I am autistic and, at the age of 21, after a year of fighting for it, I successfully underwent tubal ligation surgery. Here’s why I did it—and why the Court’s decision to overturn Roe will ultimately hurt other disabled and neurodivergent women and nonbinary people like me.
Category: Voices
Right Now, Silence Is Not an Option—Diverse Voices Must Shape the Future
The ties that bind us to one another—that transcend race, class, generational divides, language and more—are the stories we share. Every silenced voice and untold story erases a piece of our collective history and identity.
Communicators shape the future through their influence on how history is documented, preserved and shared. Their words and messages have the potential to spread like wildfire and impact everything from pop culture to policymaking.
Front and Center: Before Guaranteed Income and the Child Tax Credit, ‘Some Months I Would Fall Very Short’
Front and Center highlights the success of Springboard to Opportunities’ Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which this year will give $1,000 per month for 12 months to 100 families headed by Black women living in federally subsidized housing.
“When people say that programs like this will stop people from working, it just makes no sense to me. $1,000 isn’t enough for me to quit my job and is less than what I make, and what I make from working isn’t enough to cover all my bills. People like me need more income.”
To: Our Assaulters—From: Your Survivors
Sexual assault, rape and molestation— these are real words with real actions that unfortunately happen more often than we think. Why is there a deafening silence amongst these words?
“We are five survivors. We are the power of strength. We are the survivors with voices.”
Front and Center: With Guaranteed Income, “Now I Can Cover My Bills and Do Fun Things for My Son”
Front and Center highlights the success of Springboard to Opportunities’ Magnolia Mother’s Trust, which this year will give $1,000 per month for 12 months to 100 families headed by Black women living in federally subsidized housing.
“It was really unbelievable when I got the call a few months ago that I would be part of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust and start receiving $1,000 each month. … I really believe that there should be a program like the Magnolia Mother’s Trust for all the people living in poverty who need it, especially moms.”
Teen Poet Reframes Justice System Through Incarcerated Voices
Anouk Yeh, Santa Clara County’s 2021-2022 inaugural youth poet laureate, is proud of the megaphone she’s given to incarcerated youth through weekly poetry workshops on Zoom.
Reimagining the Future of the Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Movement
Amber Gavin works at independent woman-owned abortion clinic, A Woman’s Choice. Israel Cook is a state legislative fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Both women share what makes them hopeful for the future of abortion care.
“Many people already live in a post-Roe reality. Yet this does not have to be our future. Advocates, providers, lawyers and everyday people across the country can build a future where we uplift and center the voices and ideas of Black people, people of color, disabled people, immigrants, young people and more.”
Childcare Access Is the Difference Between Economic Opportunity and Homelessness
Without affordable childcare, my family slid into homelessness. We could have avoided this if our country prioritized helping families. Now, Congress has the opportunity to do just that.
The Truth My Mother Told Me
As it turned out, even though times had changed, not much had changed at all. But watching my harassment complaint be treated with warranted, hard-fought seriousness, I felt the strength of my mother’s generation of feminists at my back.
‘Vagina Obscura’ Author Rachel E. Gross Takes Us on a Daring Anatomical Voyage
Rachel E. Gross, in her debut book Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage, takes us on a journey around “the organs traditionally bound up in baby-making―the uterus, ovaries and vagina,” elaborating both on what science knows, and what it doesn’t. (Did you know it wasn’t until 1993 that a federal mandate required researchers to include women and minorities in clinical research?)
Gross recently spoke to Carli Cutchin by phone from her home in Brooklyn. Thoughtful and erudite, she talked about the female and LGBT researchers who’ve made scientific inroads against the odds, the myth that the “clitoral” and “vaginal” orgasms are distinct from each other, a princess who relocated her clitoris, koala vaginas and much more.