Dear Meteor readers,

Happy Wednesday! We’re here today to bring you the latest on abortion lawsuits, civil disobedience… and, because life is multi-faceted and so is former Fly Girl Jennifer Lopez, a little about the Latina icon’s decision to change her name after marrying longtime beau Ben Affleck.

This has been the subject of much discussion on Twitter and in our office. So we asked Susanne Ramírez de Arellano, a Puerto Rican author, the former news director for Univision Puerto Rico (among other things), and a diehard JLo fan to explain why this very personal decision about a part of JLo's identity has many of us feeling a way about our own.

But before we get to JAff, the news.

Stay cool out there!

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT'S GOING ON

Civil disobedience: On Tuesday, 17 House Democrats were arrested for protesting the overturn of Roe v. Wade, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), along with the only man in the group Andy Levin (D-Mich.). As Rep. Maloney said, “There is no democracy if women do not have control over their own bodies.” And for anyone thinking that a little lawbreaking doesn’t become a member of Congress, here’s Rep. Tlaib: “Civil disobedience has always been part of our history and fight for change. This moment and the fight for women’s and reproductive rights calls for it.” This is the leadership we have been waiting for—keep going!

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ BEING DETAINED BY CAPITOL POLICE OFFICERS DURING AN ABORTION RIGHTS PROTEST (PHOTO BY ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES) 

Ban the ban: In a lawsuit against Louisiana’s abortion trigger ban, obstetrician Dr. Valerie Williams details having to force a patient whose water broke after the 16th week of pregnancy through a “painful, hours-long labor to deliver a nonviable fetus, despite her wishes,” after the doctor was told by the hospital’s legal counsel that she couldn’t perform a D&E (dilation and evacuation) on the patient. A judge has now blocked the state’s cruel abortion ban, while those in defense and in opposition to the law duke it out. The district court judge has extended the “restraining order” on the law for 10 more days, after which he will decide its fate. (Now is a great time to support the New Orleans Abortion Fund.)

From Uvalde: A report released earlier this week found that 376 law enforcement officials ran to the site of the deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas which left 19 students and 2 teachers dead. Three-hundred and seventy-six. And not one of them stopped what happened that day for more than an hour. (What Molly Jong-Fast said.) The report also found that sitting police commissioner Pete Arredondo failed to take responsibility as “incident commander” that day. The school district is now recommending he be fired.

AND:

• A new documentary, Aftershock, explores disparities in Black maternal health and is out on Hulu. Read our April interview with one of the directors of the film, Tonya Lewis Lee.

• Why are colleges and universities reticent about providing abortion pills, even in states where they’re legal?

• E. Jean Carroll, who says she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump and who’s suing him for defamation, will now see her case go to trial.

CALL ME BUT LOVE

What’s In A Name?

Though she's changing her name after marrying the “ultimate blanquito,” JLo owes us nothing.

BY SUSANNE RAMÍREZ DE ARELLANO

#TEAMBENNIFER FOREVER (2022 PHOTO BY RICH FURY/WIREIMAGE VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

In case you missed it: Jennifer López—the daughter of David López and Guadalupe Rodríguez—married Ben Affleck in a low-key ceremony at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas last weekend, wearing a demure white dress from an old movie (how fitting).

“We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind,” she wrote in her “On the JLo" newsletter while sharing a few black-and-white wedding photos. “And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”

It was a scene that could have been part of a new López-fronted wedding-themed rom-com: The woman who played a newly-wedded music star Kat Valdez in Marry Me and the eponymous Wedding Planner Mary Fiore finally tied the knot with the actor once credited as “boyfriend” in her own “Jenny From the Block” video. It’s the perfect ending to a good story.

Then, she signed her missive to fans “Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck”—and suddenly everyone had an opinion.

OK, she changed her name. So what? López has always written her own story, plus she has said she will continue using Jennifer López professionally. And, it’s her fairytale: We just happen to be watching.

But it wasn’t just López changing her last name that bothered people. After all, in 2004 when she married singer Marc Anthony—whose given name is Marco Muniz—Jennifer López officially became Jennifer Muniz, and there was no comparable fuss.

This time around, no small part of the controversy comes from the fact that López changing her name to Affleck has anglicized her legal name beyond recognition.

Love it or hate it—or even if you couldn’t care less—Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck doesn’t instantly conjure a Fly Girl on In Living Color.

It doesn’t have the same ring as Jennifer López or JLo. It is so…white.

Still, she’d told us that she would change her name if she married Affleck. When first engaged to Ben in 2003, JLo said then that she would adopt his name. “I think I’m going to stay with Jennifer López, but my name will be Jennifer Affleck, obviously,” she told Access Hollywood. “You’ve gotta make sacrifices!”

“She is doing what [our Latina mothers] taught us,” Guisell Gomez, senior deputy editor of Be Latina, a Hispanic women’s website, told me. “You get married, and you give him everything. She is giving her vulnerability to Ben Affleck.”

