Search Results for: LGBTQ

What Happens When Doulas Write the Law? New Mexico’s Medicaid Win Shows How to Fight Back 

As abortion bans sweep the U.S., clinics shutter and gender-affirming care is criminalized, New Mexico accomplished something radical: It passed a law to pay doulas—because doulas save lives.

In 2025, the state unanimously enacted HB 214, the Doula Credentialing and Access Act, creating the nation’s most comprehensive Medicaid coverage for full-spectrum doula care, including for abortion, miscarriage, pregnancy, birth, postpartum and loss.

This victory was decades in the making, a fight led by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ+, immigrant, disabled and community-based doulas. These care workers have long provided essential, unpaid labor in a healthcare system that overlooked them. Now, for the first time, their labor is recognized as essential health infrastructure.

Still, as this vision takes root under HB 214, federal funding threats loom, including cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and reproductive health access—all part of a national strategy to defund care and increase control. Believe in this future? Help protect it. Urge your state to follow New Mexico’s lead. Support local doula collectives. Push for policies that center care over control. The path forward is here—let’s walk it together.

(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)

Biting, Throwing, Burning and Whipping Children Is Still Legal in Many Parts of the U.S. Why?

Growing up in an Orlando suburb, D remembers being stripped naked, bent over his parents’ laps and spanked with a plastic spatula that had “tough love” written on it in black Sharpie. This punishment persisted through D’s childhood, at times making it uncomfortable for him to sit the next day.

“Spanking evolved into things like grounding and taking things away, taking meals away, replacing meals with bread and water, kneeling on rice in a corner facing the wall,” says D, who asked to remain anonymous because he is afraid of retaliation from his mother for speaking out. Now 29 years old, D has permanent nerve damage and walks with a cane.

And while this abuse was emotionally and physically devastating, it was legal. This is because corporal punishment is legal nationwide inside the home and in public schools in 17 states. According to the World Health Organization, corporal punishment includes hitting, smacking, slapping and spanking children with a hand or an object such as a whip, stick, belt, shoe or wooden spoon. But it can also involve kicking, shaking, throwing, scratching, pinching, biting, burning or scalding children, as well as pulling hair, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions or forced ingestion.

Corporal punishment is illegal in 68 countries, with Thailand being the most recent to ban it. And since 1989, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has advocated for the end of the practice. But on American soil, it is estimated that over 160,000 children are subjected to these punishments at school every year.

Multiple studies suggest LGBTQ kids experience violence and emotional abuse from parents at a higher rate than their counterparts. “[Many parents] have this perspective that they don’t want their child to be LGBTQ, and that somehow this violence will help prevent them from becoming gay or trans.”

Why Dolores Huerta Is Hopeful About the Fight for a Feminist Future: ‘We’re Going to Be Able to Overcome’

Dolores Huerta has spent 70 years at the frontlines of the intertwined fights for economic justice and women’s rights. Huerta has pioneered campaigns to expand political representation for women and people of color; advance policies that improve the lives of women, LGBTQ+ folks, farmworkers, communities of color, and the poor; and spark dialogue around the intersectional fight for economic justice, and the ways it is intertwined with our democracy.

“This is a very, very scary time—and god knows it’s a time for women to rise up!” Huerta told Ms.

Listen to the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, “Women Can’t Afford to Wait for a Feminist Economic Future (with Premilla Nadasen, Rakeen Mabud and Lenore Palladino, Aisha Nyandoro, Gaylynn Burroughs, and Dolores Huerta)” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Women Can’t Afford to Wait for a Feminist Economic Future (with Premilla Nadasen, Rakeen Mabud and Lenore Palladino, Aisha Nyandoro, Gaylynn Burroughs, and Dolores Huerta)

Meet the Voices Bonus Content from This Episode Further Reading from the 50 Years of Ms. Collection Get a copy of the book. Further Reading from the Ms. Archives More Links & Resources Episode Transcript Carmen Rios: Welcome to the third episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward, a Ms. Studios podcast that traces the intertwined […]

‘Our Federal Constitution Doesn’t Protect Us’: How the Women’s Law Project Redefined the Fight for Abortion Rights in Pennsylvania

“We got here because we have the gender ruling class desperately holding onto their privilege—using any means necessary,” said WLP executive director Susan Frietsche on the latest episode of Looking Back, Moving Forward.

