Each month, I provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups. Here’s to a new year and, hopefully, a better one for us all. I wish you a year of peace, collectivity, good health, bountiful joy and, of course, fantastic reading! You can start with these 33 titles that I am most excited about this month.
Tag: Marriage
Same-Sex and Interracial Marriages Are Officially Protected Under U.S. Law: ‘Love Is Love’
On Tuesday night, the U.S. Senate passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex and interracial marriages. In a statement, President Biden said the vote reaffirmed “a fundamental truth: Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love.”
RMA needed just 60 votes—including 10 Republican votes—to break a filibuster and pass. In the end, RMA, which was led by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), passed by a vote of 61 to 36, with 12 Republicans voting with their Democratic colleagues.
Thirty-six Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, voted against the bill—standing in stark contrast to the rest of the United States: 71 percent of Americans say they support legal same-sex marriage.
Ms. Global: Iranian Protests Continue Amid Crackdowns; Victory for Lula in Brazil; Mexico Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage
Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
This week: Top stories from Mexico, Brazil, Iran, Afghanistan, Italy and more.
Ending Child Marriage: Restoring Choice Through Economic Security
The fight to end child marriage can no longer be confined to the shadows. The COVID-19 crisis, climate change and food insecurity have only compounded the problem. If we don’t act fast, we leave millions of girls at risk.
Empowered: Women Tell Family Court Judges of Experiences With Coercive Control Using New Domestic Abuse Law
Connecticut’s new Jennifers’ Law, which went into effect last October and expanded domestic abuse to include coercive control, addresses the way perpetrators weaponize the court system.
“We’ve faced trauma and been dismissed in our marriages—then we’ve seen the truth dismissed in court. We tell people to leave an abusive marriage and go to get help and be protected, but then the judicial system has to step up to protect us. I hope women hear our stories and are empowered to speak up about Jennifers’ Law too.”
Ms. Global: Protests in Iran; Malta Offers Free Gender-Affirming Surgery; San Marino Legalizes Abortion
Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.
This week: news from Iran, Jordan, Brazil, San Marino, Italy, and more.
The ‘American Dream Tax’ and the Quiet Suffering of Immigrant Wives
The American immigration system is plagued by systemic gender inequality. Like many of the other failings in U.S. legislation and policy, the text of the law appears to be gender-neutral on the surface. The outcome is anything but equal.
Stop Praising Colleen Hoover’s ‘It Ends With Us.’ Here’s What You’re Missing
Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, It Ends With Us, was the sixth best-selling book of 2021, BookTok is going nuts over it and USA Today called it “the kind of book that gets handed down.” The novel centers on the relationship between Lily and Ryle, a young newlywed couple who live in Boston.
Hoover’s writing is being touted as part of a resurgence of romance writing, but It Ends With Us is not a romance novel; it’s a celebration of toxic masculinity.
Abortion Restrictions Harm LGBTQ People Now
Dobbs sets a frightening precedent for the future of LGBTQ rights. Yet, we cannot lose sight that LGBTQ people—including women, transgender men, nonbinary people, and anyone able to become pregnant—are already in grave danger, right now.
Keeping Score: ‘The Dominoes Have Started to Fall, and They Won’t Just Stop at One’
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 in this biweekly round-up.
This week: Activists fear the Supreme Court will come after same-sex and interracial marriage next; House passes bill protecting same-sex marriage, requests testimony from major gun manufacturers; Biden administration challenges states on enforcement of abortion bans; women participate in the Tour de France after 33 years; and more.