The Trump administration announced Monday that it is taking enforcement action against two public school districts accused of concealing students&#8217; gender identity information from parents, warning the districts could face lawsuits and the loss of federal funding for violating federal privacy law.
The Department of Education said it has partnered with the Justice Department to pursue enforcement against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland. It also gave Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan until August 10 to explain why similar action should not move forward. 
The investigations center on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which guarantees parents access to their children&#8217;s education records. The Trump administration argues that school policies directing staff to withhold information about a student&#8217;s gender identity or social transition from parents violate those protections.
&#8220;As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents,&#8221; Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/trump-administration-cracks-down-school-districts-secretly-transitioning-students-and-hiding-it-parents">statement</a>. &#8220;This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents&#8217; rights under federal law.&#8221;
&#8220;Today, ED and DOJ are putting districts on notice that we will use every tool available to hold them to account for this egregious behavior,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Under the Trump Administration, ED and DOJ are working together to vigorously uphold parents&#8217; federal protections, and we will work to ensure that no parent is ever kept in the dark about important matters relating to their children.&#8221;
According to the Education Department, its Student Privacy Policy Office received complaints from parents in Anne Arundel County who discovered their daughter was being referred to by male pronouns at school. The parents said they learned about the situation only after receiving an email from school staff.
When the parents sought information about what the school described as their child&#8217;s &#8220;gender transition,&#8221; the principal allegedly refused to provide details while an assistant principal declined to turn over relevant records, prompting the federal investigation. The Education Department said Anne Arundel County improperly classified information about a student&#8217;s so-called &#8220;gender identity&#8221; as confidential medical information that could not be shared with parents. The agency said those practices unlawfully prevented parents from exercising their rights under FERPA.
The action comes weeks after the same parents <a href="https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/arundel-schools-transgender-children-policies-lawsuit-6BKCHH25O5HP7FLPPGNF7RQFWU/">filed a federal lawsuit</a> against the district with representation from America First Legal, the conservative organization founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The lawsuit claims school officials socially transitioned their daughter by using a masculine name and pronouns without notifying or obtaining consent from her parents. The Education Department said it is working with the Justice Department&#8217;s Civil Rights Division to pursue enforcement against the Maryland district, including potential judicial proceedings and termination of federal funding.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the administration intends to aggressively enforce the law. &#8220;School districts that hide information from parents are violating federal law,&#8221; Dhillon said. &#8220;FERPA is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action.&#8221;
Additionally, the administration found Ann Arbor Public Schools&#8217; policy requiring employees to conceal a student&#8217;s &#8220;transgender status&#8221; from parents likely violates FERPA. Federal officials also questioned the district&#8217;s practice of maintaining records related to a student&#8217;s &#8220;gender identity&#8221; in a separate filing system. 
The Education Department said the cases build on a broader effort by the Trump administration to strengthen parental rights. Earlier this year, the department launched statewide investigations into policies that allegedly concealed students&#8217; &#8220;gender identity&#8221; from parents and issued a finding against the California Department of Education over the use of secret &#8220;gender support plans&#8221; and hidden student records.
In March 2025, the department sent a nationwide <a href="https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/sites/default/files/resource_document/file/Secretary_Comb_SPPO_DCL_Annual%20Notice_0.pdf">letter</a> reminding state education officials that concealing a child&#8217;s &#8220;gender identity&#8221; from parents was a priority enforcement issue under FERPA.
FERPA violations can ultimately result in the loss of federal education funding, though that penalty has historically been used sparingly.

Transgender Symbol and Pencils With The Color of Lgbt Flag

Trump Admin Takes Action Against School Districts Hiding ‘Transgender Status’ From Parents

Civil Rights

Civil Rights Division

Department of Education

Department of Justice

Gender Pronouns

Gender Transition

Harmeet Dhillon

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LGBTQ

Linda McMahon

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Michigan

Parental Rights

Parental Rights in Education

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Public Schools

trans

trans kids

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Trump Administration

Pro Football Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher is backing Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham after her comments opposing transgender-identifying athletes in women&#8217;s sports drew backlash. 
The former Chicago Bears linebacker discussed Cunningham during an <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6402329121112">interview</a> with Fox News Digital published Wednesday.
As the Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-sophie-cunningham-doubles-down-on-protecting-girls-from-trans-athletes?row=0&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;rowType=Web+Search">reported</a>, Cunningham declared in a recent ESPN interview that female sports should be protected and biological males should not be allowed in these female-only spaces. When she was pressed about these comments the following day, Cunningham stood by her remarks and said her position won’t change based on others’ negative or positive feedback.
“I follow her on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sophie_cham/?hl=en">Instagram</a>. She’s got great stuff out here. So she says what’s true. She says common sense things!” Urlacher <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/nfl-legend-praises-sophie-cunningham-saying-whats-true-transgender-athletes-girls-sports">said</a>.
Urlacher praised Cunningham for not backing down when left-wing activists pushed back on her.
&#8220;[Transgender-identifying athletes in women&#8217;s sports] is an 80–20 issue. Eighty percent of the country thinks it’s true. The other 20% is crushing her. Let them. Who cares? But I love that she didn’t back down.” Urlacher said. &#8220;That’s what I love about when people say things: Don’t back down. If you say something, stand by it. And she said it. She backed it up. She’s not backing down, no matter how much heat she gets from certain people.&#8221; 
Urlacher criticized what he described as the league&#8217;s left-leaning culture.   
&#8220;It’s a liberal and mostly gay league, which is fine. I have no problem. My daughter is gay. No problem,” Urlacher said. “I’ve got no problem with that. But the way they push things on people in the WNBA, it’s why I’m not a big fan of watching their games and supporting it. But man, what do you do, right? She said what she said. I cannot disagree with her.&#8221;
Urlacher is the latest prominent figure to publicly defend Cunningham.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) recently <a href="https://x.com/tedcruz/status/2079952067951477021">posted</a> on X that Cunningham’s position was “well said,” and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines <a href="https://x.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/2079055068670640375">said</a>, “If the league was smart, they&#8217;d lean in to Sophie. Fans love her &amp; young athletes look up to her!”
Harry Potter author and women&#8217;s rights advocate J.K. Rowling also praised Cunningham, <a href="https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/2080766847259934762?s=20">posting</a> on X, “Caution didn&#8217;t win women the vote, or equal pay, or fair sport, or the right to single-sex spaces. Sophie Cunningham is standing up for women and girls everywhere and it&#8217;s glorious. F*ck caution.”
Cunningham&#8217;s comments also drew criticism online, with some commentators labeling her “transphobic” and “a MAGA Barbie.”

