National

‘Easy to Just Write Us Off’: Rural Students’ Choices Shrink as Colleges Slash Majors

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Although she won a scholarship to Mississippi State University, two hours’ drive away, Shamya Jones couldn’t get there because she had a new baby and no car. So she enrolled instead at a local community college, then transferred to the four-year campus closest to her home in the rural Mississippi Delta: Delta State University.

She planned to major in digital media arts, but before she could start, Delta State eliminated that major, along with 20 other degree programs, including history, English, chemistry and music.

“They’re cutting off so much, and teachers [are] leaving,” Jones said. “It’s like we’re not getting the help or benefits we need.” The cuts “take away from us, our education.”

That kind of frustration is growing. Rural Americans already have far less access to higher education than their counterparts in cities and suburbs. Now the comparatively few universities that serve rural students are eliminating large numbers of programs and majors, blaming plummeting enrollment and financial crises. Many rural private, nonprofit colleges are closing altogether.

Women’s Independence, Credit Cards and Economic Power: Celebrating 50 Years of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) of 1974 enabled women to get credit cards or a mortgage without a co-signer, making it a pivotal milestone for women’s financial independence. The 50th anniversary of ECOA being signed into law by President Gerald Ford fell just a week ahead of the recent presidential election, considered by many to be a referendum on women’s rights in a political climate still reeling from the revocation of Roe. That critical landmark for women’s autonomy was overturned by the Dobbs decision in 2022, one year short of reaching its own half-century observance. 

By focusing on women’s independence through the lens of economic power over the last 50 years, a new Smithsonian exhibit—”We Do Declare Women’s Voices on Independence,” commemorating ECOA’s passage—hones in on another essential factor in women’s ability to achieve freedom, security and power: financial independence.

Flying Free: Wicked’s Feminist Message

In Wicked, there are many parallels to our own universe: the rise of fascism in Oz; the vilification of a powerful woman (whose laugh some incidentally described as a “cackle”) concerned about the well-being of the most marginalized among us; a media enabling propaganda to villainize said powerful woman and prop up an empty shell of a man specializing in elaborate cons; and the failure of solidarity between women.

Part 1 ends with Elphaba’s ostracism from Oz, but the cinematic pan of her ascension in the sky looks less like tragedy and more like triumph. In times that require moral clarity, a perpetual outsider coming to self-actualization, freed from systems of power because she’s found her own, highlights that we have to look to different skies and different lenses to find a new kind of heroism.

We Heart: Trans Activists Stage Peaceful (and Joyful) Dance Party Protest in Capitol Hill Women’s Restroom

Anyone walking into the bathroom on Capitol Hill Thursday morning found a buoyant dance party in progress: A group of trans artists and activists staged a protest in a women’s restroom in the U.S. Capitol, dancing to the song “Meeting in the Ladies Room” by the all-women pop and R&B band Klymaxx.

“It always starts with things that people feel are insignificant, like public restrooms, but it never stops there,” said Hope Giselle-Godsey, one of the Capitol Hill dancers. “We’re here today to ensure they understand that we will not be erased—one bathroom at a time—or shoved back into the proverbial closet out of deference to the comfort of those who speak to eradicate us.”

Conservative Supreme Court to Rule on Right to Be Trans, Medical Care, Parents’ Rights, Constitutional Sex Discrimination—and the Right to Be Different

“I’m here to stand up for my kid,” Brian Williams told me outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 4. Williams and his wife Samantha have been fighting for their daughter—known as L.W. in the legal papers the ACLU filed to challenge Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors—for years.

Though difficult to sit through, the two-plus hours of argument in United States v. Skrmetti—a challenge by trans youth, their families, the ACLU, Lambda Legal and the Biden administration to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors—was a nearly perfect distillation of this moment in our gender politics.

‘Project 2025 Is Tennessee 2024’: Dispatches From the Front Lines

With Donald Trump set to take over the White House next year, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda for the next conservative president looms large. But what if Project 2025 has already arrived?
Republican state legislative supermajorities never needed Trump in power to begin enacting parts of the Heritage Foundation’s policy agenda. 

“Project 2025 is Tennessee 2024,” said Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, “because we have been the tip of the spear in experiencing some of these rollbacks that would be expanded nationally under this proposal.”

While Trump’s return to the White House is discouraging, we cannot afford to despair or stagnate. There are still spaces for collective action, particularly at the local level, and we must continue conversations across the aisle. 

When Protecting Girls Is Twisted Into Attacking Trans Youth: FGM/C Survivors Fight Back Against Transphobic Right-Wing Narratives

Efforts are underway around the world to ban female genital mutilation/cutting, and 41 U.S. states have laws on the books to address it. 

But the efforts of survivors and activists—and I’m both—have been hamstrung by the current wave of conservative opposition to medical care for trans youth, yet another ugly consequence of the crackdown on rights for transgender Americans. As we try to make sure that girls who are at risk of FGM/C, or who are dealing with the consequences of it, have the protections they need, those who oppose rights for trans people are weaponizing the laws we advocated for to deny trans youth the gender-affirming care they need.

How a Pennsylvania Middle School Violated the Privacy of Its LGBTQ+ Students: A Window Into SORVO

You’re a student at Emory H. Markle Middle School. You’re trans, and your teachers aren’t allowed to use your correct name or pronouns. They’ll be punished if they address you with any identifier other than what you’ve been legally assigned. LGBTQ-inclusive books have been banned. A transgender student at a nearby school was killed in a hate crime earlier this year.

The gender-neutral bathroom is the only place in your school that brings you refuge from the transphobia swirling around you. Then, the school cuts a window into the bathroom wall, and everyone can see in.

The school district’s board president stated the reasoning for the window was to “better monitor for a multitude of prohibited activities such as any possible vaping, drug use, bullying or absenteeism.” The kicker? The windows were only installed in Markle’s gender-inclusive bathrooms.

Anti-Medicine, Anti-Science and Antiabortion: Preparing for Trump’s Incoming Cabinet

Since the election was decided in November, like many people, I have been paying close attention to the individuals selected for appointment by the incoming Trump administration. As an OB-GYN and abortion provider, I know firsthand that these appointees will have a direct and devastating impact on our community’s access to healthcare, public health and social safety net infrastructure and our ability to be well.

Collaboratively, these cabinet picks have gained popularity by way of anti-intellectualism, misinformation and scare tactics, ultimately preying on the most vulnerable members of our community. They are not just poorly qualified to lead this work—they are dangerous. 

December 2024 Reads for the Rest of Us

Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.

I don’t know where this year went, but it was a tough one on many fronts. For better or for worse, here we are. Enjoy these 12 titles—then keep your eyes peeled for my Best of the Rest for 2024.