Listen to the second episode —”Inside the Feminist Fight to Reclaim Our Reproductive Freedom (with Renee Bracey Sherman, Michele Goodwin, Angie Jean-Marie and Amy Merrill, Susan Frietsche, and Gov. Maura Healey)”—on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Keeping Score: States Ramp Up Antiabortion Efforts; Black Women Forced Out of the Workforce; Only a Quarter of Americans Say Trump Has Helped Them

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:
—States continue to develop strategies to pass antiabortion laws.
—Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is still attempting to sue New York doctor Margaret Carpenter. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul responded, “Attorney General Paxton should focus more on his own private life instead of dictating the personal decisions of women across America.”
—Almost 300,000 Black women left the labor force in the past three months.
—Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), co-chair of the Voting Rights Caucus, is leading a bill to prevent unnecessary redistricting in between censuses.
—Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) have introduced a bill preventing the unnecessary destruction of foreign aid food, medicine and medical devices.
—The Supreme Court enabled Trump to dismantle the Department of Education.
—Trans women were banned from U.S. women’s Olympic sports.
—Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) is sharing her own history with domestic abuse as part of her advocacy to support survivors: “For me, it’s just about trying to keep other people from having to go through what we did and for mothers and fathers—there are men that are victims too—to know that there are resources.”
—Chef José Andrés details the policy changes needed to save millions in Gaza from starvation: “A starving human being needs food today, not tomorrow.”
—Under a quarter of Americans can name a female historical figure, and only 6 percent of monuments honor women.
—South African runner Caster Semenya won her case at the European Court of Human Rights.
—After bipartisan criticism in Congress, the Trump administration will release $1.3 billion for after-school programs that has been withheld from states.
—A Kentucky appeals court agreed that Jewish woman Jessica Kalb may continue her suit against the state’s strict abortion ban, which violates her religious beliefs.

… and more.

Fifty Years After War, Southeast Asian Communities Face a New Kind of Violence. Gender and Queer Justice Must Be at the Heart of This Moment.

Drawing on histories of war, displacement and resistance, Southeast Asian organizers expose how patriarchy fuels violence, erasure and division—and why intersectional justice must lead the way forward.

“Patriarchal power is regrouping, seeking to reassert its grip. If we do not recognize and resist this realignment, we risk losing hard-won resources, protections and, most importantly, people. 

“As a community, Southeast Asians’ trauma is compounded by war and displacement. Nearly 16,000 Southeast Asian refugees face deportation; many live in poverty and fear, underserved by traditional systems and are often overlooked in broader Asian American narratives. As the United States expands its deportation machine, refugees from the U.S.-backed wars in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are being re-criminalized and forcibly removed. These deportations fracture families, destabilize communities, and retraumatize those already targeted by the carceral state. Gender-based violence and anti-queer violence only intensify those challenges.”

(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)

A Power Grab in Plain Sight: Inside Texas Republicans’ Mid-Decade Redistricting Push

As Texas reels from devastating floods, Republican leaders are rushing through a controversial mid-decade redistricting plan aimed at cementing their grip on power—at the direct urging of Donald Trump.

“Let’s not allow the White House to put its arms into Texas and divide our community,” said Texas state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins at a heated and packed public hearing last Thursday.

Finding My Fight Again: How Billie Jean King Lit My Fire—Twice

I’m tired. Maybe you are too.

I’ve been fighting for gender equality for over two decades—pushing against outdated norms, challenging industries that resist change and speaking up in rooms where I wasn’t always welcome. And while I’ve seen progress, the setbacks have a way of draining your spirit.

But last week, I felt a shift in my energy.

I saw Billie Jean, the new play about Billie Jean King, at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. And just like that, something inside me reignited.

I’m writing thisn ot to share a story about a play, but to share a truth about persistence. The path to equality is long, winding and punishing. But it is also worth every step.

Teaching Sex to Empower, Not to Control: Sex Ed in Sweden vs. South Carolina

Sweden was the first country to mandate sex education in 1955 and now has a national sex ed curriculum integrated through all course subjects. Swedes divorce sex ed from discussions about religious morality. Their curriculum instead encourages students to ask questions and critically examine gender and sex norms, while teachers instruct students with medically accurate information. 

Swedes were shocked to learn that in our local South Carolina school district, sex ed teachers use a memorable acronym (H.A.M.) to remember what their districts won’t allow them to discuss with students. “H.A.M.” stands for homosexuality, abortion and masturbation—three topics which are forbidden. If students ask about these subjects, teachers are told to redirect their questions.