hours to get all of the soldiers across the ice-filled river before marching nine miles to Trenton in the early morning for a surprise attack.
<div id="attachment_1124301" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1124301" class="wp-image-1124301 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-6-of-8-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Meg Brock</div>
I grew up near Washington’s Crossing and have walked the<a href="https://www.wcpa-nj.com/continental" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> trails</a> on the Jersey side of the Delaware River that Washington and his men may have taken on their journey to Trenton. It&#8217;s hard to even imagine how uncomfortable, dangerous, and difficult that trek must have been during a winter storm without proper shoes or clothing.
Against all odds, Washington’s army had a miraculous victory in Trenton. It was a turning point in the war that changed the course of our nation.
​Washington’s Crossing became an iconic symbol of the American spirit when it was immortalized by the German-American painter<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?artist=Emanuel+Leutze" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Emanuel Leutze</a>. Leutze’s painting of Washington and his men heroically weaving through chunks of ice to cross the Delaware River has been a fixture in popular culture for 175 years. The painting is currently hung at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but you don’t have to travel to New York City to see its likeness. It can be found on the back of a New Jersey State<a href="https://www.usmint.gov/learn/coins-and-medals/circulating-coins/quarter/50-state-quarters/new-jersey" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Quarter</a>, is featured in TV shows, and was recently<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DSdKO4dD69D/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> recreated</a> by legendary Philadelphia baseball mascot the Philly Phanatic.
The huge chunks of ice have long been a controversial element of the painting, as some believe their addition was historically<a href="https://stories.state.gov/washington-crossing-the-delaware/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> inaccurate</a>. However, chunks of ice have been seen floating along the Delaware River at least twice in the past decade. In 2018, I personally witnessed the<a href="https://newjersey.news12.com/chunks-of-ice-on-delaware-river-prompt-flood-warnings-37270364" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> boulders of ice</a> floating in the Delaware River when Southeastern Pennsylvania was caught up in a polar vortex. The ice returned to the<a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/shipment-salt-philly-stuck-delaware-river-ice/4345622/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Delaware River</a> in January 2026 during another deep freeze.
There are<a href="https://www.washingtoncrossingpark.org/winter-weather-challenge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> firsthand accounts</a> that the Delaware River was filled with ice during Washington&#8217;s crossing, but we&#8217;ll never really know exactly what the Delaware River looked like that night. We do know that in the midst of harrowing circumstances, Washington and his men provided one of the greatest examples of grit and the American spirit our nation has seen.
Historians believe that no soldiers died the night of Washington’s crossing; all miraculously had safe passage across the Delaware River to New Jersey. But an unknown number of soldiers<a href="https://www.washingtoncrossingpark.org/park/soldiers-graves/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> died</a> during the Continental Army’s Bucks County encampment from disease and previous injuries. A cemetery dedicated to these fallen soldiers is located four miles from Washington Crossing Historical Park.
<div id="attachment_1124303" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1124303" class="wp-image-1124303 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/PA-8-of-9-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Meg Brock</div>
<div>
Their graves are a reminder that from our nation&#8217;s very beginning, our freedom has been secured through the extraordinary sacrifices of everyday people. We are forever in debt to those who put aside their own comforts and safety for the betterment of future generations.
If you’re ever in Philadelphia, take the 45-minute drive northeast to visit the site of Washington’s crossing. You no longer have to get into a boat to cross the Delaware; you can drive your car across on a metal bridge and view the old trees and grassy embankments that line the Delaware River. If you visit on Christmas Day, you can watch a group of local historians perform a reenactment of the crossing. It&#8217;s a peaceful, beautiful place, rich in history, that reminds us all that a few individuals with the courage of their convictions can change the course of history.
Benjamin Franklin famously warned America is “a Republic, if you can keep it.” Freedom is a fragile gift, and the apathy of the &#8220;disaffected&#8221; has always been its silent adversary.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, may we follow the example of liberty-loving patriots who’ve gone before us. May we commit ourselves to employing the gift of our citizenship and seek out opportunities to serve our families, communities, and country as we safeguard the integrity of our constitutional republic.
Future generations are counting on us. We can&#8217;t let them down.
</div>

