More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Transgender individuals face unique discrimination, stigma, systemic inequality and attacks on their ability to live freely. Care and safety must be protected. Rights for trans people are at the heart of gender justice for all.
Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene’s misleading bill exploits the fight against female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) to attack lifesaving gender-affirming care and undermine bodily autonomy for all.
This false equivalence is grossly disingenuous, dangerous and extreme. It’s a transphobic ploy to stoke fear and score political points, all while dehumanizing trans people.
MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide—the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.” We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.
Since our last report:
—On June 14, between 4 and 13 million people attended No Kings rallies nationwide to protest President Trump’s immigration and economic policies.
—Four states—California, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey—have petitioned the FDA to undo restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone.
—Some good news out of Montana: This month, the state supreme court struck down three abortion restrictions that Republican lawmakers passed in 2021.
… and more.
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:
—marking three years since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade
—”Deep cracks are showing in the Trump and Miller mass deportation agenda,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice.
—Rest in power, Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who were assassinated in an act of political violence. “Political violence of any kind has no place in our democracy,” said Democratic Women’s Caucus chair Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.).
—The Supreme Court upheld bans on gender-affirming care for minors.
—Harvey Weinstein was again convicted of a criminal sex act.
—raising awareness for LGBTQ Equal Pay Day
—82% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans believe funding for childcare should increase.
… and more.
In 2022, the Supreme Court undid a constitutional right for the first time by declaring that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion in the landmark decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
In a decision this week called U.S. v. Skrmetti, they’ve taken the next step, extending the logic of Dobbs and destabilizing much of the law on sex discrimination.
The majority in Skrmetti was careful to cite case law on sex discrimination and suggest that the law at issue, which banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth, simply raised different issues. But Skrmetti shows how fragile protections against sex discrimination have become without any explicit guarantee, like the Equal Rights Amendment.
In the whirling, swirling hellscape of illegality and cruelty that is the current American political scene, it’s hard to keep track of all the individuals and groups demonized, deported and derided by an administration seemingly motivated by a Machiavellian desire for power that might make Machiavelli himself blush with shame. In the midst of an apocalyptic news cycle, one targeted segment of the population seems to be fading from view: women.
But let us not, as Abigail Adams wrote so many years ago, forget the ladies. “Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.”
Last week was another raucous week in Congress, with continued discord over the fiscal, social and societal implications of President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” as it heads to the Senate.
Meanwhile, the wheels continue to spin in dozens of statehouses across the country, many of which are at the height of their own legislative sessions. And it’s not all doom and gloom—which is one of the exciting aspects of state politics.
Either way, state legislatures offer an extraordinary window into the good, the bad and the ugly of the democratic process—a laboratory for what robust, participatory democracy can and often does achieve.
Grassroots organizations are on the frontlines of defending human rights at this moment. Yet, it’s alarming that major funders are leaving the field right when groups working to defend bodily autonomy and democracy need them most.
In the 2024 presidential election, we saw the consequences of what happens when donors abandon grassroots organizations—where a billion dollars were raised for the Harris campaign at the expense of movement organizations in key battleground states. In a presidential election lost to low voter turnout, the decision to underfund grassroots groups—those best equipped to knock on doors and mobilize voters—proved dangerously short-sighted.
(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund.)
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:
—House Republicans pass a reconciliation bill with almost $1 trillion in cuts to SNAP and Medicaid; feminists call it “unacceptable, inhumane and reckless.”
—”There is literally no oversight happening in this committee under the GOP,” laments Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on DOGE, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
—Mahmoud Khalil’s powerful letter to his newborn son: “How is it that the same politicians who preach ‘family values’ are the ones tearing families apart?”
—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s HHS will no longer advise pregnant women and children to receive the COVID vaccine, an unusual decision that sidesteps standard CDC process.
—Women-owned small businesses have higher job satisfaction.
—A federal judge attacks protections for LGBTQ Americans.
… and more.
When you think about Bible study, images might pop into your head of kids learning principles like forgiveness or loving thy neighbor, and that’s just what LifeWise Academy advertises on its website: “a supportive and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels valued.” But for many parents and LGBTQ kids in at least 591 American public schools with LifeWise programs, that’s far from the truth.
LifeWise Academy is a conservative Christian organization that takes public school students off school property to “integrate a Bible class into their weekly class schedule.” For an hour a week, students from kindergarten through 12th grade learn about religious concepts rooted—in part—in homophobia and transphobia. LifeWise’s growth in the U.S. reflects a trend of politicians and lawmakers attempting to incorporate Christianity in public schools and minimize LGBTQ representation.
No judgment, but the women featured in Evie Magazine, a “conservative Cosmo” for women 18-34, are more likely than not to show off their breasts. In a nod to the tradwife fashion trend, milkmaid dresses with low décolletage are featured on young, voluptuous white women. An article making the case against body positivity and fat acceptance, “The Return of Skinny,” is accompanied by a photo of a busty white woman on a beach wearing a thong bikini. A photo spread of Eva Vlaardingerbroek showcases the Dutch right-wing activist wearing a gold cross necklace—along with her breasts falling out of a low-cut gingham dress.
To people with conservative views, only some women—those who look and act like ‘real women’—get the privilege of being sexy.