Screenshot 2026-07-28 at 12.49.11 PM

NFL Hall-of-Famer Backs Sophie Cunningham’s Stance on Transgender Athletes

Sophie Cunningham

WNBA

Women's sports

A woke, taxpayer-funded exhibit in England claims the Care Bears toys are LGBT icons, describing one of the beloved children&#8217;s characters as &#8220;transgender or gender fluid.&#8221; 
“Funshine Bear is our yellow bear with a smiling sun in his belly, and is considered to be transgender or gender fluid,” the exhibit <a href="https://villiers.digital-exhibition.uk/">claimed</a>, arguing that the character was voiced by female actors before 2004 and by male actors afterward. 
“Bears like True Love Bear … and others, disrupt gender norms through their expression of their true selves but are accepted regardless,” the museum stated. “This enables children and adults to realize that regardless of their identity, sexuality, or self-expression — they are loved.&#8221;
The Care Bears were also praised for their “deep association with symbols such as the rainbow — which became a symbol for the queer community in 1978.”
The exhibit drew criticism from family advocacy organizations. 
“Taxpayers should not be funding such blatant attempts to sexualize children’s toys and promote false gender ideology,” the Family Education Trust <a href="https://x.com/FamEdTrust/status/2081463243365605477">said</a> in an X post. 

The Care Bear display was part of a larger exhibition <a href="https://www.cultureleicestershire.co.uk/projects/villiers-revealed-welcome-to-our-virtual-exhibition/george-villiers/">exploring</a> historical figures and artifacts through a modern LGBT lens, including George Villiers, whom the exhibition claimed would be considered &#8220;queer&#8221; today because he was the &#8220;favorite&#8221; gay lover of King James I. 
The exhibit claimed Villiers is a “reminder that LGBTQ+ life and love isn’t a side story in history, but it shapes history. A history we all inherit and can explore together,” and promoted a “powerful exploration” of reclaiming queer icons that experienced “bi and pan erasure” throughout history by the British Empire. 
The Care Bears were in the Villiers Revealed Student Gallery, where University of Nottingham student volunteers found objects in the museum collections “having queer resonance.” Among the other selections were coins of Emperor Hadrian, whom the museum described as “an openly queer figure,” a portrait of a mermaid, praised by transgender-identifying people for their “ability to transform,” and dolls, criticized because they “uphold patriarchal values and are either forced upon or forbidden to gender non-conforming children.”
The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/26/some-teddy-bears-are-trans-says-taxpayer-backed-arts-group/">notes</a> that the display has been made digital because, according to its creator John Sleigh, “some people simply aren’t ready or able to access queer spaces physically.”
Elena Kucharik, the American illustrator who created the original Care Bears, has never confirmed the characters as transgender or LGBT symbols. After creating the franchise, she went on to illustrate Tyndale House&#8217;s Christian children&#8217;s series &#8220;Little Blessings.&#8221;