Taking a husband’s name isn’t a long-ago part of patriarchal history, even though it derives from an 11th-century law that gave all of a married woman’s rights to her husband (known as the law of coverture). In the U.S., around 70 percent of women still take their husbands’ family names when they get married, according to an extensive data analysis.

And in Puerto Rico, many Boricua women still take their husbands’ last names. However, the tradition is to add it to their own family name—as in Jennifer López de Affleck.

“Adding Lynn to Jennifer seems to denote—apart from a sudden submission to the antiquated and patriarchal issue of being Mrs. So and So—a certain intention to renege on her identity, which is Latina,” Ruth Torres, a Boricua friend of mine in Puerto Rico, told me as we discussed the pros and cons of López taking her husband’s name. “It left a bad taste.”

On some level, it did for me too—and not because I find taking a husband’s name a submissive or patriarchal act. It’s just that I would never anglicize my name because that is not who I am; to take on an Anglo name would be like losing the core of me.

Plus J. Lo is Hollywood’s most successful Puerto Rican, and—even though she doesn’t speak Spanish well—her last name lets people know who she is.

López increased the representation of Boricua women in film, television and fashion and transformed our image: Until she broke through, we were primarily represented in the mainland imagination by the swirling skirts of Anita (Rita) Moreno singing “I want to live in America” in West Side Story.

So it hurts to see her become “Mrs. Affleck.”

Her decision also comes at a significant time for Puerto Ricans: Puerto Rico is currently undergoing a fundamental shift in its social and political architecture. Last week, a bill was introduced in Congress that outlines a process for the people of Puerto Rico to decide their political status in a binding resolution that would force Congress to carry out their decision and end the archipelago’s colonial status. For the first time, strong winds are blowing in favor of self-determination—and possibly, eventually, independence.

So, it does not feel like a good moment for a global Puerto Rican star to drop her given name and opt to be called Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck. Representation in the United States that has always looked down on Puerto Ricans is important—and JLo never let people forget she was a proud Boricua woman.

But in the end, López has nothing left to prove: She has sold 80 million records globally, headlined a string of Hollywood romantic comedies, owns a beauty line, and now has a Netflix documentary about her halftime performance at the 2020 Super Bowl (where she proudly displayed the Puerto Rican flag).

And, when you wait 20 years and the guy is Ben Affleck, the ultimate blanquito—a good-looking, Oscar-winning Batman who does nothing but adore her in a way Anthony and A-Rod never appeared to do—changing your name is perhaps less submission than domination: It’s like saying out loud I got my guy.

She did it her way, and—like all of us—has the right to call herself whatever she wants. She is Señora Affleck now… although, truthfully, I think Ben López would have had a nicer ring to it.

What’s In Our Names?

The pressure on celebrities to anglicize their names is real — and not that old. But some have recently chosen to embrace their given names, and explained why that representation matters to them.

• Thandiwe Newton reclaimed the given spelling of her first name, telling British Vogue in 2021 the "w" had been left out of her credits in her first on-screen role, 1991’s "Flirting" and she’d used the anglicized version, Thandie, thereafter. (The movie was directed by the man she alleges abused her.) “That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine,” she said.

• Loan Tran — who originally appeared in the new Star Wars trilogy as Kelly Marie Tran — wrote an emotional essay for The New York Times in 2018 about reclaiming her given name. “[Pop culture] reinforced within me rules that were written before I was born, rules that made my parents deem it necessary to abandon their real names and adopt American ones — Tony and Kay — so it was easier for others to pronounce, a literal erasure of culture that still has me aching to the core.”

• Psych actor James Roday Rodriguez reclaimed his given last name in 2020, after years of being told that he should adopt a more Anglo-sounding name to get roles. In a TVLine interview, he said, “I realize I essentially perpetuated an institutionalized element of what’s broken about this industry [by taking an Anglo name], which is, of course, a microcosm of the world we are living in,” he said. “But now I’m going to go back to the name I was born with. It’s long overdue.”

• In June 2022, Martin Sheen reminded Closer Magazine that “my real name is Ramon Estévez,” and said he still regrets adopting an anglicized name for his acting career. “Sometimes you get persuaded when you don’t have enough insight or even enough courage to stand up for what you believe in, and you pay for it later,” he said.

If you know someone who ain't fooled by the rocks that you got, forward this email to them!

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Dear Meteor readers,

If you care about the world being a just and equitable place, the news has been pretty terrible. And that’s probably not going to change anytime soon. So is it possible to be optimistic amidst all this?

This week Meteor editor-at-large Rebecca Carroll talks to writer and former Bitch EIC Evette Dionne about that question—and how to avoid defaulting to despair.

We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.

