The growing call for an end to sexism in Hollywood—and even federal investigations—haven’t led to much progress.
Search Results for: LGBTQ
Queer Characters Keep Dying on TV. Here’s How to Make it Stop
(Spoiler alert for the The 100) Fans of the The 100 were outraged over the recent death of Lexa, a lesbian and one of the main women characters on the show. This wasn’t simply a case of fans angry because a beloved, badass character was written off. This was a case of fans angry because a beloved, […]
Love in the Time of Homophobia: Considering the Use of Confidential Marriage Licenses
When I began Los Angeles County’s online marriage license application a few nights ago, I was asked to choose between either a public or confidential marriage license. I confess that it was the nominally lower price tag of the confidential option that led me to do a quick Google search. There were a few differences between […]
Everything You Need to Know About the Ugly “Religious Freedom” Laws Sweeping the Nation
Love may have won, but homophobia is still alive and well in the U.S. Ever since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last summer, conservatives across the nation have scrambled to pass more and more state laws that aim to protect, they say, “religious freedom” or “religious liberty.” Yet these laws are specifically concerned with […]
This Comedy Festival Is Charging Women a Different Price for a Great Reason
A Brooklyn-based comedy festival is charging women, people of color, LGBTQ folks and people with disabilities a different price to submit their work than straight, white men. The catch? The “minority” comedians will pay 77 cents to every dollar a straight, white male comedian pays—a reflection of the gender-wage gap. “The 77 cents to the dollar […]
4 (Intersectional!) Ways to Stop Campus Sexual Assault
Over the past few weeks, news of a 500-word essay assigned as punishment for sexual assault at Gustavas College in Minnesota and of a series of sexual harassment charges filed against faculty at UC Berkeley have put campus sexual violence back in the national spotlight. These stories have focused on how Title IX—the federal law that prohibits […]
Freeheld Beautifully Captures the Notion that “Love Is Love”
Love is forged in small moments. Like ragged bits of bottles polished into sea glass, Freeheld‘s lead characters, Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) and Stacie Andree (Ellen Page), are rugged and tough, tumbled unwittingly by societal pressures and personal illness into gems fighting for LGBTQ equality. In one early scene in the film—which is based on the true […]
Half-Full/Half-Empty: What the U.N. Has Done for Women and Girls
Ellen Chesler and Terry McGovern have co-edited a timely and important collection of analytical essays and personal reflections in their new volume, Women and Girls Rising. The volume tries—and largely succeeds—to offer a thoughtful reckoning of the influence of the U.N. Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. It is part of a series […]
Beyond the Headscarf: Let’s Discuss Social Justice Issues Muslim Women Actually Care About
Reprinted with permission from Bitch Three months ago, I found myself in the middle of an FBI interrogation. Josh*, a white gay male Republican Christian friend of mine who loves Ann Coulter, had never met a single Muslim person until he met me. So, in the summer of 2013, after over a year of communicating […]