August 18, 2026

04 Culture

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey held a signing ceremony with herself and abortion-supporting women to celebrate the signing of a bill making it legal to murder the unborn up to birth. A law already existed that allowed “late-term abortions” to protect the life of the mother.

Now, a woman or girl need not give any reason to demand doctors murder her unborn child, even if it’s on the day of the child’s scheduled delivery. In the 2024 election, Democrats claimed no one was suggesting legalizing abortions up to birth. Now, 10 states have passed laws allowing abortion up to birth. Massachusetts became the 10th state.

Massachusetts Legalizes Abortion Up to Birth gellerreport.com
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Massachusetts Legalizes Abortion Up to Birth; ‘The Progressive Death Cult Takes Over’
The Bay State joins a list of states with a similarly dark approach to innocent human life. Newsweek: Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed legislation on Monday that gives doctors the final say on whether an abortion should be allowed late in pregnancy, making it the 10th state to allow the procedure at any point in pregnancy (Newsweek).

I am deeply ashamed for my country.

The states that allow abortion are falling below replacement rates for their populations. The 10 states that allow abortion up to birth are doing the worse, with Vermont being the worst of the worst. They have a total fertility rate of 1.27. The TFR needs to be above 2 to meet replacement requirements.

States With Unlimited Abortions Kill So Many Babies They’re Below Replacement Rate www.lifenews.com
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… The numbers show a fairly uniform correlation between these permissive legal regimes and collapsing birth rates. It’s only logical. Massachusetts’s total fertility rate (TFR) in 2024 was 1.38, more than 33% below replacement-level fertility, with only four states experiencing lower fertility. Of the 10 states with “open seasons” on the unborn, seven are below the current national TFR of 1.62 children per woman. The 10 states have fertility rates between 1.27 (Vermont) and 1.80 (Alaska). None is at replacement level, and all have declined further over the last six years. Overall, the situation offers a bleak picture. It is not that demographers, politicians, and economists are the primary story, philosophizing in their studies about gross national product and “golden eras” going unrealized, it is the personal stories of families not formed and babies never born. Surveys say that the typical woman would like to bear 2.4 children in her lifetime. That is clearly not happening.

Bishop calls the devil ‘imaginary’ in assault on St. Michael devotion www.lifesitenews.com
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A Brazilian bishop has attacked consecration to St. Michael the Archangel while suggesting that the devil is “rather imaginary.”

“Are there theological justifications for Consecration to Saint Michael? Consecration is to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” wrote Bishop Vicente Ferreira on X last week. “Isn’t the devil we fight against rather imaginary?” he added.

“The greater exorcism should be: of homophobia, of femicide, of racism, of crimes against indigenous peoples. Of that legion of evils,” he concluded, in a statement originally written in Portuguese.

The tweet appears to be aimed at another Brazilian bishop. On the same day as Ferreira’s statement, the archbishop of Montes Claros, José Carlos Campos, consecrated his archdiocese to St Michael.

Ferreira was slammed for his denigration of devotion to St. Michael, who is invoked for spiritual defense against the devil by Catholics because he was given power by God to cast the devil and his followers from Heaven.

“What is your religion? You should convert to Catholicism,” wrote one X user. “At your age, worrying about these woke idiocies isn’t going to get you to heaven. You should be concerned with saving your soul.”

WNBA Suddenly Needs Time to Evaluate Men Competing, But the League Wasn’t Confused in This Resurfaced Post www.westernjournal.com
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As the WNBA tries to fathom what the “W” in their own name stands for, its own past statements on social media are revealing the entity’s biases against their own athletes.

The league was dropped into the middle of the debate over whether men should take away athletic opportunities for women when Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham said it was unfair for males to compete against females. A counter-attack erupted within the league as coaches and players fired back by spewing the liberal orthodoxy that mediocre transgender athletes need a place to win awards.

The WNBA’s 2026 collective bargaining agreement says, “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.”

But there is no definition of women in the policy, and the issue of men playing in the WNBA by saying they identify as female is not discussed.

The WNBA was not allowed to simply let the issue fade after two former male NBA players said they want to be selected in the 2027 draft given the lack of any barriers in the league’s rules.

Buffeted by the winds of controversy, the league sought refuge in the traditional remedies of meetings, task forces, and PR statements.

Parents Who Demanded Abortion Now Have Custody of Baby Gabriel After Surrogate Risked Everything to Save Him (VIDEOS) www.thegatewaypundit.com
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The legal battle over Baby Gabriel took a dramatic turn this week when the California couple who repeatedly sought to abort him obtained physical custody of the newborn just hours after his birth in Texas, even as the surrogate who refused their demands continues fighting for parental rights.

