This fiftieth year should not be an anniversary we simply mark. It should be a reckoning with 50 years of harm and how to fix it.
Politics
Who Cares if Political Candidates Associate with Sex Offenders?
Republican candidates in two pivotal North Carolina races are being taken to task for their public association with convicted sex offenders who served time for taking indecent liberties with children.
Former North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley—the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate—and GOP Supreme Court candidate Sarah Stevens have been called to account in the leadup to the midterm elections for accepting support from one or more individuals either formerly or currently on the state sex offender registry. That support includes campaign work, financial contributions and even public prayers.
North Carolina state Rep. Sarah Stevens (R), who resigned from the state House of Representatives in June to run for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court, attended and accepted a donation from a fundraising picnic last year at the home of convicted sex offender Harvey West. Though Stevens said she “didn’t even know” West, she had appeared on his wife Kim West’s podcast to promote the picnic and was Facebook friends with Harvey West, a former police officer who served six years in prison after being convicted of five counts of indecent liberties with a child in 2000.
This month it was also reported that Pastor Daimon L. King, a registered sex offender “twice sentenced to prison for convictions involving children,” according to ABC, who led the opening prayer at a recent campaign stop for Whatley. King, who leads the Christian church New Beginnings Celebration, declared his church members “fully support and are behind” Whatley’s U.S. Senate candidacy.
‘America Is Better With Friends’: What We Lose When the U.S. Turns Away From the World
As the Trump administration cuts foreign aid and pulls back from international commitments, what happens to the people and countries that have counted on the United States? And what do Americans stand to lose? A packed room for a panel on the first day of the Texas Tribune Festival with a daunting question: “Who Fills the Void?” suggested many people are trying to make sense of the same thing.
The all-women panel consisted of Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau, a former diplomat and managing director at the George W. Bush Institute; Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, a fellow at the institute who has worked on democracy and human rights; and Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the refugee organization Global Refuge; moderated by Carine Hajjar of The Washington Post.
The three panelists had different answers to who fills the void: Competitors can gain influence when the U.S. gives up its place at the table. Allies may retreat, too. But in humanitarian work, no one may step in at all, meaning the people who need help are left waiting.
Bibbins Sedaca made the case for U.S. engagement abroad, in terms of both principle and self-interest: American “interests and values are integrated.” Democratically governed countries tend to be more stable and prosperous partners. Preventing disease and persecution abroad matters to the people living through those crises; it also helps make Americans safer.
Bibbins Sedaca acknowledged the economic pain many Americans feel and the need to scrutinize how aid is spent. But foreign assistance has typically accounted for just 1 percent of federal spending, and less than that in recent years. She rejected the idea that meeting needs at home requires the U.S. to disengage from the rest of the world.
This work also has a bipartisan history. Kennedy Trudeau pointed to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, launched by George W. Bush. The program has saved more than 26 million lives, according to the State Department. Kennedy Trudeau described its effects beyond the number: children in school, adults able to work and communities able to plan for a future. Countries facing an AIDS crisis also learned that the United States would stand with them.
Vignarajah described refugee resettlement as another commitment once supported by presidents of both parties. It was understood, she said, as both “the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.”
A Historic U.N. Choice, a Surge of Black Women Candidates and the Fight for Representation
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
This week:
—A woman may finally become the new U.S. secretary general.
—Secretary General António Guterres’ powerful and motivating remarks: “At the current pace, it will take us 171 years to reach gender equality. I don’t think any one of us wants to wait that long.”
—the remarkable rise of Black women candidates in Georgia
—No group of donors has had quite the impact on electing more women than EMILYs List, whose “early money is like yeast” philosophy has contributed to women being poised to become the majority of Democratic lawmakers in state legislatures this year.
… and more.
We Fought Too Hard for This Vote. Here’s How We Protect It.
The ability to participate in free and fair elections is arguably the most essential American right. Yet on Jan. 6, 2021, the nation watched as a mob overran the Capitol. In an act designed to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next, they attacked law enforcement officers who were there to protect the building and members of Congress inside. Rioters desecrated the Capitol. Our vote and our democracy seemed fragile that day and in the days that followed.
Now, President Donald Trump is trying to create a role for the president in running and overseeing elections. That’s not how the Constitution works.
The effort to interfere with the November midterms isn’t going to consist of a single, dramatic event on Election Day. It is what we are already seeing: a combination of efforts by Trump and his supporters to make it more difficult to vote, to create confusion about who is eligible to vote, to pressure state and local officials, and to manufacture uncertainty. As Jan. 6 proved, distrust among the American people makes it easier for an administration to contest election results they don’t like. And the Trump administration is doing all of this with an eye toward shifting as much control over elections as possible from the states to the federal government.
We can already see where pressure is being applied to voters and election officials, and we can identify the kinds of problems that are likely to arise.
You don’t need to be a constitutional law scholar to make a difference. It just takes a desire to be useful, to engage in democracy and become a participant, not a bystander. Know your state’s rules and deadlines for registering. Research whether you can vote early or by mail. Help the people around you, who may be less informed, do the same. Volunteer as a poll worker if you can. Volunteer to do election protection work if you are a lawyer, law student, retired lawyer or simply someone willing to be trained.
No Liberation Without Community: In One of Her Final Interviews, Gloria Steinem on Her New Memoir, Chosen Family and the Future of Feminism
“Feminism is positive, widely embraced and global. It is spreading and growing. That gives me hope.”