First, the news. Which…isn’t all bad.

xo,

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT'S GOING ON

“That’s where we are”: As we shared Wednesday, two weeks ago a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who needed an abortion after being raped had to travel to Indiana for one because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade just before her appointment. That was a tragedy in and of itself. Somehow, though, conservatives made it worse: First, they suggested the news story about the victimized child wasn’t to be believed, with the Wall Street Journal going so far as to suggest it was “too good to confirm.” (Unclear what exactly about the rape of a child is “too good.”) After a suspect was arrested (a rarity in child rape cases), they issued a tepid correction but never retracted their horrible headline.

Then, Thursday, an official for the National Right to Life Committee said that the child—again, a 10-year-old sexual assault survivor—should have carried that pregnancy to term and come to understand “the benefit of having the child.” And, now the virulently anti-choice attorney general of Indiana is considering pursuing criminal charges against the doctor who performed the abortion, suggesting she did not file the appropriate paperwork with the state to report providing an abortion to a person under the age of sexual consent. (The doctor did, in fact, follow appropriate procedures, something it took news outlets less than a day to confirm via open records requests, suggesting the AG didn’t even bother to look into what the doctor did before going on television to accuse her of a crime. In a wholly legitimate move, she is now considering suing back.)

In other words, what we learned this week is this: Not even a 10-year-old sexual assault survivor is off limits for forced-childbirth zealots.

Terrifying: Uber is facing a class action lawsuit from 550 women passengers. The suit claims that the ride-share app failed to keep women safe from being “kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed, or otherwise attacked by Uber drivers.”

RIP: Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana Trump — the one with whom he had his eldest three children, and who he allegedly sexually assaulted, cheated on, and left for Marla Maples—has died.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (who, by the way, is a powerhouse) has agreed to temporarily delay depositions for the Trump family members in the state’s fraud investigation to allow them time to grieve. (Speaking of which, Donald Trump is definitely running for president again; he’s just trying to figure out when he’ll announce it.)

AND:

• Texas is suing the Biden administration over its executive order protecting doctors who need to terminate a pregnancy in the case of a medical emergency. New state motto: “Texas, where it’s OK if pregnant people die!”

• A great read from Jill Filipovic on the alternative “facts” created by the forced childbirthers and how many mainstream media institutions have been complicit in spreading them. Please see to it you never say “unborn child” again.

• The lovely Sophia Bush announced her wedding to Grant Hughes by sharing how abortion impacted his life.

THE AUDACITY OF...

Hope and How to Find It

Rebecca Carroll speaks to author Evette Dionne about how to keep from just giving into despair in These Times.

BY REBECCA CARROLL

AUTHOR EVETTE DIONNE, AN ACTUAL RAY OF SUNSHINE (PHOTO BY MEIKA EJIASI VIA EVETTE DIONNE) 

These are some dark days right now. A new wave of COVID just hit, every week there’s another mass shooting, transphobia is on the rise, the January 6th committee hearings are illuminating what a hot mess our democracy is, and the Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade. And things are clearly going to get worse: Justice Clarence Thomas said it himself — with his whole-ass, okey-doke chest—that the right to same-sex marriage and access to contraception is next.

I’m trying to live, work, raise my son to thrive, be a good partner, friend, and citizen amid all these reasons to despair, and then some days, I just think, “For what?”

After the Roe reversal, political journalist Rebecca Traister wrote about the necessity of optimism in this moment for The Cut, stating that we must “find the way to hope, not as feel-good anesthetic but as tactical necessity.”

Listen: I like hope as much as the next person, but I need an entirely new way of understanding it in order to keep pushing. So I reached out to Evette Dionne — culture writer, former editor-in-chief of Bitch Magazine, and author of Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box — for a conversation about reimagining this necessary hope.

Rebecca Carroll: After Roe, you tweeted: “Hopelessness is normal, but hope is all we have today.” So—do you have it right now?

Evette Dionne: Having hope for me is just a way of living because, I say all the time, life just gets harder and harder. Our government is trying to strip away all our rights. Climate change is eroding our planet. All that we have is hope that we can organize enough as a people to slow down this onslaught. It’s the only way that I feel like I can wake up and not just be in the pits of despair. I need hope to function.

And I think the practicality of that is, if you’re able to think about history as this really long arc, there are moments where it gets better, but there are also times where it gets worse—and you have to believe that it’s going to swing the other way. Hope is a driving force of that.

So when you say you have to have hope—is it a feeling, is it a tool, is it a muscle? 

I love thinking about it as a muscle because feelings are fleeting: you could feel happy, you could feel sad, you could feel depressed all in a single day. Hope to me is less of a feeling, because you could be in despair and still be hopeful that tomorrow is going to be better.

Hope is one of those things that brings coalitions of people together. But, in terms of who gets to think about hope as this galvanizing force, [those] are typically not our most impoverished folks. You have to have the time, the resources, and the space.