Screenshot 2026-07-27 at 2.15.52 PM

Woke Exhibit Claims Popular Kids Character Is Transgender

Children

Politics

Toys

United Kingdom

An LGBTQ activist is doubling down, blaming white men after a Muslim man with known Islamist associations rammed a vehicle into Berlin’s Pride festival on Saturday before attacking bystanders with a machete, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
A viral video circulating online shows an <a href="https://x.com/iAnonPatriot/status/2081229875361325146?s=20">unidentified pink-haired woman</a> lamenting not the terror attack, but the public&#8217;s reaction to it.
“I&#8217;m getting really, really sick of this. I&#8217;m getting really tired of having to repeat myself over and over again,” she said. “So the suspect is an Islamic extremist. That&#8217;s their suspect right now. That&#8217;s what I read. Okay, I&#8217;m not going to say anything about the rest of the Muslim population because of actions of this one person.”
Then, the leftist shifted her focus and hurled unfounded accusations towards another demographic: white Christian men.
“But what I can say is the people who were celebrating about this were all white men, young white men with crosses in their profiles because we&#8217;ve all seen it. We&#8217;ve all seen how you guys react towards gay people, and how you wish harm on them constantly,” she said. “I get a constant hate on my videos, especially about trans people. You&#8217;re not going to hide behind another scapegoat group and pretend that they&#8217;re actually the violent ones when it&#8217;s you.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
OMG. Liberal women are blaming “white men” for the Islamic extremist who ran over people at an LGBTQ parade in Berlin.
“You’re not going to scapegoat the Muslim community like they’re the violent ones, when it’s actually you (white men).”
Can’t make this sht up. 💀💀 <a href="https://t.co/0nbsKYgqys">pic.twitter.com/0nbsKYgqys</a>
— American AF 🇺🇸 (@iAnonPatriot) <a href="https://x.com/iAnonPatriot/status/2081229875361325146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
The woman claimed white Christian men share the same ideology as Abdul Ballout, who police say deliberately drove a white van into Berlin’s Tiergarten Park around 10 p.m., killing one woman and injuring at least 29 others before attacking festival goers with what authorities said may have been a machete. The 21-year-old convicted terrorist had previously attempted to join the Islamic State in Syria and was released from German custody just months before Saturday’s attack, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/known-islamic-terrorist-on-the-run-unleashed-machete-attack-after-plowing-van-into-crowd?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Known+Islamic+Terrorist+On+The+Run+Unleashed+Machete+Attack+After+Plowing+Van+Into+Crowd">The Daily Wire reported</a>.
Migration levels in the European Union remain high, with approximately <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20260227-1">4.2 million</a> immigrants arriving in 2024 and total foreign-born residents reaching roughly 64 million. Spain and Germany recorded the largest absolute numbers of new arrivals, according to the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Migration_to_and_from_the_EU">European Commission</a>.
“You hold the same exact beliefs that this man who did this attack did, and you&#8217;re trying to distance yourself from it. And you know why you&#8217;re trying to do that? Because you&#8217;re ashamed, and you should be,” she said in the video.
The passionate defense highlights the growing, confounding alliance between LGBT activist groups and Islamic ideology in Western countries.
“Ahmad attacks people at a Pride Parade because Islam. White liberal woman with aposematic hair coloring concludes white men are to blame. Suicidal Empathy is a fatal disease of the human spirit,” Gad Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist, <a href="https://x.com/GadSaad/status/2081359046775275807?s=20">said</a> on X.
“Queers for Palestine real quiet about this one,” Kangmin Lee, a conservative digital content creator, <a href="https://x.com/kangminlee/status/2081243091629904336?s=20">reacted</a> on social media.
Germany’s latest terror attack, which is said to have left a “horrific scene,” left Pride attendees reeling, including Ricarda Hofmann, a presenter at one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ celebrations.  “What happened today has changed something in me,” she <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbPTNq6iDz4/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1">wrote on Instagram</a>.
On Sunday, organizers of the Berlin Pride festival vowed not to allow the Islamic terror attack to be used &#8220;for political ends.&#8221;
&#8220;People are trying to divide our society and set some people against others. As the CSD in Berlin, we will not allow this,&#8221; a representative for the group <a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2081393662244646936?s=20">said</a> at a press conference.

NYC Pride

WATCH: Pink-Haired LGBT Activist Blames White Christian Men For Islamic Terror Attack

Berlin

Christian

Christianity

Germany

Identity Politics

Islam

Muslim

News

Radical Islam

terror attack

Terrorism

A Muslim man with known Islamist associations reportedly rammed a vehicle into Berlin&#8217;s Pride festival on Saturday before attacking bystanders with a machete, leaving one person dead and several others injured, according to German authorities.
A massive manhunt is underway for 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, who police say deliberately drove a white van into Berlin&#8217;s Tiergarten Park around 10 p.m., killing one woman and injuring at least 29 others before attacking festival goers with what authorities said may have been a machete.
Ballout is said to have fled the &#8220;horrific scene” on foot. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt <a href="https://x.com/SkyNews/status/2081357342902300677?s=20">connected</a> the attack to Islamist ideology, according to CBS News. 
&#8220;Everything we see here indicates that this was an Islamist terror attack,&#8221; Dobrindt said at the scene. 
The BBC reported Sunday <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3r2nz9ed3lt?post=asset%3Af7bf096b-0bc4-4496-b0f8-d2def8c5a207#post">Ballout</a> is a German citizen of Lebanese background who was known to police for being part of Berlin&#8217;s &#8220;Islamist scene&#8221; and had previously &#8220;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3r2nz9ed3lt?post=asset%3A679975ea-dc63-4cff-b17e-cc95f0cbef6f#post">committed a number of crimes</a>.&#8221; Ballout was born in Germany, and his mother became a naturalized German citizen in 2002, three years before his birth, police told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-berlin-lgbtq-pride-parade-van-ramming-3ba5e3f1becffd0da5f47b29aa08da9d">Associated Press</a>.
<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/26/abdul-ballout-berlin-pride-suspect-tried-join-islamic-state/">The Telegraph</a> reported Ballout is a convicted terrorist who tried to join the Islamic State terror group. German authorities previously arrested Ballout in Lebanon after accusing him of attempting to join the Islamic State in Syria and plotting a terrorist attack. Then, he was returned to Germany, where, according to Die Welt, he was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison for plotting a “serious act of violence that threatened the state.” Prosecutors had sought a sentence of two years and 10 months, the newspaper reported. He was released just months prior to Saturday&#8217;s attack.
With the manhunt underway, German authorities warned the suspect may be armed and dangerous, and issued a stark warning to the public. 
&#8220;We cannot rule out the possibility of copycat attacks,&#8221; the interior minister said, announcing the country’s threat level will be raised as a result, according to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c3r2nz9ed3lt">BBC</a>. 
The terror attack left Pride attendees reeling, including Ricarda Hofmann, a presenter at one of Europe&#8217;s largest LGBTQ celebrations.   
“What happened today has changed something in me,” she <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DbPTNq6iDz4/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1">wrote on Instagram</a>.
International leaders across the political spectrum swiftly condemned the attack, with some arguing it highlighted what they described as a growing alliance between Western LGBTQ activist groups and Islamist ideology.
&#8220;Horrendous attack in Berlin last night,&#8221; Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K.&#8217;s right-wing Reform UK party, said. &#8220;The strange left-wing alliance between Islamists and the LGBT community in this country cannot last.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Multiple people reported struck after vehicle rams into crowd at Christopher Street Day event in Berlin -BILD <a href="https://t.co/heweK6iW41">https://t.co/heweK6iW41</a>
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) <a href="https://x.com/Osint613/status/2081117590743552148?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2026</a></blockquote>

