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Colorado tried to silence me for helping gender-confused kids. The Supreme Court just ruled 8-1 in my favor
On March 31, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in my case, Chiles v. Salazar. It concerns a Colorado law that forbids licensed counselors like me from talking with gender-confused kids to help them regain comfort with their bodies — even if that’s what the kids want. I filed suit with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom to challenge this censorship, and the justices have now decided 8-1 in my favor.
It’s reassuring to have the court protect freedom of speech. While Colorado officials may honestly think that a boy can become a girl, our country was founded on the right to engage in healthy debate — even when the government disagrees with us.
This ruling also helps protect the mental, physical and emotional health of our children. But Colorado’s law puts their health at risk. Specifically, this law required counselors like me to avoid conversations with young clients who wanted to realign their identity with their sex, while encouraging kids to reject their sex.
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In effect, the state is forcing counselors to be silent or participate in a one-size-fits-all mandate pushing kids down the path of gender transition and toward dangerous drugs and surgeries. This mandate forbids certain kids and families from getting the counseling they want that actually helps them — counseling to help them accept their bodies. Colorado thinks it knows better than families what counseling they should receive.
The law also constrains my best instincts as a critical thinker and clinically trained counselor. I should be listening to my clients rather than steering them toward a state-ordained conclusion. Instead, the state law would compel me to suppress both my beliefs and professional training, when it’s that very combination that often attracts clients to seek me out.
Colorado’s censorship deprives these young people of what they want most: someone to talk with who will genuinely listen … who will try to understand their individual experiences and sensibilities … who can walk with them through their pains and confusions and help them find their way to thoughtful decisions and a happier future.
Thankfully, our highest court has now recognized the danger of what Colorado and other states have been pushing on my profession. Throughout our history, government officials have repeatedly tried to use censorship in the name of protecting people from hearing ideas considered too dangerous. And once again, the court had to explain why censorship can’t be the answer to our disagreements. With their decision, the justices are offering Colorado a refresher on First Amendment basics and affirming that government cannot silence viewpoints in the counseling room.
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But this victory calls for further action. I plead with counselors to rethink gender ideology’s claim that it’s possible to be born in the wrong body and to recommit to protecting young people. Research indicates that most children experiencing gender dysphoria — including about 90% of children before puberty — will desist, meaning they will come to identify with their given sex. But those natural desistance rates collapse once kids begin to socially transition and are treated like the opposite sex. And less desistance means an increased number of kids eventually undergoing harmful drugs and surgeries with no proven benefits.
Just because some professional groups cite their own authority as “evidence” otherwise, and some in the media embrace this fad, doesn’t make it so. Rather, we should study the science that bluntly contradicts the fad — and do so with the same fair-mindedness and rigor we bring to the other issues of our profession. Let’s admit as a profession that, according to many, we have lost the public’s trust and must work to rebuild it.
The kids struggling with issues of identity deserve this.
These are the opportunities the Supreme Court ruling will help make possible. I hope we can share the justices’ commitment to protecting young people and their families from bad science, compromised freedoms and political intrusions on the right to pursue truth without being silenced.
Kaley Chiles is a licensed professional counselor in Colorado.
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Roseanne Barr reveals ‘damaged’ heart, fears she will ‘die on the surgery table’
Roseanne Barr received a stark diagnosis – a “damaged” heart – a warning that left her fearing she could “die on the surgery table.”
Barr, 73, opened up about her health while talking about the “ponytail facelift” she wanted to get.
“This doctor says I have to go get my heart checked out because it’s damaged,” the actress said during an appearance on her podcast, “The Roseanne Barr Podcast.” “So now I’m so pissed. Because I’m like, I need a new doctor.”
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“He’s always sending me to other doctors to check me out,” she added. “And I’m like, why do I have to go find something wrong when nothing’s wrong and then get in shape just so I can have surgery and die on the surgery table?”
Barr doubled down, saying the prospect of surgery didn’t make sense to her.
“I mean, it doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “I would rather not get ready for any sort of surgery ever again in my life and just, you know, get a heart attack or a stroke and then just be put into the home. What do they call that place? Hospice.”