Washington Crossing The Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze

George Washington’s Bravery Reminds Us America Is Worth Fighting For

America 250

Freedom

George Washington

A notorious California Democrat who is looking to fill Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s congressional seat is again supporting legislation that protects sexual predators who commit crimes against children.
If passed into law, California&#8217;s AB-2691 would prohibit individuals convicted of sexual assault or human trafficking from holding public office in California. But thanks to Sen. Scott Wiener, an amendment was added to carve out an exception for those who committed crimes against children.
The bill unanimously passed through the California Assembly and was referred to the <a href="https://selc.senate.ca.gov/members">Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee</a>, where it was amended to provide protections for convicted pedophiles. The committee, which is chaired by Wiener, <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2691">amended the bill</a> to clarify that the term &#8220;sexual assault&#8221; does not include several violations of California&#8217;s <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&amp;division=&amp;title=9.&amp;part=1.&amp;chapter=5.&amp;article=">penal code</a> involving the sexual assault of minors.
At a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAV_owqdREs">June 30</a> hearing on the bill, Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, stated that the amendments were so shocking that he and his colleagues couldn&#8217;t believe they were real.
&#8220;When we read the June 24th amendment to AB 2691, our honest reaction was that it could not be real. We assumed we&#8217;d misread it. We sat in our office and tried to imagine how anyone could stand up and defend it. So I&#8217;m here today, generally hoping someone will tell us why crimes against children are being carved out of this bill,&#8221; Burt stated.
&#8220;Barring people convicted of felony sexual assault and human trafficking from holding public office is good policy. We want to support the bill, but the amendments — we were told this committee chair demanded — exempt convictions for felony sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration against children.&#8221;
Wiener, who is <a href="https://www.scottwiener.com/meet-scott">running</a> for Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s congressional seat, has a history of pushing legislation that protects sex offenders. In 2019, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-signs-bill-that-could-alter-sex-offender-registration-for-gay-sex-with-minors">Wiener</a> introduced a bill, which is now <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB145">California law</a>, that shields young adults from mandatory registration onto the sex offender registry if the sexually victimized minor is at least 14 and within 10 years of their age. Wiener is known for his LGBTQ+ activism and has spearheaded multiple bills in the California Senate that push <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-scott-wiener-nancy-pelosis-likely-replacement-probably-thinks-youre-a-bigot?author=Susannah+Luthi&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Meet+Scott+Wiener%3A+Nancy+Pelosi%E2%80%99s+Likely+Replacement+Probably+Thinks+You%E2%80%99re+A+Bigot">transgender policies</a> into state law.
<a href="https://senate.ca.gov/sd37">Senator Steven Choi</a>, the Republican Vice Chair of the <a href="https://selc.senate.ca.gov/members">Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee</a>, said at the hearing that he &#8220;could no longer in good conscience support&#8221; AB-2691 because the bill &#8220;excludes heinous crimes like sodomy of a minor or sexual penetration of a minor.&#8221;
&#8220;I supported this bill but I now believe that this bill must be opposed because of the absurd message that it sends — namely that it&#8217;s okay to have pedophiles and the child groomers in elected office. Until the highness of crimes involving minors are restored in the definition of a sexual assault under this bill, I will not be able to in good conscience support this bill,&#8221; stated Choi.
Wiener responded to Choi&#8217;s comments by defending the amended bill, claiming those who opposed the changes were doing so due to &#8220;pure politics and pure political cynicism.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been in politics a long time, and every time I think I&#8217;ve seen the height of cynicism in politics, there are some people who manage to set a new world record in political cynicism,&#8221; Wiener stated.
Wiener voted in support of AB-2691, which <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2691">passed</a> the committee with the pedophile protections in place in a 4-1 vote.
At the same hearing, Wiener openly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dems-kill-bill-to-ban-sex-offenders-from-public-office?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Dems+Kill+Bill+To+Ban+Sex+Offenders+From+Public+Office">opposed</a> AB-2753, a bill that would prohibit anyone on the sex offender registry from holding public office.
&#8220;I will be voting no on this bill and recommending that the committee vote no,&#8221; Wiener stated and explained that California&#8217;s sex offender registry was &#8220;extreme and broken&#8221; before he and other legislators started &#8220;fixing it.&#8221;
Wiener recommended changes be made to the bill in alignment with analysis provided by the Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments, which states the bill creates concerns for members of the LGBTQ+ community and does not provide flexibility for changes in law over time in determining what constitutes a sexual offense.
&#8220;The bill does not make allowances for changes in law over time, so things that may have been sex offenses in the past, such as consensual sex between two men, would preclude a person from running for office under this bill,&#8221; states the <a href="///Users/meganbrock/Downloads/202520260AB2753_Senate%20Elections%20And%20Constitutional%20Amendments.pdf">analysis</a>.
Wiener did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.