In one of her final interviews, the late Gloria Steinem discusses her new memoir and the optimism that fueled her feminism.
“The written word has always been magic to me,” Gloria Steinem—celebrated writer, feminist activist and cofounder of this magazine—observes in her charming new memoir, An Unexpected Life. “One of my greatest pleasures has always been opening a book and finding a friend.”
In this posthumous release, she gives us exactly that: a volume that is wise and witty, intimate and inspiring. It’s a chance to get to know her not as an icon, but as a friend.
Gloria and I chatted about the book the month before her death.
Russia’s War on Ukraine, Recorded by the Women and Queer Journalists Living Through It
The city of Kharkiv lies 19 miles from Russia’s western border. Nestled within this historic and cultural urban center is a small news outlet that symbolizes so much of what Putin intends to erase: the truthful recounting of Russian war crimes and the lived experiences of everyday Ukrainians. The journalists of Gwara Media are determined not to let that happen.
As world leaders gather for the U.N. General Assembly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in New York seeking support against Russia’s attacks. In Kharkiv, Gwara’s journalists are documenting the war as they contend with danger, discrimination and dwindling funds.
This is the story of how a small, award-winning independent media platform supports the diverse identities of their reporters who—in the words of Gwara’s mission statement—“ask uncommon questions, and listen to voices of the unheard.”
Interviews with three of the publication’s journalists reveal how the “voices of the unheard” have affected the journalists’ own lives and why what they have to say resonates far beyond Ukraine’s own borders.
What Rights Should the Constitution Protect? Alicia Keys and Leigh Blake Are Asking You to Decide
On Saturday, Sept. 26, Alicia Keys will use a special performance at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park to amplify the People’s Bill of Rights 250, a civic initiative asking Americans to help define the rights the Constitution should protect during the country’s next 250 years.
During her “Alicia Keys & Friends” performance, Keys will bring the People’s Bill of Rights’ message—“WE THE PEOPLE. AGAIN.”—to tens of thousands of festivalgoers.
“The People’s Bill of Rights 250 is about … passing the mic,” says Keys, “making sure every voice gets heard, and giving people the power to shape what comes next.”
It asks Americans to participate in small online deliberations and ultimately vote on which ideas should move forward. Current deliberations ask Americans to consider whether healthcare, reproductive freedom, equality for women and girls, housing, education and environmental protections should be constitutional rights. You can add your own idea (if you feel like typing), or just swipe right or left on others’ ideas.
Leigh Blake, a longtime activist who has spent decades using music and culture to mobilize people around social causes, co-spearheaded of the People’s Bill of Rights 250. The project is an extension of a decades-long philosophy of activism: that ordinary people have more in common than they are told, that rights are inseparable from human dignity, and that meaningful changes come through collective action and service.
“There’s always going to be people on the fringes,” she says, “but I don’t think we’re divided as a country in the way we’ve been led to believe we are.”
Blake describes the initiative as operating almost like “politics without politicians.” Instead of waiting for elected officials to decide which issues deserve attention, Americans can propose their own ideas and vote on the proposals of others.
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Keeping Score: Texas GOP Candidate Brandon Herrera’s Vile Attack on Mothers and Children; Rest in Power Gloria, Dolly, Robin Morgan, Annie Dillard and More
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too, in this biweekly roundup.
This week:
—The Trump administration proposed a rule that would eliminate quality standards for the Head Start preschool program.
—Todd Blanche was confirmed as attorney general, after promising to remove abortion rights nationwide.
—Democrats in the Senate call out Trump administration’s attacks on Title IX and mark its 54th anniversary with a bicameral resolution: “They will fearmonger about trans kids until the sun comes up, but the fact is this administration has all but decimated the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, leaving egregious instances of sexual harassment and assault, and so much else, totally unaddressed.”
—Kindergartener Liam Tadeo and his father, Victor Martinez Nieto, both Austin residents, were detained by ICE on their way to a soccer game and later deported together to Mexico after being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.
—The six recipients of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize are all women.
—Voters in battleground states say it’s important that lawmakers protect access to reproductive healthcare.
—At least 152 ICE or CBP agents have faced disciplinary action or criminal penalties for violent crimes.
—Women make up 35 percent of non-acting Emmy Awards, matching the record high.
—Actor Anne Hathaway, currently pregnant with her third child at age 43, faced social media hate and rumors that she faked her pregnancy, after showing her bump on a red carpet.
—Florida professor Vinita Prabhakar was fired for assigning a “political” short story in a freshman English class. The story “Bettering Myself” focuses on an alcoholic teacher at a Catholic school and is commonly taught at colleges across the country. Prabhakar is now suing to uphold her First Amendment rights.
—Aisha Wahab won the special election to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who resigned after sexual assault allegations. Wahab is the first Afghan American elected to Congress, and will be on the ballot for a full term in November.
… and more.
LaTosha Brown’s Case for America’s First Department of Democracy
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
This week:
—The Kettering Foundation honors Black Voters Matter cofounder LaTosha Brown, and her brilliant idea: “a Department of Democracy: a durable, people-powered, enforcement-capable institution designed to protect voting and civic rights, monitor the conduct of all three branches of government, hold states accountable, and serve as a permanent firewall against the erosion of democratic participation. It would be built to hold regardless of who’s in power.”
—A record number of women have earned nominations for state legislative elections this year.
—Data suggests a close Texas governor’s race this year.
—U.S. House incumbent Sarah McBride has been an influential voice in Congress in her first term in office.
… and more.