Berlin Police

Known Islamic Terrorist On The Run After Deadly Berlin Car-Ramming Attack

Europe

Immigration

Indiana Fever guard <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Star+Breaks+With+League+On+Explosive+Issue">Sophie Cunningham</a> was pressed on Wednesday about her recent comments regarding trans athletes in female sports and unequivocally reiterated her support for girls and women.
Bucking the views <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Star+Breaks+With+League+On+Explosive+Issue">expressed</a> by the WNBA and some of its players, Cunningham said in an ESPN interview published Tuesday that female sports should be protected and biological males should not be allowed in these female-only spaces. When she was pressed about these comments the following day, Cunningham stood by her remarks and said her position is &#8220;common sense&#8221; and won&#8217;t change based on others&#8217; negative or positive feedback.
&#8220;In that story with ESPN, you talked about wanting to protect young girls who shouldn&#8217;t have to go against biological men,&#8221; a female reporter asked the athlete. &#8220;Can you expand your viewpoint on that?&#8221;
“I think I said what I said,” Cunningham responded. “It’s kind of common sense, and I think I&#8217;ll always believe in that. I think it&#8217;s really important to protect children, and that&#8217;s little girls who are also involved in that category. I stand on what I said and I&#8217;m going to always believe that.”
“I&#8217;m not a very political person, but I do have beliefs,” she continued. “I have morals, and I&#8217;ll always stand on those and be true to who I am, and I think people are going to take it how they want to take it. … When it comes to protecting young girls in sport and women in sport, I feel very strongly about that.”
“That&#8217;s why you have Title IX — you have some of the greats in women&#8217;s sports,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If women&#8217;s sports weren&#8217;t protected, then you wouldn&#8217;t hear about any type of women in sport.&#8221;
Asked about how this could be perceived by the “trans community,” Cunningham responded, “I extend love and I don&#8217;t dislike anyone. I think there is room for absolutely everyone here and I think there&#8217;s room to love everyone. &#8230; I&#8217;m there to love, but I&#8217;m also there to love biological women and I think that there are rights that need to be protected and &#8230; I&#8217;m going to stand true to that. I&#8217;ll never falter in my beliefs in that, but I have never once said I hated the trans community.&#8221;
Cunningham said in the ESPN interview that she views her politics as &#8220;middle&#8221; of the road. A reporter on Wednesday asked her how she feels about being labeled or put in a box.
&#8220;I really don&#8217;t care,&#8221; Cunningham responded bluntly. &#8220;I know that sounds bad and I&#8217;m not trying to come off like that. &#8230; I know whatever I say, I&#8217;m gonna get hate and I&#8217;m gonna get love, and if I&#8217;m gonna live by the love, I&#8217;m going to die by the hate, and that&#8217;s just not who I am. I beat to my own drum.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;m confident in who I am, I&#8217;m proud of who I am, I&#8217;m happy being me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I really don&#8217;t care what other people have to say. I know who I am, my people know who I am, and, hopefully, I&#8217;m doing them proud &#8230; and making room for young boys and girls in our world to have a better future than we did.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-breaks-with-league-on-explosive-issue?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Star+Breaks+With+League+On+Explosive+Issue">Related: WNBA Star Breaks With League On Trans Issue</a>

WNBA: JUN 13 Indiana Fever at Connecticut Sun

WATCH: Sophie Cunningham Doubles Down On Protecting Girls From Trans Athletes

WATCH: Sophie Cunningham Doubles Down On ‘Common Sense’ Position To Protect Girls’ Sports