San Francisco Pride 2026

Nancy Pelosi’s Would-Be Successor Makes Another Move To Protect Pedophiles

California

Children

Scott Wiener

<div>Members of a historic female-only society are being warned they could violate human rights law if they vote to exclude &#8220;transgender&#8221; males from their ranks.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) are voting on a resolution that would amend the group’s bylaws to clarify that only natural-born women can join the female-only society at its national meeting this week in Washington, D.C.</div>
<div></div>
<div>&#8220;The proposed resolution would blatantly violate the D.C. Human Rights Law,&#8221; states a legal analysis addressed to voting members from the DAR Executive Committee. &#8220;Refusing admission to transgender women facially discriminates against them based on gender identity.&#8221;</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div>Gender identity is a term transgender activists use to describe a person&#8217;s feelings about their sex. The DAR&#8217;s headquarters are in Washington, D.C.</div>
<div></div>
</div>
<div><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1123309 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5342-1-433x576.jpg" alt="" width="433" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5342-1-433x576.jpg 433w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5342-1-226x300.jpg 226w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5342-1-768x1021.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5342-1-1155x1536.jpg 1155w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5342-1.jpg 1179w" sizes=" (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px" /></div>
<div></div>
<div>DAR allows <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daughters-of-the-american-revolution-chapters-plead-with-trump-to-save-org-from-trans-radicals">men who believe they are women</a> to join the historic female-only society, which prompted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-daughters-of-the-american-revolution-could-declare-independence-from-woke?author=Megan+Brock&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Daughters+Of+The+American+Revolution+Could+Declare+Independence+From+Woke">local chapters</a> to put forward the resolution clarifying that only natural-born women could join the society. “The term ‘woman’ shall be understood to clearly mean a woman who was born female, and therefore, individuals who were born male shall not be eligible for membership; transgender women shall not be eligible for membership,” the proposed resolution states, according to a document reviewed by The Daily Wire.</div>
<div></div>
<div>The Daily Wire obtained an internal memo and legal analysis of the resolution distributed by the organization&#8217;s Executive Committee to voting members of DAR. The memo was dated June 19 — days before members would vote to decide if DAR&#8217;s future will remain exclusively female. The Executive Committee wrote it felt an &#8220;obligation&#8221; to provide educational information on the proposed resolution, warning it would &#8220;prohibit transgender women from joining the DAR,&#8221; according to the memo.</div>
<div></div>
<div>&#8220;At the 135th Continental Congress, voting members will consider a resolution submitted by a group of DAR chapters to prohibit transgender women from joining the DAR,&#8221; states the memo. &#8220;The National Board of Management has an obligation to ensure that members voting on consequential matters have access to information necessary to fully exercise that responsibility.&#8221;</div>
<div></div>
<div>The DAR Executive Committee called upon <a href="https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/samuel-r-bagenstos">Professor Samuel Bagenstos</a>, a professor of law at the University of Michigan with a <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/news/government/domestic-policy-corps-and-out-public-host-supreme-court-civil-rights-litigator/">history</a> of involvement in LGBTQ+ litigation, to provide members with legal analysis of the &#8220;risks this resolution would create&#8221; for DAR.</div>