If you’re just constantly in survival mode as a mechanism of capitalism, you’re just trying to get to your next moment. Do you really have time to hope?  And so hope and joy and pleasure are kind of my central foundational tenets — the things that I try my best to allow my life to rotate around. Our society is designed to extract and extract and extract and not to pour in anything. And so I fiercely guard my time. I fiercely guard my boundaries.

But if hope is a muscle, muscles get tired. How do you deal with that?

Burnout is real, and it’s something that has to be taken care of. I always say it’s perfectly fine to step away from a movement, away from a constant news cycle, away from anything that is making you weary. Just because you’re stepping away from it doesn’t mean that you’re not still attached to it in some way. When you’re ready to tap back in, it will still be there.

It’s difficult in this [political] moment, because we don’t have leftist leadership in real positions of power who are doing that physical, concrete work that makes people feel like they can turn away. Because if you do turn away, then you get, say, the President of the United States giving this statement [about abortion] with no concrete action really, and calling out actual leftists for [even] wanting him to say “abortion.” So it’s difficult to step away, but I think it’s necessary. And so step away. Please step away.

STACEY ABRAMS GREETING A VOTER IN ATLANTA IN MAY 2022 (PHOTO BY JOE RAEDLE VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Do you believe that we will get the leaders we need who can effectively shift the balance?

I believe that we will. I have hope — whether it takes five years, 10 years, it could take 50 years, honestly — that the United States can have a full on leftist movement that’s not malicious in the way that the right is, but is intentional in that way of We’re starting at the ground level, school boards and all the local elections, and attorneys generals.

A person I’m incredibly inspired by is Stacey Abrams. She just picked up the baton of voting rights organizing and just ran with it. I’m inspired by the fact that she doesn’t play the short game: It took 10 years for her organization to do what it did in the 2020 election. And she’s still working, like, Okay, there’s a single victory. We registered all these new voters. We keep going, we keep going, we keep going. That is what I think hope looks like.

I suddenly feel like hope is also maybe just acting with moral integrity towards ourselves and others.

I mean, they’re not too far apart. It really is [the] moral integrity of It can stand for a while, but it can’t stand forever. I don’t think we’re going to end up in a civil war or anything that extreme, but in terms of people taking to the streets and protesting, it’s going to continue. The United States is on a fast track to authoritarianism. [But] if this country is what I think it is, I don’t think that will stand.

There are enough of us.

More than enough.

What’s giving us hope

• This moment when abortion rights protesters crossed paths with trans rights protesters and they cheered and hugged.

• Pilots volunteering to airlift patients out of red states who need access to abortion care.

• A new Beyoncé album is coming in 13 days.

• A new season of Emmy-nominated Quinta Brunson’s Abbott Elementary is happening.

• The reassurance that some of our ancestors overcame the impossible and we can, too.

If you know someone else who could use a little reason to hope, go ahead forward this email to them!

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Greetings Meteor readers,

I am still buzzing from the final episode of Ms. Marvel—a series featuring the first Muslim superhero in the Marvel Universe—which had me near tears and yelling at my TV in excitement. I won’t give anything away, but if you’re a fan of super-stuff like I am, there’s a big, BIG set up in the final minutes that’ll knock your socks off.

For today’s newsletter, award-winning journalist and Meteor founding member Mariane Pearl spoke to real life hero Nastya Melnychenko—a Ukrainian journalist, activist, and creator of #яНеБоюсьСказати (#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak), a #MeToo-like campaign. They discuss the impact the Russian invasion has had on Melnychenko and her family, and the unique challenges women refugees face.

But first, a little news.

Sending light,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON 

• Blocked: For the second time since Roe v. Wade was overturned 19 days ago, abortion is temporarily legal again in the state of Louisiana. On Tuesday a judge granted a temporary restraining order, preventing the state’s ban from being implemented. The court will reconvene on Monday to hear arguments from abortion providers who have filed lawsuits claiming the trigger ban is in direct violation of the Louisiana state constitution. We’re pulling for y’all!

• My name is HOV: A woman in Texas was pulled over while driving in the HOV lane seemingly unaccompanied. And—thanks to white privilege—she was allowed to explain herself to the police officers who stopped her . She said that she was not really alone because she was 34 weeks pregnant and, since we all now live in an alternate reality where we’re forced to pretend life begins at conception, there were technically two people in the car. Clever. She was issued a citation despite her argument, but plans to show up to traffic court later this month to fight it. We truly are all fighting our own battles.

AND:

• This video of Professor Khiara Bridges putting Senator Josh Hawley in his place after he asks a transphobic question is giving us eternal life.

• For the first time in a decade, a Sudanese woman has been sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery.

• Dr. Jill Biden has apologized for boiling down Latiné diversity to Bronx bodegas and San Antonio breakfast burritos. And as someone whose teenage diet consisted exclusively of foods purchased from Bronx bodegas I want to forgive her but, really how hard is it to come up with a better analogy, sis?