Surrogate McKenna West, an Alaska nurse and mother of two, rejected the biological parents’ demands for an abortion after a 20-week diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a serious congenital defect that requires multiple surgeries but is treatable.

West fled to Texas for legal protection and specialized care, giving birth to the boy, whom she named Gabriel, on Wednesday at a Dallas hospital.

WATCH:

Millions in fraudulent billing for child ‘gender transitions’: Trump admin report www.lifesitenews.com
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released a report Thursday identifying millions of dollars in insurance claims that billed for underage gender “transition” procedures under false pretenses.

The 64-page report, Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of “Gender Medicine,” examined more than 225 hospitals and health systems nationwide that offer pediatric gender programs by reviewing scientific literature, hospital records, whistleblower accounts, insurance claims, and interviews with patients and their parents.

It found “approximately $50 million in insurance claims for puberty blockers billed using endocrine disorder diagnostic code E34.9 (Endocrine Disorder, Unspecified). It further reported that nearly $11 million in claims for patients ages 13-17 were billed using a diagnosis code for precocious puberty E301 — findings the report said warrant additional review of insurance coding practices,” according to an HHS press release. The report called for greater oversight and review of insurance billing and coding practices as well as further evaluation of “gender medicine” policies.

EXCLUSIVE: Unearthed Data Sheds Light On Military’s Transgenderism Explosion Under Biden dailycaller.com
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Transgender care for U.S. service members and minor dependents exploded under the Biden administration, documents obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation show.

“Gender dysphoria” patient counts jumped roughly 82% during President Joe Biden’s first year in office, according to internal Defense Health Agency (DHA) records. The documents identify 17,596 unique patients in a DHA gender dysphoria dataset from 2014 to 2022, including 3,807 patients under 18.

The documents were originally obtained by the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation and provided to the DCNF. (RELATED: Air Force Doc Appeared To Reassure Medical Staff They Couldn’t Be Sued For Sex Changes On Minors)

Air Force Public Affairs referred to the DHA. The DHA could not provide a comment in time for publication.

Woke Colorado School District Teaches 5-Year-Olds Sexual Anatomy Using Images So Bad We Refuse to Post Them www.westernjournal.com
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A Colorado school board is proving once again that the left truly relishes in talking to young children about sex.

In a letter from the Alliance Defending Freedom to the Roaring Fork Schools Board of Education, Director Katherine L. Anderson of the Center for Parental Rights noted some truly disturbing and graphic imagery that children are seeing as part of the 3Rs curriculum, a comprehensive program to teach about sexuality.

The Rs in question refer to “Rights, Respect, Responsibility” according to the website of its creator, Advocates for Youth. The curriculum “seeks to address both the functional knowledge related to sexuality and the specific skills necessary to adopt healthy behaviors. Rights, Respect, Responsibility reflects the tenets of social learning theory, social cognitive theory and the social ecological model of prevention.”

Anderson specified what this looks like in practice. “In kindergarten, children learn to identify ‘at least three body parts of the female, namely the nipples, vulva and anus,’ along with identifying the “nipples, penis and anus” for the male anatomy. But this explicit language — foisted on young children without parental consent — is not all. The accompanying pictures are worth a thousand words.

That same kindergarten lesson includes a PowerPoint presentation called ‘Understanding Our Bodies.’”

Teen allegedly used ChatGPT for ‘ideas’ about ‘killing his family.’ Now he’s charged with murdering mother, brother. www.theblaze.com
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A Massachusetts teenager used ChatGPT for “ideas” and “fantasies” about “killing his family” — and now the 17-year-old is charged with murdering his mother and brother, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said.

Arjun Aravind of Acton has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of assault and battery on a household or family member, two counts of assault and battery, use of a vehicle without authority, and theft of a motor vehicle in connection with the deaths of his 14-year-old brother, Siddharth Aravind, and his 45-year-old mother, Sudha Venkatesan, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Acton Police Chief Douglas Sturniolo.

‘At this time, based on the evidence that was found at the scene, it was apparent that blunt force trauma was used in some fashion on both individuals.’

Acton Police received a call shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday from the suspect’s father, who had been unable to reach his family members and said a tutor who was expected at the family home on Martha Lane was unable to make contact with the residents upon arrival, officials said.

Doctors File Lawsuit to Stop Illinois’ New Assisted Suicide Law www.lifenews.com
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For more than 40 years, Dr. Mary Keen Kirchoff has dedicated her career to caring for the most vulnerable—the disabled, the elderly. She became a doctor to heal, not to help her patients die.