<div></div>
<div>
<div>&#8220;I worked on many regulations and initiatives involving the rights of transgender individuals,&#8221; Bagenstos wrote in his legal analysis.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Bagenstos served in the Biden administration from January 2021 to December 2024. He served as General Counsel to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from June 2022 to December 2024, as it made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-the-biden-admins-scramble-to-find-data-to-support-its-pro-trans-foster-care-reform">radical moves</a> to push transgenderism onto children. Bagenstos notes in his <a href="https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/samuel-r-bagenstos">biography</a> that he drafted and issued major rules on issues such as &#8220;the treatment of LGBTQ+ kids in the foster care system.&#8221;</div>
</div>
<div></div>
<div><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1123313 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5343-481x576.jpg" alt="" width="481" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5343-481x576.jpg 481w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5343-250x300.jpg 250w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5343-768x920.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5343.jpg 1179w" sizes=" (max-width: 481px) 100vw, 481px" /></div>
<div></div>
<div>The Executive Committee told DAR members informed decision-making is &#8220;best served when voting members have access to relevant information and expert analysis&#8221; and that Bagenstos&#8217; legal analysis of the resolution was being distributed &#8220;in full and without modification,&#8221; according to the internal memo.</div>
<div></div>
<div>The legal analysis from Bagenstos strongly suggested DAR will face harsh consequences if it adopts the position that men cannot be women.</div>
<div></div>
<div>“I have reviewed the proposed resolution that would introduce a requirement to bar transgender women from admission to membership in the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In my legal opinion, implementing the proposed resolution would expose the National Society to significant risk of being found in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Law,” Bagenstos wrote in the opening paragraph of the legal analysis. &#8220;If found in violation, the National Society could be required to pay damages to those excluded from membership. More significantly, it would likely lose both its D.C. tax exemption and any licenses or permits to operate Constitution Hall.&#8221;</div>
<div></div>
<div>The three page legal analysis provided by Bagenstos concluded with a strong message to members that the adoption of the female-only resolution would &#8220;very likely&#8221; have dire financial consequences for the organization.</div>
<div></div>
<div>“The proposed resolution would very likely expose the National Society to liability for damages and injunctive relief—as well as the revocation of business licenses and tax-exempt status–under D.C. law,” wrote Bagenstos.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Bagenstos did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Founded in 1890, the DAR aimed to give women the same opportunities as men to “promote Historic Preservation, Education, and Patriotism” in the United States. Throughout its more than 130-year history, DAR has welcomed over a million members, <a href="https://www.dar.org/national-society/about-dar/did-you-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supported</a> American efforts in three major wars, and continues to <a href="https://www.dar.org/outreach/patriotism/military-support-service-veterans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">serve</a> active-duty military members and veterans, as described on its website.</div>
<div></div>
<div>The Daughters of the American Revolution did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.</div>

Rally for Transgender Equality

One Of America’s Most Iconic Women’s Groups Is Pushing Members To Allow Biological Males To Join