• A suspect has been charged in the rape of the 10 year old Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana to obtain an abortion, after the state’s Republican attorney general denied she existed.

• If you’re into awards season, the Emmy nominations were announced. I am personally rooting for Zendaya who absolutely WRECKED me in the latest season of Euphoria.

DON'T LOOK AWAY

What This Ukrainian Feminist Wants You to Know About the War

Anastasia Melnychenko speaks to Mariane Pearl about having to leave her life behind

BY MARIANE PEARL

ANASTASIA MELNYCHENKO BEING INTERVIEWED ON HROMATSKE RADIO. (PHOTO VIA ANASTASIA MELNYCHENKO)

It’s been 139 days since Russian troops invaded Ukraine—and stories about the conflict are no longer at the top of American news feeds every day. But for women like Anastasia Melnychenko, there is no end in sight. Nastya, as she is called, is known internationally for starting the #яНеБоюсьСказати (#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak) campaign against blaming sexual assault victims in 2016, shortly before #MeToo went viral; she is also a well-established Ukrainian journalist and activist who founded Studena, an NGO advocating for equal opportunities regardless of gender, race, or religion.

I talked to her about what she believes the West isn’t hearing about the situation in Ukraine five months in, her activism, and how the never-ending war has impacted her life.

Mariane Pearl:  What is the most urgent message you have for people reading about the war in Ukraine?

Anastasia Melnychenko: It is easy to become numb to the news but I ask you: Please do not underestimate the psychological effect and sheer power of the propaganda war Russia is waging against us; it's not just about tanks, missiles, massacres, murders, and rapes. At least, those crimes are visible for all to see, but there is also a whole layer of invisible crimes.

Blaming the victim is one: Russia spreads the message that Ukraine is responsible for the destruction of its own land by refusing to give it up. People are going hungry in Ukraine, yet Russia blames us for seeking international support. Or they successfully implement narratives about Ukrainians being racists or even fascists.

People who have never encountered a propaganda machine of this magnitude cannot see…how Russia is shaping the narrative for the world. So my message is this: The picture of the war in Ukraine is much more horrible than what you can imagine just by watching what they want to show you on television.

As a journalist, did you see this war coming?

We should remember that this war did not begin on February 24, 2022, but in March 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and captured Donbas [a region in Ukraine]. Back then, the Western community ignored it, hoping Russia would calm down. As you can see, this did not happen.

It was obvious to most Ukrainians that Russia would attack; the only question was when.

Can you tell me what has happened to you in the last months, since this phase of the war started?

On February 24, I was doing research at Denver University in Colorado. I was about to launch an online course for Ukrainian teachers about bullying prevention. But as the war began, I flew to Europe immediately, to evacuate my children and parents from Ukraine. During my journey home, I found out my house in Irpin had been destroyed by a missile. So in one moment, I lost both my job and my home. Thankfully, my loved ones were safe. I managed to bring them all — parents and kids — to Poland.

The next quest was to evacuate my paralyzed grandmother and my aunt from occupied Kherson [in southern Ukraine]. With the help of volunteers, we managed to get them out. After spending two months in Poland waiting for visas, we are now in the U.K., where I am in the process of proving that I am indeed a literate and educated person. (Our knowledge and professional experience mean nothing unless it is validated by the British authorities.)

So now I also have to rebuild my professional identity.

Do you think you are the same person as when this war started?

For me, the experience of losing the pillars of my life was depressing. I lost my dream home. I lost my status, my job, and my career as a writer.  I found myself in a foreign country alone, with dependent people but without access to what gave me strength (my city, my job, my house, my dog, who died a month before the war). I seemed to have lost my own self. It’s still hard for me to find the meaning of my life.

Now I am trying to return to activism, but it is not easy within the reality of a refugee’s life. I no longer understand who I am and where to go. When you confront war, this invincible relentless force, everything that was important to you before seems to have lost its meaning.

The picture of the war in Ukraine is much more horrible than what you can imagine just by watching what they want to show you on television.

Would you say that women have suffered more in this war—and why? 

I don’t want to categorize the sufferings of women and men as more or less; that would be wrong. But there is a specific female experience: horrific crimes targeting women, such as being raped or witnessing the rape of your children.

And those [women] who managed to get out are suddenly living in foreign countries without money or understanding of how life abroad works. This is political exile, not conscious emigration. As such, our identities become a blur; we lose our social status and achievements. Millions of women are going through this right now….We are forced to forego our personal dreams. Women also have the extra burden of caring for countless dependents, [including] retired parents, who have never left Ukraine and don’t speak any foreign language.

Moreover, the choices women make are often criticized harshly and unfairly. If a woman takes her children abroad, she is a traitor and a parasite who betrayed her country. If she doesn’t take her  children out, she becomes a horrible mother who puts her children in danger.

Women’s rights have been important to you for so long. Can you explain when and why you decided to commit to doing this work? 