Basketball

Girls

Transgender

A frightening monster in theaters this summer doesn’t hide in a closet (but it just might force you to). It takes the form of the person you love most and comes for you precisely because you love him.
That’s the conceit behind &#8220;Leviticus,&#8221; the Australian horror film that has arrived in American cinemas to mostly critical praise. It’s set in a remote, Christian town so fundamentalist that it smacks of caricature. When a romantic relationship between two young men is discovered, the community subjects them to a deliverance ritual meant to burn their desire away. But the rite instead summons a presence that appears to each boy as the other, hunting him whenever his longing stirs. 
Cleverly, “Leviticus” depicts an inverse exorcism: Conversion therapy is not shown as removing a harmful spirit, but as introducing a spirit of fear and shame that results in death. Making the indictment broader than conversion therapy, director Adrian Chiarella says the monster stands for homophobia “in all its shades.” Considering the film’s title, Chiarella indicts the entire biblical ethic that sex belongs only within the marriage of one man and one woman as deadly. 
Ironically, the film’s caricature is self-indicting as it mirrors overgeneralizations happening in law and culture. This past March, in Chiles v. Salazar, the Supreme Court ruled eight to one, with only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting, that Colorado had overreached by forbidding a licensed counselor from even talking with willing clients about unwanted same-sex attraction.
By lumping such counseling with real past abuses — like electric shock therapy, lobotomies, and fringe deliverance rituals — Colorado’s law likely violates the First Amendment. Speech, Justice Neil Gorsuch reasoned, does not forfeit constitutional protection simply because someone calls it therapy. The court did not bless coercion; it directed the lower courts to scrutinize whether Colorado’s ban could inhibit such speech. The point is that overgeneralization, while sometimes rhetorically powerful, ultimately crumbles when thoughtfully critiqued.
Past invasive and coercive practices, whether secular or religious in motivation, are wrong and harmful. Where Christians have traded the gospel of hope and wholeness for fear, shame, and control, they have inflicted real wounds that no theological cleverness can explain away. “Leviticus” camps there but never asks whether such practices are counterfeits of biblical ethics.
In a pivotal scene, the religiously zealous mother of one of the young men tells him, “We need fear. It’s how we survive.” True, fear is a God-given survival mechanism, but enthroning it is un-Christian because it reduces human beings to instinct-driven animals. The gospel message instead enthrones love. “Perfect love casts out fear,” the apostle John writes, “because fear has to do with punishment” (1 John 4:18). God’s love, displayed at the cross, where Jesus bears the punishment we deserve, removes fear and frees us to love God and pursue holiness out of gratitude. Chiarella thinks he has exposed Christianity’s bigotry. But he’s actually exposed a distorted view of both human nature and the biblical sexual ethic.
The horror in “Leviticus” works only if we grant that a person is defined simply by his desires, so that fencing off a desire erases the self. Straining to condemn homophobia in all its shades, the film flattens the very people it means to defend into one-dimensional beings. The biblical account moves the other way, insisting that human beings bear God’s image and that our longings, however powerful, never amount to the whole of who and what we are.
Scripture calls us to be sexually moral, indicting heterosexual excesses as seriously as any other. Writer Matt Moore understands this far better than Chiarella. He has spoken openly for years about his own same-sex attraction and about his stumbles along the way.
In younger years, Moore writes, he “wasn’t worried about being sexually moral.” He simply wanted to be “normal.” What he found was not an easy fix but something sturdier: honesty about his struggle, a forgiving community, and the same winding and uneven path of moral and spiritual formation every one of us is walking. None of that is cinematic, of course. It is slow and messy. It is the unglamorous work of a life being remade, which is the truest story the movies rarely tell.
Consider, too, the figure the film enlists to embody Christian belief: a shadowy “Deliverance Healer” muttering incantations over a crackpot rite. By calling the film “Leviticus,” Chiarella suggests that such a practice is biblical. Yet no church most Christians would recognize runs on shamans and spells. Chiarella’s straw man is actually a backhanded compliment. Genuine Christianity is too sturdy to attack head-on, so the film substitutes a flimsier version the audience can safely reject. What’s kept off screen is the true meaning behind what Leviticus and other parts of the Bible actually teach about sexuality. 
The Bible’s sexual ethic is not a set of dusty prohibitions from men who found homosexuality icky and then baptized their bigotry. It is not arbitrarily prohibitive; it is protective. Every human being is made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and sex between a man and a woman is the natural means by which sacred human life is created. Because the product of sexuality is sacred, the process must be sacred too. Without boundaries, the process becomes common, even trivial. As pornography proliferates, humans become objects of gratification. Biblical boundaries, therefore, make sense not only naturally, but morally.
Biblical marriage between one man and one woman is a portrait of unity in diversity in that a man and a woman, unmistakably distinct, become one. The Hebrew carries the idea beautifully. A married man and woman “become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). The word one is “echad,” which means “unified.” It’s the same word Israel is commanded to confess over God: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one (echad)” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
From a Christian perspective, the unity of diversity between husband and wife echoes the triune God’s unity of diversity. And that echo beckons us to a destination. The New Testament closes with a wedding in which God binds himself forever to a wayward humanity he has cleansed and made lovely, the pattern every human marriage quietly rehearses (Revelation 19). Same-sex sexuality loses that male-female echo by substituting the sacred diversity for uniformity. To protect us from that, the Bible shelters sex under holy wings. 
By the critics’ own accounts, “Leviticus” gives its characters no resolution; it ends in unbroken dread. Christianity proclaims the opposite: God’s gracious love protects human sacredness, removes the dread of condemnation, and calls us toward sexual wholeness. Like the inverse exorcism at its center, “Leviticus” gives us the photo negative of true Christianity. We’re better off with the authentic picture.
***
Abdu Murray is a speaker, author, and attorney who specializes in addressing issues where religious faith and emerging cultural trends intersect. Since founding <a href="https://embracethetruth.org/">Embrace the Truth</a> in 2004, he has spent decades analyzing how the major religious and non-religious thought traditions have attempted to address cultural issues.
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.