Daughters of the American Revolution

Women's Rights

<div>
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
America is currently gripped by a nationwide epidemic with no sign of slowing down: Millions of Americans have caught &#8220;FIFA fever.&#8221; Symptoms of this joyful &#8220;infection&#8221; include sporting patriotic gear, high-fiving strangers, and an uncontrollable urge to chant &#8220;USA&#8221; in public.
Across the country, Americans are gathering in backyards, sports bars, and FIFA Fan Festivals to support the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team in its quest to become the first U.S. men’s team to win the World Cup. The team&#8217;s opening match drew a record-breaking <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/06/17/telemundo-fox-set-us-soccer-audience-record-with-us-paraguay/?publicationSource=newsletters&amp;issue=6a3275f8c2aa6f334e57bd33&amp;utm_source=sbj&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=edition_morningbuzz">27.5 million viewers</a>, making it the most-watched soccer game in <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/soccer/the-usmnt-paraguay-game-was-the-most-watched-soccer-broadcast-in-us-history/ar-AA25Sodz?apiversion=v2&amp;domshim=1&amp;noservercache=1&amp;noservertelemetry=1&amp;batchservertelemetry=1&amp;renderwebcomponents=1&amp;wcseo=1">U.S. television history</a>.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1121609" style="width: 777px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1121609" class="wp-image-1121609 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5143-767x576.jpg" alt="" width="767" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5143-767x576.jpg 767w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5143-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5143-768x577.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5143-1536x1154.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/IMG_5143-2048x1539.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" />Fans gather at the Atlanta FIFA Fan Festival. Photo by Meg Brock.</div>
The International Federation of Association Football World Cup has returned to American soil for the first time in over 30 years, and 11 U.S. cities, alongside Mexico and Canada, are hosting matches from June 11 to July 19. Thousands of soccer fans visiting the U.S. for the first time have been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/foreign-soccer-fans-are-discovering-something-many-americans-forgot">delighted</a> by American hospitality, culture, and culinary delicacies such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/world-cup-travelers-overwhelm-tsa-with-beloved-american-condiment?author=Trinity+Gentry&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=World+Cup+Travelers+Overwhelm+TSA+With+Beloved+American+Condiment">ranch dressing</a>.
Over the past two weeks, 48 countries have been competing in the group stage of the World Cup tournament. If you are unfamiliar with how the tournament works, teams are divided into groups of four that compete against each other over a series of three games. Teams receive three points for every win and one point for a draw, and the top two point-getters in each group automatically move on to the next stage of the competition — a 32-team single-elimination tournament. An additional eight teams with the most points among the groups will round out the teams competing for the world title.
The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team has already won its first two games, won its group, and secured a place in the knockout round. This is the first time a U.S. Men’s soccer team has won its group <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/live-blogs/world-cup-today-live-updates-news-results-latest/24EPcmy9Uk4B/jnUCPlFY4lbJ/?eafs_enabled=false">since 2010</a> and the first time an American men&#8217;s team has won two games in a row <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/06/20/usmnt-wins-group-d-world-cup-pulisic-injury-1930/">since 1930</a> — the year the World Cup began. The team accomplished this while one of its biggest stars, Christian Pulisic (who has been nicknamed &#8220;Captain America&#8221;), was out with an injury.
The U.S. has one of the most inspiring men’s soccer teams in decades, and if you&#8217;re not cheering for America&#8217;s team, you&#8217;re missing out. The team will have its final group stage game on June 25, and now is the perfect time to jump on the Team USA bandwagon.