Starting on September 12, the State of Illinois will order her to push suicide on her patients.

Illinois’s new assisted suicide law makes three demands of every doctor in the state:

• Tell patients about the “benefits” of ending their own lives—even patients who never asked.

• Refer them to someone willing to help them die.

• Falsify a death certificate to hide what really happened.

Enes Kanter Freedom declares himself an eligible WNBA prospect | The Post Millennial thepostmillennial.com
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“I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles. See you at training camp.”

Amid controversy surrounding who can and should play in the Women’s National Basketball Association, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom has declared himself to be an eligible prospect. The announcement challenges the assertions of WNBA coaches and some players who say that trans women, also known as men, should be able to compete on women’s sports teams.

In a video, Freedom said “after careful consideration and reviewing the current eligibility guidelines, I am officially declaring myself a WNBA prospect. If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA.”

“My team and I have carefully examined the WNBA’s eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion. Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in May 2027,” he continued.

“I am definitely not here to mock, make fun of, or disrespect and community or personal choices. I am simply asking that the current rules be equally applied to everyone, the rules that represent the very values that many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for.

“My team and I are prepared to ensure these guidelines are applied equally, consistently, and without exception. And I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles. See you at training camp.”

Mother and Daughter Forced to Cover “XX/XY” Shirts at State Farm Arena After Paying $1,000 Tickets to Support Sophie Cunningham — While Pro-Trans Message Appeared on Jumbotron www.thegatewaypundit.com
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A mother and daughter pose in their XX/XY Athletics shirts at Sunday’s Indiana Fever–Atlanta Dream game at State Farm Arena. (Credit: Jon Root/X)

A mother and her daughter paid $1,000 apiece for tickets to Monday’s Indiana Fever vs. Atlanta Dream game at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

They came specifically to watch Sophie Cunningham, the only player in the woke WNBA with the courage to speak biological truth out loud and stand against men invading women’s sports.

They showed up wearing XX/XY shirts in open support of that stance. The back of the daughter’s shirt delivered a simple, unambiguous message: “For the girls.”

They say arena staff confronted them over their clothing and gave them two choices: Cover their shirts or leave, according to Adam Francisco. They were handed oversized shirts to throw on over their own clothes like they were the problem.

Outkick reporter Jon Root said, “During OT, a security guard told them they had to put provided Atlanta Dream shirts over their shirts or they would be escorted out…”

Study Blows Hole In Claim Bullying Drives LGBT Mental Health Problems dailycaller.com
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A new study in Psychological Medicine concludes that the reason homosexuals have more mental health issues than heterosexuals is far more likely to be the result of familial issues than minority stress.

The systematic multilevel meta-analysis, published by Cambridge University Press on Monday, suggests that two-thirds of the discrepancy in mental illness between heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals disappears when shared environmental and genetic factors are accounted for. (RELATED: Gay New York Democrats Seek To Undo Only Redeemable Part Of Anthony Fauci’s Legacy)

“A large proportion of the disparities is attributable to factors shared by both non-heterosexual and heterosexual persons who are genetically related and reared together,” the study says, adding that such factors “reflect genetic or shared environmental factors present in the families of non-heterosexual persons and also affecting heterosexual members.”

Pope Leo’s Advisors: Is the Vatican Replacing Doctrine with Political Religion? www.lifesitenews.com
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Pope Leo XIV has appointed advisers to the Vatican’s religious life dicastery who have supported women’s ordination and LGBT advocacy. Frank Wright argues these appointments are not isolated controversies; they reflect a broader effort to substitute contemporary liberal political ideology for Catholic doctrine.

Drawing on philosopher Michael Polanyi’s concept of “moral inversion,” he explains that when Christianity and objective morality are removed from society, man’s religious impulses do not disappear, they become attached to political causes. LGBTQ ideology, open borders, and net zero environmentalism take on the characteristics of religious belief. Disagreement is treated not as political difference, but as a moral or even personal offense.

BREAKING: Far-left ‘trans kids’ enthusiast Peggy Flanagan wins Minnesota US Senate Democrat primary | The Post Millennial thepostmillennial.com
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Flanagan previously wore a “Protect Trans Kids” shirt featuring a tactical knife and praised Democrats for voting against the Laken Riley Act.

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a progressive Democrat who previously wore a “Protect Trans Kids” shirt featuring a tactical knife and praised Democrats for voting against the Laken Riley Act, has won the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s open US Senate seat.

