A school district in the suburbs of Chicago will now allow transgender students unrestricted access to locker rooms. 

The Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 voted earlier this week 5-2 to remove a requirement that transgender students use privacy stalls in locker rooms, according to the Daily Herald. 

For the past four years, these students were allowed in whichever locker room they chose but were forced to use the privacy stalls.

But at the start of the second school semester, the stalls will be a thing of the past. Council members relied on their personal experiences to make their determination.

“I myself have been the subject of discrimination all my life,” said board member Ed Yung. “I know what these people are fighting for.”

At the center of the controversial ruling has been 2018 graduate of the high school, transgender woman, Nova Maday. Born male, Nova now identifies as female and sued the district for discrimination because of the locker rooms. Parts of the lawsuit have since been dismissed and she considers the recent change in policy only a partial victory.

But several parents are concerned about the new ruling. Vicki Wilson, co-founder of Students and Parents for Privacy, called the policy “a joke and a slap in the face.”

“Nobody has the right to trample the rights of others,” the organization’s…

A Mississippi teenager has credited God for helping her find an elderly man who went missing for several hours. Katie Qualls, 17, was browsing through Facebook a few weeks ago when she stumbled upon a post notifying her local community that an old man with dementia had wandered away from his property.

The compassionate young girl was concerned for the old man’s wellbeing, not least because of the low temperatures outside. “I immediately went to my parents and was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to go to sleep until this person is found,’” Qualls told WLBT. “I was just thinking about if that was my grandfather or somebody. It just didn’t sit right with me.”

Knowing that she could draw upon her personal connection to the man’s grandchildren if she came across him, Katie threw on some warm clothes and headed out into the night. It wasn’t long before the entire community was out looking for the man. But while most of the search party headed off into the nearby wooded area, Qualls felt led to take a different route – heading towards a particular house.

“I walked around and I’m feeling like this is good,” she explained. “I hear something, I turn to my left and he’s laying (sic) on the floor on his side, backed up into the bushes. He blended in with the mulch, so you wouldn’t have seen him unless you actually walked into the…

Israel may hold new elections after Benny Gantz, Blue and White party chairman, failed to form a government by Wednesday’s deadline.

According to CBN News, Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both not been able to earn a 61-seat majority to become prime minister. Israel’s parliament now has 21 days to nominate another lawmaker to form a majority government.

If that lawmaker also fails before the deadline, Israel will head to its third election, NPR reports.

“In the past 28 days no stone was left unturned while we tried to form a government that would bring Israel a leadership of dignity, morals and values, a leadership that has been forgotten,” Gantz said, according to Haaretz.

“Most of the people chose a liberal unity government headed by Blue and White,” he added. “Most of the people voted to weaken the power of extremists, and most of the people voted to go on a different path from that of Netanyahu in recent years.”

Gantz’ Blue and White Party controls parliament with 33 seats. Netanyahu’s Likud party has 32 seats in parliament.

According to Time, Netanyahu was unable to gather parliamentary support in the Israeli coalition-dependent government. Israel’s president then tasked Gantz with the job.

Gantz does not want to share the prime minister role with Netanyahu, in part because of corruption charges…

More than 100,000 combined signatures have been gathered on two petitions urging Chick-fil-A to continue supporting ministries that affirm the biblical definition of marriage.

American Family Association’s petition had collected 87,000 signatures as of Thursday morning and at one point was tallying nearly 1,000 signatures an hour. A petition at LifePetitions.com, which is run by LifeSiteNews.com, had collected 35,000 signatures. All total, the petitions had collected more than 120,000 signatures. 

“I am extremely disappointed to know that Chick-fil-A has chosen to abandon great ministries like The Salvation Army, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Paul Anderson Youth Home in Georgia,” the American Family Association (AFA) petition reads. “By doing so, it looks like you are abandoning Christian values and agreeing with homosexual activists who say believing the Bible makes you a hater. 

“Please clarify that you still hold to biblical teachings regarding human sexuality, marriage, and family, and reinstate these Christian ministries,” the AFA petition concludes.

The Chick-fil-A Foundation on Monday announced a new donation strategy it says will “provide additional clarity and impact with the causes it supports.” Beginning in 2020, the Chick-fil-A Foundation will support Junior Achievement, Covenant House International and…

HYDERABAD, India, Nov. 21, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Heavy-handed revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy and statehood by the government of India three months ago has led to measures used against Christians, sources said.

The government on Aug. 5 revoked the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir state in 1949 that allowed it to have its own constitution. By thus abrogating Article 370 and Article 35A of India’s constitution, the government set back separatist movements within the Muslim-majority state while ushering in security measures that make it nearly impossible for Christian congregations to meet.

Besides cutting off all communications and Internet access and imposing a curfew to forestall an uprising against the measure, the government prevented assembly by issuing an order, Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Effective on Aug. 5 in Srinigar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, and in Jammu on Nov. 9, Section 144 prohibits assembling of four or more people, with those violating it subject to charges of rioting.

Besides thousands of security forces sent to the area, Hindu extremists have used the order to prevent Christians from meeting for worship, sources said. Based on Section 144, police took pastor Mohan Lal Kaith of the Ranbir Singh Pora (R.S. Pora) area in Jammu District into police custody on Nov. 10 as he led Sunday…