Film Independent Presents “Leviticus”

The Horror Movie That Takes Aim At Christianity

Movies

Upstream

A gay cruise carrying roughly 1,900 passengers was denied entry by both Turkey and Egypt during a Mediterranean voyage after authorities in each country refused to allow the ship to dock.
Atlantis Events, the world&#8217;s largest LGBT vacation company, scheduled the Scarlet Lady to stop in Kusadasi, Turkey, on July 7 as part of its “Athens to Venice” trip. 
However, Turkish officials said the cruise was organized by groups whose &#8220;behaviors do not align with the structure of our society,” according to local authorities <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/world/middleeast/gay-cruise-turkey-egypt.html">cited</a> by the New York Times.
The ship then rerouted to Alexandria, Egypt, but Egyptian authorities withdrew permission to dock about four hours before its scheduled arrival. Unlike Turkey, Egyptian officials did not publicly explain the decision. 
Atlantis Events CEO Rich Campbell said the company had previously docked in both countries without incident and that it was the first time in the company&#8217;s history that one of its cruises had been denied entry for political reasons. 
“We successfully sailed a similar itinerary last year without issue,” Campbell <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/09/lgbtq-cruise-ship-refused-entry-egypt-turkey">said</a> in a statement to passengers. “So we were surprised by this unfortunate decision.”
Broadway legend Patti LuPone, who was on the cruise to perform, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DaUkpPyCosk/">said</a> she was “shocked” by Turkey&#8217;s and Egypt’s decisions.
“A ship — a magnificent ship — full of gay men. And me. Denied entry to Turkey simply because of who is on board,” LuPone said. “I am furious, but I am sailing.”
Kyle Olsen, the owner of the LGBT tour company Hermes Holidays, said that Turkey’s ban empowered Egypt to also turn away the cruise. “I worry that other countries are going to be emboldened in turn to ban gay cruises from their ports as well,” he added.
Turkey’s government under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has taken a hardline stance toward the LGBT movement over the past decade, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/02/europe/turkey-cruise-lgbtq-american-blocked-intl">reports</a>. Authorities have repeatedly banned Pride marches and other LGBT events, citing public safety and security concerns. 
While homosexuality is <a href="https://www.equaldex.com/region/turkey">legal</a> in Turkey, the country does not recognize same-sex marriage. Egypt also does not recognize same-sex marriage, and authorities have used morality laws to target LGBT people. Both countries have overwhelmingly Muslim populations.

Screenshot 2026-07-17 at 1.10.02 PM

Gay Vacation Cruise Stunned To Be Turned Away From Two Muslim Countries

Egypt

Gay Rights

Social Issues

Turkey

World

A gay couple is suing a single mother for an estimated $600,000 because she refused abortion after potential minor birth defects were discovered by ultrasound.
A surrogate in Canada says a gay couple told her to abort the baby she was carrying — which was created using a donor egg and one of the men&#8217;s sperm — at nearly six months pregnant over a possible cleft palate and a potential minor heart issue. A lawsuit obtained by the National Post says the couple is suing the woman for causing them emotional distress and not keeping them informed in a timely manner.
After the woman, who is not being named, refused to kill the child, the couple allegedly stiffed her on reimbursement for pregnancy-related expenses, lost income, and other costs, which were supposed to be paid per agreement. When the woman tried to take them to small claims court to try to get the $10,000, the couple hit her with an estimated $600,000 lawsuit.
“You know I’m a single mom, you know I have a daughter, and you’re basically suing me for my house. It seems very sh*tty, it’s just awful,&#8221; the woman said. “I just feel used … They didn’t get the perfect child they wanted and they threw me away.”
In Canada, women are not paid enormous sums for surrogacy as they are in America; instead, they&#8217;re only allowed reimbursement for pregnancy-related expenses. The woman in this case said she decided to become a surrogate to help others. She said she was inundated with dozens of requests for surrogacy after she announced her intentions. She added that she chose the gay couple after much consideration.
After the woman told the partners about possible birth defects, which were a cleft lip, a potential cleft palate, and a possible minor heart defect, the couple said in a letter that they wanted their surrogate to kill the child.
“Considering that medical tests indicate that the fetus has, or is likely to have, a genetic, chromosomal or other abnormality or defect, and in accordance with article 8.5 (a) of our surrogacy agreement … we want to inform you of our wish that the pregnancy be terminated,” the gay couple reportedly said. “Although very difficult, this decision is free and informed.”
The request left the woman feeling &#8220;devastated” and a “mess,&#8221; she said.
She ended up delivering a baby boy through an at-home birth, which further upset the gay couple, who reportedly wanted the baby delivered in a hospital because of the suspected birth defects. The at-home birth was agreed upon in their original surrogacy plan.
Surrogacy has become increasingly controversial, with critics arguing that the process turns motherhood into a transaction, preys on the poor, and treats children like a product.
Pro-life activist Lila Rose <a href="https://x.com/LilaGraceRose/status/2077207953451692129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">posted</a> about the lawsuit on Tuesday, writing, &#8220;A same-sex couple is suing their surrogate for $600K after she refused to abort their baby at 22 weeks in Canada. Scans indicated the child had a cleft lip and a possible heart defect,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The little boy was born healthy.&#8221;
&#8220;That child is alive today not because of the men who purchased his life, but because the woman who carried him in her womb protected him. Children are not commodities,&#8221; Rose added. &#8220;Ban surrogacy now.&#8221;
The gay couple declined to comment on the matter, according to the Post.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/surrogacy-is-the-worst-outcome-of-throwaway-culture">Surrogacy Is The Worst Outcome Of Throwaway Culture</a>