I grew up in a family that was not typical for its time — it was free from patriarchal prejudices. Going out into the big world, I was shocked by [inequality]....I spent 18 years working on gender equality; I did a lot of educational work. Ukraine has made giant steps toward equality, but I decided to stop trying to convince those who cannot understand why gender equality is necessary. It’s like explaining why you need to wash your hands after using the toilet. You can explain, of course, but by a certain age, a person should come to this recognition by themselves. If someone is still stuck in the Middle Ages, it's their problem.

ANASTASIA MELNYCHENKO AND HER PARTNER AT THE 2021 MARCH FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN KYIV. (PHOTO COURTESY OF ANASTASIA MELNYCHENKO)

One thing you’ve become widely known for is starting the campaign #яНеБоюсьСказати (#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak), which became known as a precursor of #MeToo. Can you explain how and why that got started?

I have been personally sexually assaulted twice: [First] as a child and again in my early 20s. My then-partner forced me to undress and took pictures, threatening to post them on the internet if I didn’t stay with him.

For a long time I was afraid, but one day I saw an internet post that infuriated me. A man wrote on Facebook that he had helped a rape victim who was walking in a park. And it would have been fine if he did not add moralizing comments such as “Girls: just don’t go through the park alone.”

All that victim-blaming wasn’t new, and I knew many rape stories where the girls weren’t in the park at night. So I decided to share my own experience to encourage people to speak out—and it was like breaking through a dam. Testimonies about sexual harassment started pouring over the internet. The hashtag #IAmNotAfraidToSpeak [#яНеБоюсьСказати] was created and more than 200,000 men and women from Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakstan used it to support women or narrate their own experiences.

It generated a first-time conversation about violence against women — a taboo topic in our region where the objectification of women is the norm.

This is political exile, not conscious emigration. As such, our identities become a blur; we lose our social status and achievements.

What do you think people most need to understand about what is going on in Ukraine? 

What is happening now is a genocide of the Ukrainian people. I don’t understand why Western politicians fail to notice what is really going on. I often hear messages between the lines in the Western media and on social networks: why can’t Ukrainians just give their lands to the Russians to stop the war? Due to the stubbornness of Ukrainians, our [bills] have skyrocketed. Why do we have to pay for this war?

Only Russia as the aggressor could end the war—and its consequences on the economy—but they won’t.

Read Mariane Pearl's previous piece, an interview with two Afghan journalists on what life is like for women there now, by clicking here.

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G’day Meteor readers!

I am so pumped about today’s newsletter—I want us to clasp hands and jump right into it like it’s the last scene in a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie.

Over the last few days, we at The Meteor have been absolutely gobsmacked by the rise of anti-trans rhetoric that has been seeping its way into the zeitgeist. To better understand this phenomenon, my newsletter co-sherpa Samhita Mukhopadhyay spoke to author and journalist Meredith Talusan about how we got here and most importantly how we can get literally anywhere else.

But first, a speedy dash through some news.

Running up that hill,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

More of this: Joe Biden has signed an executive order designed to protect those seeking an abortion. After weeks, months, years—it’s good to see him taking some action to protect abortion rights. (He even said the actual word.) The order would set up mobile clinics on the border of states that have banned abortion, offer protection for providers, and asks the HHS to create a report (due in a month) to outline next steps that would protect access to medical abortions. So really it’s an order to come up with a plan to outline steps to eventually execute…but it is a looooong-awaited move in the right direction. Biden wrote on Twitter, “Congressional Republicans want abortion to be illegal…As long as I’m president, I will veto any attempt.” Maintain this energy, Joseph; we are watching you like our lives depend on it, which they do.

Fresh hell: Jackson Women’s Health Organization of Mississippi—the abortion clinic named in the Dobbs case which overturned Roe v. Wade—has closed its doors. Now is a good time to remember the impact and courage of the “Pink House.”

#WeAreBG: In an effort to expedite negotiations for a prisoner swap, Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to drug charges in Russia; the plea carries a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment. Experts who have been following the case argue that this was always going to be the outcome and does not provide a definitive answer as to whether or not Griner did what she is accused of.

AND: 

• Justice Brett Kavanaugh chose to exit a Morton’s through the back exit to avoid protestors who had gathered outside to exercise their constitutional rights. 😇

• Jerry Harris, the formerly beloved start of Netflix’s Cheer, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for soliciting sex from minors.

• Did you know there’s such a thing as “vasectomy influencers?”

• In September a new law will go into effect in Arizona which bans civilians from filming police officers within eight feet. Friendly reminder that most smartphones have excellent zoom capabilities.

WHITE TEARS

Meredith Talusan On the Current Rise of Anti-Trans Rhetoric 

“You’re allowed to be trans as long as it’s clear that you're always gonna be inferior to me.”

