More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Last year, I watched in horror as an officer for the Transportation Security Administration at JFK tossed aside my son—who has a rare disease and uses a wheelchair—as if he were a piece of discarded luggage. He started crying. As did I. Eventually, an attendant said he was sorry for the inconvenience and suggested we write a letter. “That’s the only way the system will change,” he said. So, here’s my letter.
It’s 2023. It’s time to do better for travelers with disabilities, TSA.
Sixty-one percent of single women say they are content with being solo, while only 49 percent of single men said the same. Sixty-five percent of men said they were not looking for a partner, compared to 75 percent of women who said their singledom was a choice. The single life actually extends women’s lifespan; men, however, live longer if hitched. So if you’re a woman, don’t bother.
Am I upset about having no beau on Valentine’s Day? When the drug store cashier asked about my (lack of) a husband, did I run straight to the tissue aisle? Or lose it when settled snugly in my car? Hell no. In fact, my mind went to the poor women in unhappy marriages and toxic relationships who don’t know how incredible it feels on the outside.
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.
“Before the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, I was living check to check. I was working part time because we had no babysitter, and my work check was usually only $300 to $400 a month. I’m a single parent so I had to manage $400 a month for me and my two kids. It’s very hard being a single mother with no help. … I had times where I’d miss days of work because of no babysitter. But now I can go to work every day. I’ve got a full schedule of work now. It’s helped a lot.”
It’s time to celebrate another year of the Front and Center series—a Ms. and Springboard to Opportunities’ Magnolia Mother’s Trust (MMT) collaboration that provides a national platform for low-income Black women in Jackson, Miss., to share their experiences receiving a guaranteed income.
As guaranteed income continues to enter mainstream political conversations and media coverage, it’s important to center the voices of those most affected—like the MMT recipients highlighted here.
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.
“I know we don’t have the monthly child tax credit anymore because politicians think giving people money will stop them from working. But I think they need to actually listen to our stories. People want to work, but things stop them from being able to. Who is going to watch the kids? I’ve brought my daughter to work before when I couldn’t get childcare. She’d just sit there in the lobby and wait for me. But kids shouldn’t have to do that. We should have daycares and vouchers so that people actually can work.”
Writer, disability-justice activist and performance artist Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha knows that it’s possible for society to become more equitable. Piepzna-Samarasinha’s latest book, The Future Is Disabled: Prophesies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs, lays out a bare-bones agenda for what is needed to make the U.S. more socially just.
Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms. contributor Eleanor J. Bader communicated about the book, the disability justice movement and the ways that activists can support each other in the fight for a more ecologically sustainable and humane social order.
We must remind the country what a nation without any safe, legal abortion access looks like. We must remind our lawmakers what women’s lives without abortion access look like—and the devastating ways in which an end to abortion access is an end to our freedom. We are fighting for Roe with our own stories. We are daring to remember.
Submit your story by emailing myabortionstory@msmagazine.com
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’s been a few months of getting the guaranteed income, and I definitely see an increase in happiness with both me and my kids. I still have to budget, but I’m able to get them more things that they need and even have some left over to be able to reward them with little extras when I can — though making sure my bills are all paid up is always my number one priority.”
Since the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, Afghan women—many of whom dedicated their lives and careers to working for equality—have experienced a systematic campaign of violence and subjugation. Many took to the streets to protest, and in turn have been beaten, arrested, tortured and murdered. This firsthand account of Mursal Ayar’s life and arrest is a powerful reminder of our common humanity, and the duty we all share to protect the world’s most vulnerable—yet remarkable—activists.
“After those 13 days, I am like a little girl who is afraid of the night. I sleep next to my mother. The Taliban have not only taken my country from me; they have taken everything from me. My peace, my dreams, my hope and courage. I left the Taliban prison, but I could not regain what I have lost forever.”
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.