The candid remarks offered a glimpse into her mindset on aging and end-of-life care, a contrast to the more grounded, day-to-day life she’s built in recent years. Barr opened up about her move to Texas and the joys she’s experienced since making the lifestyle change and being outdoors in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
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Although it has been a “dream come true” for the “Roseanne Barr is America” star, Barr shared that while mowing her property, her tractor fell on top of her and trapped her underneath the weight of the machine.
“I’m doing a lot of mowing. I’ve got a really fantastic tractor out here, and I’m mowing. The only problem is I don’t clear the trees quite as good as I should, and I’m always hitting a tree and knocking it over, and it always hits me in the head.
“So, I’ve had several injuries recently. I had this one tree … I knocked it and a great big old branch fell right on my head and trapped me in my tractor,” Barr said. “So I knew I had to get out of there, and it weighed about a hundred pounds.”
Barr explained that it took her an hour to move the tree “inch by inch” before she was able to flip it over.
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Ahead of the release of the documentary, “Roseanne Barr is America,” in 2025, Barr told Fox News Digital that her life is a representation of the American experience.
“I went from poverty to wealth through comedy. That’s a typical Jewish-American experience in my generation and a few other generations for minority people that are funny. I think it’s typical, you know,” she said.
A stand-up comic turned household name, Barr skyrocketed to fame with her hit ABC sitcom “Roseanne.” In 2018, Barr was essentially canceled after tweeting a racist remark about Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.
Barr faced an onslaught of backlash for the tweet, leading to smears from her co-stars and ABC canceling the revival of her hit namesake show “Roseanne,” instead televising the spin-off series “The Conners.”
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The comedian admitted she doesn’t keep in touch with any of her former co-stars.
“No, I’m not friends with none of them,” Barr told Fox News Digital. “They’re all in the past. I have pleasant memories of what fun we had – wish them all the best. And no, we don’t talk. I’ve moved on from that horrendous ending and chapter of my life, but you know, I don’t hold any bitterness or nothing to them, but my God, what fun we had on that show.
“And I was sorry they f—ed it all up with their greed and ridiculous stupidity to f— all that up. F— them, but I wish them well,” she said.
Fox News Digital’s Janelle Ash contributed to this report.
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Israeli comedian drops out of Passover event after learning of Mamdani’s attendance
As the crowd gathered at City Winery in Manhattan on Monday night for the 33rd annual Downtown Seder hosted by entrepreneur Michael Dorf, one performer was notably absent.
Comedian Modi Rosenfeld, an Israeli-American observant Jew, announced just ahead of the event that he would not be attending or performing after learning that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani would be in attendance. In a message on his social media, Rosenfeld’s team said the comedian was not aware that Mamdani would be at the event until Monday.
“We were not told Mamdani was participating in this event until today,” the message read. “Modi will no longer be attending.”
Mamdani ultimately attended the event and delivered remarks that Dorf later described as “a heartfelt message.”
Israeli musician David Broza was also invited to the event. He attended and sang “If I Had a Hammer.”
Broza and Modi’s planned participation raised eyebrows once news of Mamdani’s attendance broke. Another Jewish comedian, Elon Gold, called on both artists to cancel.
“I don’t even like being on the same island as Mamdani when I’m in Manhattan. I assume they will cancel after the backlash. This isn’t showing solidarity. It’s a betrayal of what we as a people are fighting and dying for. I personally know both of them and they are great artists who should realize what they’re endorsing and cancel now,” Gold wrote in response to a social media post about the event.
Leo Veiga, Rosenfeld’s manager and husband, responded to Gold, saying that they were previously unaware of Mamdani’s plan to be at the event.
In response to a request for comment, Dorf, who owns City Winery, referred Fox News Digital to his Substack, where he wrote about Rosenfeld’s decision to pull out of the event and the controversy over inviting Mamdani. Dorf said in the post that after the news of Mamdani’s attendance broke, he “sensed something was coming.”
“For 33 years, the purpose of this pre-Passover Seder has been to bring people together, not tear them apart. The hardest part of diplomacy—in a world full of conflict, division, and pain—is the willingness to sit down and truly listen to the other side,” Dorf wrote.