BY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY

MEREDITH TALUSAN (PHOTO BY VIVIEN KILLILEA VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

As a young feminist and undergrad in the late 90s, I stumbled upon the groundbreaking work of Judith Butler. Butler gave feminists language to understand gender—not as something inherent to the body we are born in, but as something that, through a series of experiences, we learn and relearn.

It all made sense to me: if we are to free ourselves of gender oppression, we must also understand what it is, how it functions, and how it confines us. And that also meant that any feminism that was truly invested in freedom would incorporate the needs of anyone who questions gender, including nonbinary and trans people.

So, imagine my surprise when I read in the paper of record last weekend that, being trans-inclusive is not only a bad idea but actually as threatening to women as the right-wing assault on our rights. (The story argued that including people who don’t identify as women but can get pregnant, as is the case for some trans men and nonbinary people, in abortion-rights language leads to “misogyny” and “erases women”). Bette Midler promptly tweeted in approval.

The article was part of a trend of self-proclaimed “feminists” spouting anti-trans rhetoric. “TERFs,” or “trans-exclusionary radical feminists,” have a long, sordid history, from certain pockets of second-wave feminism to today, most recently gaining traction in the UK. Notably, J.K. Rowling tweeted a barrage of anti-trans sentiments that she’s doubled down on with increasing anger. More recently, Macy Gray joined the fray.

So, why is this “feminism” rearing its ugly head in the United States right now—when anyone who cares about human rights should be standing with trans youth as they're attacked by right-wing extremists? To help me understand the broader context of what is happening here, I turned to my old friend, writer, and editor Meredith Talusan. Meredith and I worked together at Condé Nast where she ran the LGBTQ vertical them. She’s also the author of Fairest, which was nominated for a LAMBDA literary award, and one of the most thoughtful people I know. I was excited to get a chance to chat with her.

BINARIES ARE FOR SQUARES. (PHOTO BY DENIS THAUST VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Samhita Mukhopadhyay: OK, why do you think this dumb-ass line of thinking is kicking up again—especially at a time when *all* of our rights are under attack. Where does this come from? 

Meredith Talusan: Goodness. It’s hugely complicated. The really fascinating thing about so much of this rhetoric is this trope of white female innocence that masks an entire ideology that is deeply, deeply harmful to another set of people. And also completely covers the amount of power that [white cis women] actually have over people, with no real recognition of the fact that one can simultaneously be oppressed and at the same time oppress others.

The first thing that I thought about when I read [the New York Times piece] is: were we erasing men when we women were advocating that “men” not be used as the default? When men were arguing when we say mankind, we really mean everyone, [we responded], no, because actually, it makes a difference in language that you include us. It’s not a dissimilar dynamic.

As some writers pointed out, there also aren’t many real-life examples of when we can’t call ourselves “woman,” or “women.” 

The writer says that historically when girls were masculine, they could just be girls. Like they didn’t have to identify as trans. But you know what? That was the choice of people several generations ago. People are making different choices now, and it’s not like women can’t make their own choice to remain woman-identified. No one’s preventing them from doing that, we’re just offering them another option.

But, it’s factually undeniable that there are men and non-binary people who get pregnant. Also, this complete lack of empathy: Like, can you imagine what it’s like for a trans person…who wants to obtain medical care in order to either get pregnant or get an abortion? I have not had that experience, but I’ve certainly had the experience of being presumed cis and repeatedly asked about my medical history even after trying to tell them like, No, I’m trans, please don’t ask me about my last menstrual cycle. 

A few people have said this type of bigoted rhetoric—which now has bled from right-wing groups to progressives—leads to fascism. 

That is the essence of fascist ideology: that there is a group of people who, through their sheer number and political will, must be de facto considered superior and whose needs have to be prioritized over a minority. It’s this white trope of like, oh my God, I’m being so accommodating but I’m being attacked, but literally by people who have a minuscule amount of political power compared to them.

SOME OF THE MOST VULNERABLE FOLX IN THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY ARE BLACK TRANS WOMEN. (PHOTO BY MARK KERRISON VIA GETTY IMAGES)

This has been reminding me of the suffrage movement and the strategic decision by white feminists to exclude Black women. So, white feminism has always relied on a certain sense of “othering” to succeed in its own political goals, right? 

There’s always been a dominant assumption of how you’re supposed to “perform”  feminism: You’re supposed to engage with [certain] issues and presenting minority concerns is a distraction. The political difference between white feminism and intersectional feminism is that intersectional feminists are saying we have to start with the people who experienced the greatest oppression in order for it to be a true feminist movement.

I don’t know if I told you, but my main hobby right now, after reading about Lia Thomas [the NCAA swimmer who was banned from competition], is that I’ve become an avid swimmer. And one of the really fascinating things to me is the way in which white women so often can’t handle any sign of an individual trans person being in any way in a better off position than them. They don’t even question that ideology. Like out of the dozens and dozens of events in all of these competitions, whenever there is a trans person who wins, that’s when they become the object of ire. This basically means: You’re allowed to be trans as long as it’s clear that you're always gonna be inferior to me.