Flanagan defeated Rep. Angie Craig on Tuesday, marking another victory for the far-left wing of the Democratic Party. She was backed by progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as retiring Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith.

Flanagan, a supporter of transgender activism, previously faced criticism over a photograph showing her wearing a shirt bearing the words “Protect Trans Kids” alongside the image of a tactical knife. The image resurfaced amid scrutiny of transgender activist merchandise featuring slogans alongside guns, knives and other weapons. Other merchandise included phrases such as “Trans rights … or else” alongside images of firearms.

The primary exposed a sharp divide between Flanagan and Craig on immigration, particularly over Craig’s vote for the Laken Riley Act. Flanagan repeatedly hammered Craig over the vote during the campaign, while Craig later expressed regret for supporting the legislation. Flanagan previously praised Minnesota Democrats who opposed the Laken Riley Act while speaking at a stop on Sanders’ “Fight Oligarchy” tour in May.

Texas AG Ken Paxton INTERVENES to Save Unborn Surrogate Baby’s Life wltreport.com
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As a life-or-death battle over a precious unborn child rages on, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just stepped in to take direct action.

McKenna West, a single mother and nurse in Alaska, was chosen to be a surrogate mother for a couple in California, Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed.

However, after learning that the baby boy will be born with a serious but treatable heart condition, the couple is trying to force West to abort him against her will.

The New York Post provided some additional background on the high-stakes case:

A surrogate mother is fighting tooth and nail to save the life of the baby she’s carrying amid relentless pressure from his biological parents, who pushed to abort him after he was diagnosed with a heart condition, a lawsuit claims.

McKenna West, an Alaskan nurse and single mom of two, signed on to become a surrogate with Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists in September 2025 to make ends meet.

When she underwent an anatomy scan in her 20th week of pregnancy in April 2026, “Baby Gabriel” was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) — a severe but treatable heart condition, per the lawsuit.

Baby Gabriel’s biological parents, referred to in court papers only as A.B. and C.D., demanded West abort the baby, in accordance with the “abortion on demand” clause of their surrogacy agreement, according to court docs.

Doctors in Alaska refused to perform the abortion — a two-day-long, highly intensive and risky late-term procedure, so the biological parents demanded West travel to Seattle, per court documents.

West, already bonded with the unborn child, was grief-stricken at the prospect.

She was appalled at the idea that doctors would inject Baby Gabriel with “a solution that will stop his heart and then he’ll be literally ripped apart and dismembered as he’s taken from [her] uterus,” when his condition is treatable, according to the suit.

“Every life matters. No woman should be forced to end the life of the baby she is carrying — including me… Baby Gabriel should receive a chance at life,” West told The Post in a statement.

New MA Law Allows Abortion Minutes Before Birth For Any Reason thefederalist.com
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Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed an abortion bill into law on Aug. 10 that removed the state’s current 24-week ban and legalized abortions up to the point of birth for any reason with a doctor’s “professional judgment.”

When the law takes effect in 90 days, Massachusetts will join 10 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing abortion up to the point of birth.

A press release on the bill, H.B. 5595, stated that it “comes as reproductive rights continue to face unprecedented attacks across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.” The release framed enabling women to kill 9-month-old unborn babies as heroically “strengthen[ing] protections for patients and providers, ” as “Trump and state legislatures continue to push abortion bans.”

Healey posted a picture with an “Abortion is Health Care” sign on her X account with the caption, “No matter what Donald Trump does, we will protect your reproductive freedom.”

A separate post stated that “as long as I’m Governor, abortion will remain safe, legal and accessible in Massachusetts,” changing the Bill Clinton-popularized adage that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”

Left Treats History as ‘Assertion of Power’ in Smithsonian ‘Ideological Takeover’: Professor www.westernjournal.com
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The Smithsonian Museum of American History has suffered a complete “ideological takeover,” warned Hillsdale professor Dr. Matthew Spaulding on “Washington Watch.” “There’s really nothing there about America.”

Instead, the museum in America’s capital that should tell America’s story has replaced that story with one “based on absolute relativism and nihilism, and [the notion that] politics is merely an assertion of power. In this case: ‘history is an assertion of power, and so we’re going to rearrange it.’”

Spaulding’s assessment aligns with a 162-page report released by the White House on July 4, which found the same concerning departure from America’s heritage. “Our central finding is not that the Museum has simply added overlooked stories, corrected perceived errors, or broadened its historical scope,” the report summarized.

“Rather, it is that Museum leadership has explicitly adopted an ideological framework that no longer treats the American story as a shared national inheritance to be taught or celebrated, but as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens.”