World Cup excitement is sweeping through the U.S., and more than 2 million people have already visited FIFA Fan Festivals — a celebration of all things soccer held in World Cup host cities. The festivals, most of which are free to attend, broadcast World Cup games on huge screens, giving fans a central place to gather, cheer, and have an in-person soccer experience without having to shell out hundreds of dollars for a game-day ticket.
The FIFA Fan Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, hosted <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2026/06/23/atlanta-hosts-most-fans-at-world-cup-fan-festival-heres-whats-inside/90655772007/">almost 275,000 visitors</a>, including my family, in the first 10 days of the World Cup. My husband and son are huge soccer fans, and on Friday, we drove to Atlanta to watch the U.S. Men’s soccer team defeat Australia.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1121613" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1121613" class="wp-image-1121613 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9712-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Meg Brock.</div>
I felt the patriotic energy as soon as we arrived in Atlanta, which was decked out in FIFA signage and imagery of top soccer players. My family and I were dressed head to toe in Team USA attire, and fellow USA fans were already greeting us with “USA” cheers while we parked our car.
We arrived at the FIFA Fan Fest entrance at 1 p.m., two hours before the U.S. played, and hordes of people were already lined up to get in. When the gates opened, large swaths of the crowd made a beeline for the Bank of America bracelet booth, which had gone viral for giving free bracelets with unique FIFA charms. Visitors have reportedly waited in line for up to four hours to snag one of the bracelets, and when we watched, the line swelled to hundreds of people in just minutes. It&#8217;s easy to understand why FIFA Fan Festival bracelets are so popular: They are cute, they&#8217;re free, and you can’t buy them in a store. You have to attend the event to get a bracelet, and there is something particularly cool about that.
While entrance into the festival is free, you are only allowed to bring in water, and the available food and drink were pricey. A round of Coca-Cola for my family of four cost over $26. But it was worth the price to have the peak Americana moment of drinking a cold Coca-Cola (which originated in Atlanta) in the summer heat, decked out in patriotic gear, while watching America’s team play a World Cup game on home turf. It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment I will always remember, and I hope my kids remember it too.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_1121615" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1121615" class="wp-image-1121615 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-1536x1026.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/06/MEG_9687-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />An aerial view of the Atlanta FIFA Fan Festival. Photo by Meg Brock.</div>
My family enjoyed walking around and getting caught up in the World Cup excitement, and it was wonderful to see so many Americans proudly dressed in red, white, and blue. At the start of the game, the crowd of thousands gathered in front of the main stage stood and sang along to the national anthem, united in its support of Team USA.
It was good for the soul to be a part of that moment. The online world is filled with constant reminders of the sharp ideological and political divisions within our nation, but sports have the power to bring us together and remind us of our shared humanity. Getting offline and getting out into the real world to cheer for America’s team reminded me of how hospitable, kind, and fun the majority of Americans are.
</div>
Our family could have just watched the game in the comfort of our own home, but it was far more memorable and meaningful to scream and chant &#8220;USA&#8221; alongside thousands of fellow Americans.
Even if you don&#8217;t like soccer, I wholeheartedly recommend you put on your most patriotic shirt, jump on the U.S. soccer bandwagon, and find somewhere to root for our home team alongside fellow Americans.
<div>
You don&#8217;t have to love soccer to love rooting for America. But be careful, FIFA fever is highly contagious, and you might just fall in love with the beautiful game.
</div>

