Sex Trafficking

Keeping Score: California Schools to Provide Free Period Products; Title X Gag Rule Reversed; Texas Abortion Ban Reinstated

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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: Biden administration reverses Title X gag rule; federal courts halt, then reinstate Texas’s six-week abortion ban; school districts crack down on BLM and pride flags; Playboy features first gay man on its cover; California overrides workplace NDAs *and* requires free menstrual products in schools; and more.

The Ms. Q&A: Actor-Activist Vanessa Marano on Shifting the Trafficking Narrative to Survivors

Conversations around sex trafficking experienced a resurgence following the investigation and indictment of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. However, the renewed spotlight on sex trafficking also helped popularize a plethora of unsupported conspiracy theories—leaving survivors in the shadows as powerful people continue to contort the narrative.

“Sands of Silence”: Documentary on Healing from Sexual Violence Premiering on WORLD Channel and PBS

"Sand of Silence": Documentary on Healing from Sexual Violence Premiering on PBS

Shot in Spain, Nepal, Mexico and the U.S., “Sands of Silence” explores the spectrum of sexual violence—from sex trafficking, to child molestation, to trusted adults sexualizing the young people in their care. journalist and filmmaker Chelo Avarez-Stehle delves into the devastating and long-lasting impact of this violence, showing how childhood experiences of abuse make women vulnerable to future violence, and the ways girls and women are silenced or encouraged to deny the impact of this violence.