“While I respect Modi’s decision not to share the stage with Mayor Mamdani, I truly wish he had been there. I wish his audience hadn’t pressured him with calls to ‘boycott or else.’ I wish the people who emailed and told me I’m not Jewish, that I should go to hell, or that I must be clueless about when Passover starts would take a breath,” he added later in the post.
Dorf concluded his Substack post with a call for unity and making attempts to find common ground, saying, “Don’t boycott. Don’t shut down. Stay. Listen. And maybe—just maybe—let a little light in.”
Jews across the world will mark the beginning of Passover on the evening of April 1 with a dinner known as a “Seder,” which translates to “order,” referring to the ritualistic nature of the evening.
During the Seder, Jews tell the story of the exodus from Egypt and eat symbolic foods including unleavened bread, which is called “matzah.” Each Seder ends with the words “next year in Jerusalem.” Some on social media pointed out the irony of Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel, saying the phrase at the event.
Mamdani, who leads the city with the largest Jewish population in the U.S., has a strained relationship with some parts of the Jewish community. The mayor has faced condemnation for his past refusal to reject the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which many view as a call for violence against Jews, although he later said he would discourage supporters from using the term.
Mamdani also recently stirred controversy when he accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza during his St. Patrick’s Day remarks.
“Mayor Mamdani’s repeated use of the ‘genocide’ accusation against Israel is not just wrong – it’s dangerous,” the American Jewish Committee said in a statement after Mamdani made the remarks. “It distorts reality and fuels antisemitism at a moment when Jews are already under threat. Leaders who claim to stand for human rights should not use rhetoric that puts Jewish communities at risk.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Rosenfeld’s team and Mamdani’s office for comment.
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Wild bodycam video shows cops storm chaotic teen ‘takeover’ as businesses trashed: ‘They come to fight’
Chaotic body camera video shows the moment Florida police descended on a viral teen “takeover” event involving hundreds of youngsters wreaking havoc on local businesses.
The incident began after hundreds of teenagers flooded Air Trampoline and Adventure Park in Brandon on Saturday, March 21, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post.
“We’ve watched 200 juveniles just causing chaos and havoc,” Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer said, according to FOX 13. “That’s unacceptable.”
Body camera video shows officers responding to the disorder, in which bins of shoes are seen strewn across the floor as shrieks are heard throughout the indoor park.
“Can you follow me?” An employee can be heard asking a responding officer. “My director is asking for an officer on the trampolines over here.”
Footage shows the employee leading the officer through the packed park before taking an individual into custody.
Once outside the building, officers proceeded to encourage the large group of teenagers to head home as they spilled into the parking lot.
A group of individuals are also seen in handcuffs and lined up against the hood of a vehicle.
“We probably sent about 40 to 50 units there,” Maurer said, according to FOX 13. “It is a resource drain for our community.”
Eight teens were taken into custody and charged with trespassing after they allegedly refused to leave the trampoline park after repeated requests from authorities.
The chaos ultimately forced the business to close early, HCSO said.
The incident was only the latest in a recent uptick of chaotic teen “takeover” events, in which large groups will circulate plans to meet at a public location using social media, FOX 13 reported.
The events are typically unsanctioned and to the surprise of local law enforcement.
“If they’re going there to cause a disturbance, create a ruckus and create fights,” Maurer said. “They have no reasonable reason to be there.”
Twenty teens have already been arrested throughout Brandon in connection with three separate “takeover” events, FOX 13 reported.
Chris Maganias, owner of Astro Skate in Brandon, told the outlet his business has also been targeted by swaths of rowdy youngsters.
“That crowd does not come to jump at the trampoline park, buy stuff at the mall or skate at the roller ring,” Maganias said. “They come to fight.”
As a result, Maganias has been forced to install metal detectors and increase security within his business to respond to the violence.
“You post it, we’re going to make sure we deny admission,” Maganias said. “We’re going to clear our parking lots, and we’ll hire extra sheriff’s deputies.”
HCSO did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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