USA v Australia: Group D – FIFA World Cup 2026

When Was The Last Time America Felt Like This?

All American Patriotism

America

World Cup

Advocacy groups are warning that a radical new bill could make it easier for gender-confused children to legally cut parents out of their lives.
The California proposal, <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1967" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AB 1967,</a> would allow minors to initiate legal emancipation from their parents while living in residential facilities like drug rehabilitation programs, youth shelters, and private alternative boarding schools. The bill — which the California Assembly passed in May, and which is <a href="https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/ca/2025-2026/bills/CAB00036846/#billtexts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moving through</a> the state senate — is just the latest instance of California legislation that allows minors to make major decisions without parental consent by essentially electing to become wards of the state.
&#8220;This bill is part of a larger agenda designed to permit children to circumvent their parents&#8217; refusal to consent to sex-rejecting interventions,&#8221; Erin Friday, a parental rights advocate and President of Our Duty USA, told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Children cannot obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries without parental consent, but if a child enters foster care, he is subject to the<a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=16001.9.&amp;lawCode=WIC" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Foster Care Bill of Rights</a>. These rights guarantee every foster child both affirmation of a declared transgender identity and access to sex-rejecting interventions as enforceable statutory rights.&#8221;
Friday pointed to how AB 1967 builds on a bill California passed in 2023, <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB665" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AB 665</a>, which allows minors ages 12 and over to receive treatment at residential shelters without parental consent if a professional deems them &#8220;mature enough to participate intelligently in the outpatient services or residential shelter services.&#8221; Language in the bill claims a high percentage of LGBTQ+ youth reported that getting &#8220;permission from their parents&#8221; was a &#8220;barrier to accessing mental health services.&#8221;
California minors can also initiate the emancipation process by alleging they&#8217;ve been <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/resources/definitions-child-abuse-and-neglect-california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emotionally</a> abused by their parents.
&#8220;Emotional abuse claims against a parent who is raising his gender-dysphoric child as his or her sex are sufficient to place the child into foster care,&#8221; Friday told The Daily Wire. &#8220;California has been systematically passing laws to ensure that children have a simple pathway to override their parents’ decisions, to obtain access to gender interventions.&#8221;
Transgender activists <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-harris-hhs-consulted-activist-who-said-parents-should-be-prosecuted-for-transphobia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> not affirming a child&#8217;s gender identity is a form of emotional abuse. This idea was supported by the California legislature in 2023 when it passed a <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB957" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> that explicitly stated parental affirmation of a minor&#8217;s gender identity was essential to the child&#8217;s &#8220;health, safety, and welfare.&#8221; After significant public outcry, the bill was vetoed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AB-957-Veto-Message.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clarified</a> in a statement that existing California law already views parental affirmation of a child&#8217;s gender identity as a vital part of their health and safety.
Greg Burt, vice president of <a href="https://www.californiafamily.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California Family Council,</a> says California&#8217;s ambiguous definition of emotional abuse raises concerns over how AB 1967 could be applied to parents who affirm a child&#8217;s true sex rather than their transgender identity.
&#8220;We are ultimately concerned that the legislature believes if you&#8217;re not affirming, that you are causing psychological harm to your own child,&#8221; Burt told The Daily Wire. &#8220;We are hyper-concerned when we see bills making it easier for kids to emancipate themselves from parents — make it easy for them to run away and make it easy for them to take away parental rights if they don&#8217;t find the parent affirming. This bill is just pushing that envelope.&#8221;
Under AB 1967, if a child residing in a safe, residential facility alleges parental abuse or neglect, it will trigger a <a href="https://www.childwelfare.gov/resources/use-safety-and-risk-assessment-child-protection-cases-california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">safety assessment</a> of the custodial parent&#8217;s home. Authorities could conduct the assessment without notifying parents or physically visiting their home, Our Duty USA explained in a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing AB 1967.
&#8220;Parents do not receive any notice that a home assessment is planned or occurring. The &#8216;home assessment&#8217; can legally be completed based on the child&#8217;s statements alone, without any physical visit to the parents&#8217; home, and without the parents&#8217; knowledge,&#8221; states the letter reviewed by The Daily Wire.
&#8220;The bill contains no exemption for minors in parent-arranged placements, no minimum age floor within the dependency framework, and puts parents and children at odds. This bill empowers (encourages) children to make claims whether founded in falsehoods against their parents, when there is no indicia of abuse or neglect, outside of being placed in a facility the child opposes. This is part of the movement to permit &#8216;children&#8217; to choose their own families if they do not agree with their parents.&#8221;
The California Family Council shared similar concerns in a letter to the California Senate Judiciary Committee.
&#8220;As amended, the bill would allow a minor or a minor&#8217;s attorney to submit an affidavit alleging parental abuse or neglect by mail, facsimile, or email,&#8221; the letter states. &#8220;They accelerate state proceedings concerning a family without adding a single corresponding protection for parents. The bill is silent on whether parents must even be notified that their home is the subject of a mandated safety assessment.&#8221;
Friday told The Daily Wire the bill is of national concern because what happens legislatively in California rarely stays in California.
&#8220;California laws are routinely duplicated by other states once California shows them the way,&#8221; Friday told The Daily Wire.

GettyImages-2267707696 copy

Radical Bill Will Make It Easier For ‘Trans’ Kids To Cut Legal Ties With Parents

Menu

Megan Brock