Pregnant woman’s belly with barcode – stock photo

Gay Couple Sues Surrogate For All She Has Because She Refused Abortion

Abortion

Canada

Mother

Surrogacy

A Texas police department is in damage control after it threatened to censor the speech of Christian street evangelists during a pride festival, following a heated <a href="https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2074971464487284897?s=20">confrontation</a> that has drawn the attention of the federal government.
On June 27, Sarah Stogner, a longtime officer with the Fort Worth Police Department, went viral after threatening street preachers Richard Penkoski and David Grisham with disorderly conduct citations over their religious speech at Trinity Pride Fest, according to <a href="https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/fort-worth-police-department-pride-fest-viral-video-david-grisham-officer-sarah-stogner-texas/287-c8928e80-44d7-4af0-ae77-0890cb28acf0">WFAA</a>.  
Leading up to the face-to-face clash, <a href="https://dallasexpress.com/tarrant/preachers-claim-police-warned-offensive-speech-about-transgender-women-could-lead-to-citation-at-pride-festival/">The Dallas Express</a> reported that the preachers were blocked from public streets and sidewalks surrounding the pride event.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Female Texas Cop THREATENS to ticket a retired officer and Christian street preacher for &#8220;offensive speech&#8221;
Cop: &#8220;If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem&#8230;&#8221;
Man: &#8220;You&#8217;re going to ticket us for &#8216;offensive&#8217; speech?&#8221;
Cop: &#8220;Yes, I am&#8221;
This cop is blatantly… <a href="https://t.co/qX0UjnRBSL">pic.twitter.com/qX0UjnRBSL</a>
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/2074971464487284897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“That ordinance means music, not talking. If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem,” Officer Stogner told the preachers.
One of the evangelists fired back: “That is a constitutional violation of our rights. I don’t care if they’re offended.” 
Stogner doubled down: “Okay, then I’ll write you the ticket, then we’ll go from there.” 
&#8220;You&#8217;re going to ticket us for &#8216;offensive&#8217; speech?&#8221; the other preacher, who was recording the exchange, said.
&#8220;Yes, I am,&#8221; Stogner replied. 
<a href="https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/2071306445115588915?s=20">In a separate exchange</a>, another Fort Worth police officer warned the street preachers that they could face legal consequences if their Christian message offended others. The officers later issued the evangelists one citation of disorderly conduct related to loud noise from a bullhorn, according to <a href="https://dallasexpress.com/tarrant/preachers-claim-police-warned-offensive-speech-about-transgender-women-could-lead-to-citation-at-pride-festival/">The Dallas Express</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨FORT WORTH, TEXAS🚨Police told street preachers at the FW all-ages Pride event they could be cited if someone was offended by their speech. Asked if calling a transgender woman “sir” was citable, an officer replied, “It’s a gray area.”
Follow:<a href="https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Carlos__Turcios</a><a href="https://x.com/DallasExpress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DallasExpress</a> <a href="https://t.co/DSAtqZNmW1">pic.twitter.com/DSAtqZNmW1</a>
— Carlos Turcios (@Carlos__Turcios) <a href="https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/2071306445115588915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2026</a></blockquote>
The tense exchanges racked up tens of millions of views on X, fueling debate over free speech and religious liberty protections in one of the nation&#8217;s most conservative states.
“In Texas? Wow,” Elon Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2071608690612810014?s=20">wrote</a> on X. 
After the Department of Justice <a href="https://x.com/AAGDhillon/status/2075532674706321783?s=20">initiated a review of the incident</a>, the Fort Worth police chief acknowledged his officers had mishandled the incident.
&#8220;The biggest issue that I have is just the conversations and the way that we were describing what is lawful, what is not lawful,&#8221; Police Chief Eddie Garcia told <a href="https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/fort-worth-police-department-pride-fest-viral-video-david-grisham-officer-sarah-stogner-texas/287-c8928e80-44d7-4af0-ae77-0890cb28acf0">WFAA</a> in an interview. &#8220;When we&#8217;re right, we&#8217;re right, and when we&#8217;re wrong, we&#8217;re wrong.&#8221; 
&#8220;There certainly was a better way to have that communication, and we were wrong in the manner in which we communicated that. Certainly, we&#8217;re going to take accountability for it,&#8221; he added. 
Garcia added that accountability will include renewed training on the First Amendment. 
&#8220;We just trained up our command staff again with refresher courses. We&#8217;re going to be training our sergeants. We&#8217;re going to be training our officers,&#8221; Garcia said.
The proposed measures didn’t cut it for the street preachers, who argued the damage is already done. 
&#8220;They have already violated their rights,&#8221; Attorney CJ Grisham, who represents David Grisham (no relation),  said, disputing the noise ordinance citation. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t meet the noise violation ordinance in any way whatsoever. So, just on its face, the charge is baseless,&#8221; he told WFAA.
Grisham alleged the viral exchange represents a troubling pattern with law enforcement, taking direct aim at Officer Stogner. 
&#8220;We have her on video doing this last year at the Pride festival. So, this is a pattern of abuse by Officer Stogner. But it&#8217;s not just her. Look at how many other officers were standing around,&#8221; Grisham said. 
It’s unclear whether Stogner or any of the officers involved will face any disciplinary action for the incident. 
On Tuesday, Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, demanded more information from the police department to determine whether “further formal action” was necessary. 
“Government actors cannot discriminate against viewpoints or restrict peaceful free speech just because it may be offensive to some,” Dhillon <a href="https://x.com/AAGDhillon/status/2077077136347636220?s=20">said</a>. “Under this administration, the Civil Rights Division will defend free speech, as protected by the Constitution.”