Migrants Invaded Ceuta Because A Court Encouraged Them. SCOTUS Just Did The Same Here thefederalist.com
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Some 60,000 tough young men from Morocco suddenly arrived in a small autonomous Spanish city located in northern Africa, many carrying cell phones in plastic bags to protect them from the water they crossed by inner tubes and swimming. This group of migrants is greater than the population of 95 percent of American cities and towns.

A recent pro-immigration ruling by the Tribunal Supremo, the Supreme Court of Spain, sparked this invasion, creating a lesson for our crisis of illegal immigrants in the United States. A week after our own Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in favor of illegals getting birthright citizenship, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that migrants captured at sea cannot be immediately returned to their native country, known as a “pushback.”

Spanish Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres referred to the ruling as a factor contributing to unlawful invasion. He also said legal experts think the decision will allow eventual deportation of these illegal immigrants, but only after time-consuming legal processes are provided to each of the invading migrants.

The language of Morocco is Arabic. But Spanish is the language of the two Spanish territories bordering Morocco in northern Africa, named Ceuta and Melilla, such that many of the migrants cannot communicate with local officials. Ceuta is located on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea, and residents receive their food via the 30- to 60-minute ferry ride from Spain. Melilla is located 250 miles eastward on the Mediterranean coast.

The Left’s Fake Conversion To Religious Liberty www.lifenews.com
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The progressive legal establishment for years treated religious freedom exemptions as obstacles to be dismantled, threatening the livelihoods, consciences, and institutions of Christian business owners, healthcare workers, and even nuns.

Now, the left is embracing the very religious-liberty arguments it spent years working to defeat.

Religious exemptions have typically rested on one of two legal foundations: the First Amendment’s protection of religious exercise or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which requires the government to justify substantial burdens on religious practice under the strictest level of judicial scrutiny.

This shift on the left is not merely rhetorical. Hoosier Jews for Choice has sued for religious exemptions from Indiana’s abortion ban, arguing that the law conflicts with Jewish teachings about when life begins. The Latino Christian National Network and other Christian and Jewish organizations have invoked religious freedom in challenges to ICE enforcement near houses of worship and in efforts to protect faith groups that shelter illegal immigrants.

Report: Antisemitism on Canadian College Campuses is ‘Systemic,’ Going Unaddressed legalinsurrection.com
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The firsthand accounts from students in this story are horrific.

The CBC reports:

Antisemitism on campus is ‘systemic’ and going unaddressed, says new report

A national report documenting antisemitism on Canadian university and college campuses has found an “alarming prevalence” of the prejudicial behaviour across the country along with a widespread failure to address the problem.

“The findings indicate that many Jewish students experience widespread and persistent antisemitism on Canadian campuses as a defining feature of post-secondary life that shapes their behaviour, their ability to fully participate in campus life, their safety and their well-being,” the report said.

The report is the first of two commissioned by the federal government’s former special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism. The second report will look at the general student population’s views on antisemitism.

WNBA head coach defends transgenders, says basketball is for being your ‘authentic self’ www.theblaze.com
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In light of Sophie Cunningham’s support for only women playing in women’s sports — not men dressed as women — Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase used a recent press conference to defend the inclusion of men in women’s athletics.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is tired of hearing it, mocking Nakase’s case for the inclusion of men on a women’s court.

“Sports is about belonging, inclusivity, authentic self, and that includes transformers,” Whitlock mocks Nakase, pointing out that “she equates her own story, her height, her ethnicity, door slam with a sex category invasion she never had to live.”

And that’s exactly what Nakase did, as she claimed that being criticized herself has led her to have empathy for transgenders.

“How I’m seeing it is if I could answer with like for me, sports, sports is about belonging. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about allowing everyone to be their authentic self. You know, I’m big on that just because I have been criticized for my height, for my ethnicity,” Nakase said.

45,000 Islamic “Soldiers” Attend Massive Ashura Procession Through Dearborn Streets, Attack Citizen Journalist gellerreport.com
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Amy Mek: Tens of thousands flooded Michigan this weekend in a massive Islamic procession – black flags, Arabic chants, Hezbollah-linked imagery – a scene ripped straight out of the Middle East.

This isn’t a cultural festival.

It’s a victory parade.

A living reminder that Dearborn has already been conquered without a single shot fired.

While the streets belong to the new majority, Christians and Jews are reduced to second-class citizens in their own city – told they’re “not welcome,” ignored when they complain about discrimination, and left unprotected.

And our federal government? Turning a blind eye.

This is what demographic conquest looks like when no one stops it.