The Brew: House Votes to Protect Women’s Sports
Happy Wednesday!
Today’s Brew includes a stop at Starbucks. But first …
U.S. House Passes Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025
The House on Wednesday passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 on a vote of 218-206. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, seeks to ban federally funded schools from allowing biological males to compete in sports and activities designed for females.
The bill also includes an amendment to Title IX, declaring that sex “shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
Only two Democrats voted to protect women’s sports. Fully 206 voted against the legislation. (On the Republican side, 216 voted for the bill, and three did not vote. One Democrat voted “present” and another six did not vote at all.)
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins congratulated the House. “This bill will help stop the tide of injustices against women, restore Title IX’s even playing field for female athletes, and hopefully put the brakes on the Left’s insane gender ideology.”
Former collegiate swimmer-turned-activist Riley Gaines said she’s happy the bill passed, but “I’m mad this is something we have to do.”
While the Democrats in the House were voting to put women and girls at risk, Democrats in the Senate were upset with Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s choice to be the next Secretary of Defense, for insisting that women in the military be held to the same standards as men. And he’s the misogynist?
Pete Hegseth Confirmation Hearing Get Firey
Hegseth faced a contentious confirmation hearing Tuesday, including protesters interrupting his opening statement.
Increasingly shrill Democrats obsessed with Hegseth’s stance on women in combat had a hard time accepting his insistence that “our standards will be high and they will be equal, not equitable.” New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand called Hegseth’s position “mean.”
Let’s assume — for the sake of argument alone — that is true. But to paraphrase baseball great Leo Durocher, “Nice armies finish last.”
The combat vet-turned-Fox News host told the Senate Arms Services Committee that Donald Trump has charged him with returning a “warrior culture” to the Defense Department. “He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on war fighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness,” Hegseth said. “That’s it. That is my job.”
Drat. I was sooo looking forward to drag shows on the USS RuPaul while China increases its military reach.
Hegseth also promised to restore the tens of thousands booted from the military for refusing to take the COVID vaccine — including their former rank and back pay.
We should note that Hegseth opened his remarks by giving all glory to God.
https://twitter.com/William_E_Wolfe/status/1879203610472640980
When hostile senators threw his past personal failures in his face, Hegseth declared that he has been redeemed by Christ.
“I am not a perfect person, as has been acknowledged — saved by the grace of God, by Jesus and Jenny,” he said. “I am not a perfect person, but redemption is real, and God forged me in ways that I know that I’m prepared to fight for.”
Minnesota School District Removes LBGTQ Book Featuring Public Nudity from Elementary School Libraries
To the chagrin of groomers and leftists, a Minnesota school district has removed an LGBTQ-themed book from elementary school library shelves because it depicts public nudity. The Rainbow Parade is a story about a little girl whose two moms take her to a Pride parade.
Here’s a passage: “The sidewalk outside is filled with people waiting for the parade to start. Everyone is wearing whatever makes them feel most like themselves. Even if that means wearing hardly anything at all…”
The book includes two pages of illustrations that have naked people in them.
A commission of librarians, teachers, and parents thought the book was perfectly fine for little tots. Thankfully, Rochester Public Schools Superintendent Ken Pekel has a peck of sense and ordered the book’s removal. He stated:
My decision to direct the removal of the book The Rainbow Parade from our elementary media center shelves is not based upon restricting student access to a viewpoint, message, idea, or opinion. It is based solely upon the depiction and celebration of public nudity in illustrations on two pages of the book. I believe that the depiction of public nudity makes the book inappropriate for the open shelves of a media center in an elementary school where students as young as kindergarten can access the book without adult supervision or guidance.
Starbucks Abandons Open-Door Bathroom Policy
Signs of a return to sanity abound these days. Starbucks just announced that it is ending its open-door bathroom policy, which allowed anyone — including non-customers — to wander in off the streets, use the bathrooms, and hang out.
The policy was created in 2018 — a knee-jerk response to being accused of racism after employees kicked two black people who refused to make a purchase or leave one of its Philadelphia locations. At that time, the coffee giant declared, “Any customer is welcome to use Starbucks spaces, including our restrooms, cafes and patios, regardless of whether they make a purchase.”
This has led to numerous problems, including troublesome homeless people camping out in the stores, overcrowding, and worse. As the New York Post reports, “In 2022, Starbucks closed 16 stores around the country — including six in Los Angeles and six in its hometown of Seattle — for repeated safety issues, including drug use and other disruptive behaviors that threatened staff.”
The change is part of Starbucks’s effort under new CEO Brian Niccol to improve the customer experience by putting their interests ahead of political activists’.
Someone Changed Their Name to “Climate Change”
We keep hearing that “Climate Change” is responsible for the catastrophic fires breaking out in Southern California.
Who knew that “Climate Change” was a dude in a hoodie? Here is Mr. Change in Melrose.
Video of a man lighting a fire near Melrose, California this morning.
I hope President Trump opens a full investigation into this since we can't count on California's leadership! pic.twitter.com/hlKs9ioSiP
— David J Harris Jr (@DavidJHarrisJr) January 14, 2025
The other day, an illegal immigrant and known felon named Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva was caught, blowtorch in hand, by residents. He is accused of starting the Kenneth Hill fire. He’s another face of “climate change.”
Meanwhile, the AFT’s elite National Response Team has arrived to investigate the cause of the Pacific Palisades fire. Fox 11 reports that its two-pronged approach involves examining the fire site and collecting video and digital evidence.
Trump is hoping to go to L.A. as early as next week, conditional on his arrival not interfering with firefighting efforts. Joe Biden was in LA when the fires started. (No, he’s not a suspect.)
Kamala Nixed Vance Visit to Vice President’s Residence?
Sure, it ain’t easy being gracious in defeat. But c’mon, man!
CBS News reports that Kamala Harris did not invite J.D. Vance and his wife over for the traditional visit and tour of the vice president’s residence, which will be their new home come Monday. Wife Usha had specifically asked in November if she could check out the residence to see what needs to be done to child-proof the home. She and the Vice President-elect have three kids under the age of eight.
But no dice.
Harris’s people told CBS News she’s now too busy with the California wildfires to meet with the Vances.
That could be true, and we do understand that her home in Brentwood was in the path of the flames — not to mention would-be looters — but she’s had two months to arrange an invitation. If she didn’t want to meet face-to-face, the Vances could have come by while she was on her post-election vacation. Plus, the residence on the U.S. Naval Observatory doesn’t belong to Harris; it belongs to the American people.
Still, we should be praying for her. She doesn’t seem to be handling her loss well, and things are so icy between Harris and the Bidens that the White House staff has had to salt the halls.
Along The Stream
Jules Gomes tells us about the latest development in the Catholic world: “Vatican Opens Seminaries to Homosexuals Despite ‘Lavender Mafia’ Dominating Priesthood.”
We also have a video from Pastor Shane Idleman, asking “Does the Bible Support Socialism?”
Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.