Sydney Makes History As 50,000 People March For Global Equality In Pride March

Texas Police Forced Walk Back Threats Against Christian Street Preachers At Pride Festival

Texas

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

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.
***
Oh, the irony. California State Senator Scott Wiener, a champion of LGBTQ-friendly legislation, was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-lgbtq-activist-politician-gets-run-out-of-trans-march">chased</a> from a Pride march last month over his views on Gaza. To the crowd, Wiener was a supporter of “genocide” who “didn’t belong” among the LGBTQ community. As it happens, on top of being a radical leftist, Wiener is radically anti-Israel. The allegations against him are akin to those against Senator Bernie Sanders; no matter how rabidly these progressives champion the Palestinian cause, they can never be forgiven for the crime of being Jewish. They are far from blameless in expecting to be spared for having bent the knee.
The protestors’ visceral reaction to his presence is indicative of a greater issue: a rigid mindset that requires the world be pigeonholed into a single theory. Wiener’s decades-long activism for their stated cause was rendered meaningless the moment he was grouped into the “oppressor” class. 
This fallacious way of thinking is as old as philosophy itself. It relies upon a “top-down” approach that is simply incompatible with human nature. Top-down philosophies come in many forms. They are characterized by a grand theory that seeks to unify all the social and political forces of the world into one framework. 
A top-down philosophy begins with a theory of reality and then interprets every event through that theory. It starts with the answer and searches for the evidence. Bottom-up approaches begin with observation, accept complexity, and allow conclusions to change when reality shakes expectations. 
The most infamous example of a top-down theory is economic determinism. At the outset of &#8220;The Communist Manifesto,&#8221; Karl Marx claimed, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Marxists regularly find themselves trying to explain with “class warfare” that which is completely unrelated. A Marxist will see all wars as an expression of underlying economic distress. To the empiricist (or the bottom-up philosopher), trying to categorize all wars as an expression of anything is a fool’s errand.
A popular philosophy among the American Left is called intersectionality. It is the belief that the world turns according to privilege and discrimination. It brings together critical race theory, decolonialism, and a host of other postmodern theories to place all of human history in terms of oppression. 
The trouble with top-down philosophies is that they are not subject to self-correction. In many cases, they require either blatant denials of reality or the simultaneous acceptance of direct contradictions, reminiscent of Orwell’s “doublethink.” 
Since all new evidence must be interpreted according to the grand theory, the theory itself becomes impossible to disprove. When confronted with the reality that empirical evidence does not show the prevalence of colonial privilege, rather than rejecting the theory, proponents shift the narrative, which becomes that the institution of evidence is a form of colonial privilege designed to bury oppression.
Earlier this year, SAGE Publications (one of the most prestigious journal publishers in academia) published a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15327086251377052?__cf_chl_f_tk=o2_EUy1e8.UR6BL6EJ6F2oAmEBr7f6nVF0.WnRZKEWc-1782829429-1.0.1.1-XHYEdPxIvDcbs6ipUj8fsQjKeEwBSI7aDqDYVIaThFg">paper</a> titled &#8220;&#8216;Inviting Methodological Reworlding&#8217;: Toward a Pluriversal Future.&#8221; The thesis critiques “Western epistemological traditions that privilege objectivity.” In other words, facts are a colonialist tool that we should disregard when they don’t align with how we feel. 
Last month’s display should serve as a wake-up call, not only to theorists but to those who try endlessly to contort themselves to fit the theory. But I wouldn’t hold my breath; the radical Left has favored this approach for hundreds of years.
Edmund Burke, often called the Father of Conservatism, saw the dangers of this mindset and argued for its alternative. Years before the Reign of Terror, Burke predicted that the French Revolution would end in tyranny. Though he agreed with many of the grievances against the monarchy, Burke rejected radical change through vast theorizing as arrogant and dangerous.
Instead, he called for change through cautious, incremental experiments. Burke argued that the world was simply too complex to be understood by any theoretician. Our best way of moving forward was by modifying the tried and true institutions we had built through generations of accumulated wisdom.
There is a reason that English society flourished and the French revolutionaries did not: the same reason that American liberalism flourished and the centrally planned Soviet Union did not. In politics, humility always defeats certitude.
David Hume, another intellectual giant in the conservative movement, commented extensively on the divide. Hume criticized top-down approaches as inviting disaster through human error.
Hume <a href="https://davidhume.org/texts/e/1">wrote</a>, “It is easy for a profound philosopher to commit a mistake in his subtile reasonings; and one mistake is the necessary parent of another, while he pushes on his consequences and is not deterred from embracing any conclusion.” 
He recognized that no human, no matter how academically gifted, is capable of creating a flawless system. It’s simply impossible. 
The &#8220;queers for Palestine&#8221; couldn’t adjust their framework to a Jewish ally, so instead they adjusted their allies. Scott Wiener was left behind.

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How The Left’s Rejection Of Reality Backfired On A Progressive Champion

Israel

Progressivism

Scott Wiener

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