Happy Prime Day, everybody! That’s right: on July 16, the world witnessed a half-priced online commerce holiday, as Amazon slashed rates so online shoppers could know, in concrete terms, how little the company values/pays its workers. While some of the world was shopping, many were resisting, as Amazon warehouse workers went on strike against low…
7 Insightful Mental Health-Themed Books to Read This Summer
Kids are out of school, adults are playing hooky from work, and we’re all sweating from parts of our bodies we didn’t even know could sweat. Summer is the time to rest, relax, and recharge. Whether that be taking time to see friends and family, going on a trip, or taking a much-needed staycation with…
Harsher Punishments Won’t Keep Kids Safe from Sexual Abuse: The Death Penalty in India
When rape makes the headlines in India, talk of hanging begins. Commentators blare from news screens; politicians pledge death. These stories of brutal crime and brutal punishment, all in the name of protecting women and girls, tell us something important about contemporary Indian responses to rape. They also tell us about a fundamental flaw in…
10 Inspiring Self-Love Quotes from LGBTQ Icons
When trans women of color led the way in the Stonewall Riots of 1969, Pride was born. It was a movement against police harassment and to claim space for a marginalized community. By fighting back, members of New York City’s queer community signaled they would not be pushed into the shadows anymore. The Stonewall Riots are part of a…
Quick Hit: Ice Prevents Detainees From Observing Ramadan
As though ICE could get worse, this week at The Intercept Maryam Saleh reports on one immigration detention facility’s blatantly Islamophobic campaign to prevent Muslim detainees from observing Ramadan. Saleh reports that ICE agents arbitrarily deny detainees’ request to be placed on the facility’s Ramadan list, deny fasting detainees adequate nutrition, discriminate against detainees who wear kufis, and deny…
6 Ways to Support the Mental Health of Your LGBTQ Loved Ones
As rainbow streamers fill the air and LGBTQ representation fills the streets, June is a time to celebrate LGBTQ identity and the contributions of the queer movement. Pride is a joyful time for the LGBTQ community and allies alike. It’s also a time to reaffirm our commitment to creating a more equal world. That’s why this Pride, we…
Why Don’t Men Ask for Mental Health Help?
On January 17, 2010, Joshua R. Beharry stood on a British Columbia bridge, attempting to end his life. Luckily, his attempt failed, and today Beharry is a mental health advocate and Project Coordinator of HeadsUpGuys, a British Columbia-based campaign to support men who have depression. He tells his story so that men, and all people with depression, can feel empowered to…
As the Future of Climate Change Becomes Daily Reality, Poor Women Feel the Heat
The more privileged residents of the Global North have a strange sense of time. Even as the storms get fiercer and the forest fires burn, climate change is often seen as the reality of a cataclysmic future. At the same time, many Global North people—particularly the rich, the white, and those without much contact beyond more…
Do You Have to Forgive to Move On?
My mom had one response to our childhood complaints of schoolyard mean girls: “They’re probably having problems at home. Let it go.” I, of course, wasn’t having any of it. “But they’re mean to me,” I would wail. “Can’t you take my side?” Now that the grade school social scene is firmly behind me, I understand that…
Chokhri, a New Sexual Health Project, Maps Marital Rape and Abortion in India
There’s a scene about birth control in the questionably feminist 2017 Hindi flick Lipstick Under My Burqa that stuck with me. Shireen, whose abusive husband rapes her and refuses to use condoms, goes to the gynecologist for another abortion. The gynecologist tells her she can’t keep having abortions and using the morning after pill, and the only other form of available birth control…
