More Than A Magazine, A Movement
A longtime organizer reflects on Texas as both a battleground and blueprint—where the fight for economic justice, reproductive freedom, and inclusive democracy is being waged by a rising, people-powered movement.
(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund.)
Native women remain starkly underrepresented in the judiciary—yet their leadership is essential to building a justice system rooted in equity, lived experience and cultural understanding.
(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund.)
Whether it’s lending or borrowing a cup of sugar, or providing others bare necessities when the power goes out on your block for two weeks, it is essential that we break our prolonged isolation and build relationships across differences.
Building face-to-face relationships across differences is the first act of resistance—and the foundation for community defense, disaster response and democratic revival in the South.
(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund.)
An excerpt from Human/Animal: A Bestiary in Essays (out April 22 from Wilfrid Laurier University Press), Chapter 5: “On Catching and Being Caught.”
“I knew enough stories of violence to know that if I did not try and something happened, I would be to blame. … I went to the police station … The tall white man with a buzz cut who came out to talk to me was dismissive. What do you want us to do, ma’am? I wanted a restraining order. Unless our neighbors were caught in the act of trespassing, unless we could prove without a doubt that we were being followed, there wasn’t anything they would do. …
“The camera was visible from where they parked their car, no branches or shrubs hiding its location, its lens pointed directly at where they stood. … Their yelling entered through our living room window and took up all the air in the room. Since the camera only recorded image, I felt I was watching a terrible movie with surround sound, their voices not coming out of the television, but through the windows, bouncing off the plaster walls. … I didn’t want to watch them anymore. I could not stop watching them. I know you have a crush on me. You want to watch me. You want to look at me. I know it.
“This sounds familiar. When children are teased, especially when it’s boys teasing girls, adults will often use crushes to explain away the trouble. He is pestering you (or worse) because he likes you.”
A federal court blocks Alabama’s attempt to punish those who help residents obtain legal abortions elsewhere—affirming core constitutional rights to travel, speak freely and support reproductive autonomy.
“The right to interstate travel includes both the right to move physically between two States and to do what is legal in the destination State—otherwise, our freedom of action is tied to our place of origin [and] the right to travel becomes a hollow shell.”
U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has given most U.S. Department of Labor employees until April 18 to opt into early retirement or deferred resignation programs, signaling the imminence of mass layoffs. As ironworker tradeswomen, we are particularly concerned about what this could mean for the Women’s Bureau, a critical agency within the department, as well as the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) program it administers.
It is imperative that Chavez-DeRemer, a former representative of Oregon, preserve and expand support for the Women’s Bureau and WANTO. It is only fair: Oregon has received and benefited greatly from WANTO funding, along with additional federal funding for infrastructure. These investments have driven the state’s thriving economy at a time when employers nationwide face a shortage of skilled workers in key industries like construction, plumbing and electrical work.
Antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) across the United States receive state and federal funds but have operated with little or no government oversight. CPCs use unsterilized transvaginal ultrasounds wands inside of patients, delay access to lifesaving care by misdiagnosing serious medical conditions and steal patient data from real medical clinics, according to investigative reporting and lawsuits filed against them. Advocates have been stymied in their efforts to obtain any sort of CPC accountability. But that may be changing.
Once dismissed as fringe, pronatalism has moved into the mainstream—finding powerful champions in Trump, Vance and Musk, and gaining policy traction within the administration. Rooted in eugenics, antifeminism, and anti-immigrant sentiment, this ideology casts high birthrates as a patriotic duty and low fertility as a national threat.
Now, federal policies are beginning to reflect this dangerous worldview—one that sees women’s bodies as tools of the state and reproductive freedom as collateral damage.
While the trans community still faces unprecedented legislative attacks, with 49 bills passing into law in 2024, there are key strategies that activists are using to fight back.
On March 6, Montana State Representatives Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell stood up to speak against two of the 527 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in U.S. state legislatures this year. One bill would ban drag performances and pride marches as “hypersexualized shows,” and the other would require “the emergency removal of a child who is transitioning gender with the support of a parent” by state Child Protective Services.
In a terrifying escalation of the post-Roe crackdown, Republican lawmakers in multiple states are pushing laws that would allow women to be charged with murder—and even face the death penalty—for having an abortion.