To me, trans rights and abortion rights are deeply connected. In all of the same places where they’re trying to ban abortion, they’re also trying to ban access to hormone therapy and things like that. 

The government is trying to rob us all of our ability to be able to make decisions for ourselves. And what are you really sacrificing by using the term “pregnant people,” like in that one specific instance, when you’re referring, you know, to all pregnant people in the United States? It’s not like a doctor is going to look at like a cis woman’s chart and [call you] pregnant person. They know you are a cis woman.

So, I’m not really sure where this rhetoric is coming from. I also don’t understand why the effect of that is women’s erasure. The ideology of patriarchy that feminists have been trying to fight for generations and generations, is that men are always going to be superior and try to keep women in their place. And now to be like, we have to keep trans people in their place. How can you square your feminism with the way you’re basically replicating previous rhetorics and ideologies that try to quash any type of minority dissent?

LIA THOMAS, THE FIRST TRANS PERSON EVER TO SECURE A DIVISION I NATIONAL TITLE. (PHOTO BY MIKE COMER VIA GETTY IMAGES)

I think we have to push back on the idea that this is feminism. 

Right. And this is not how we’re going to be able to make headway at a time when pretty much all minorities are under attack. I mean the thing that is really funny to me is that every single one of these opinion pieces always has this line like trans people should be able to live a life of dignity—but you can’t even give us the dignity of naming us factually? Like, sure you can have rights as long as it doesn’t impinge on my rights.

That’s not how we’re going to be able to make headway. This is all our fight for bodily autonomy, for being able to have the agency to do what we want with our bodies and ourselves.

Piss off the TERF in your life by sharing this newsletter with everyone you know. 

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Salutations Meteor readers,

I’ve been listening to a lot of soundtracks recently. You know that song “Everything is Awesome” from The Lego Movie? It’s an absolute banger. But lately, I can’t help but replace “awesome” with “awful” in my head. Everything just feels like it’s bad. There’s no solution—other than replaying “We’re All in This Together” from High School Musical. It’s an antidote to despair. Give it a try.

Speaking of tweens and music, we've got a delightful newsletter for you today. Writer Ellie Rudy spoke with three “drag babies” about why they love dressing up and slaying on the dance floor. What’s a drag baby, you ask? You’ll have to read to find out.

But before that, a quick ask. We recently joined TikTok and we’d LOVE for you to meet us there. (If we hit 20K followers, Samhita and I will do the High School Musical dance for you. Just don’t tell her I signed her up for that.)

Okay, now we can get to the news.

Tiking and toking,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Highland Park: As you may have heard, a gunman in Highland Park, Illinois, opened fire Monday, killing seven people. The suspect, who has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder so far, carried out the attack using a legally purchased rifle that was “similar to an AR-15”, despite having two previous encounters with police and sharing violent imagery online which should have disqualified him from purchasing one let alone five firearms. Nancy Rotering, Highland Park’s mayor, said of the tragedy, “I think at some point, this nation needs to have a conversation about these weekly events involving the murder of dozens of people with legally obtained guns.” That conversation has been going on far too long already.

139 days: That’s how long WNBA star Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia. On Monday, Griner sent a letter to President Biden asking, “please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees,” and adding that she feared she might be stuck in Russia forever. Despite a whole lot of lip service, Griner’s wife charges that the Biden administration has not done enough to secure Griner’s release; as Griner's coach pointed out, “If it was Lebron, he’d be home, right?” Which is quite the double-edged sword because LeBron would in fact be home—not just because of his status, but because, unlike WNBA players, NBA players aren’t dependent on traveling overseas during the off-season to make ends meet to begin with. To raise your voice in support of bringing Brittney Griner home, consider signing this petition.

AND:

• There’s about to be a new billionaire on the block. Jerry Hall has filed for divorce from Rupert Murdoch, citing irreconcilable differences. Jerry, time to read the Mackenzie Scott playbook, and use that settlement cash to undo some of the harm your ex hath wrought.

• Tomorrow, Megan Rapinoe and Simone Biles will be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I’ve already put in my PTO request for what really should be a national holiday.

• Enjoy this very good trailer featuring Viola Davis stabbing a colonizer with a machete.

• Rudy Giuliani and Senator Lindsay Graham have been subpoenaed in connection to a Georgia investigation of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

• Still trying to figure out how to permanently delete the data from your period tracking app? My pal (and the only person I trust to explain tech stuff) Victoria Song has you covered.

KIDS AT WERK

These “Drag Babies” Will Not Be Stopped 

They may not be old enough to order mimosas at drag brunch, but these teens are already performance pros. 

BY ELLIE RUDY

TWEEN DRAG PHENOM THE KING OF QUEENS AT THIS YEAR'S DRAG CON  (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KING OF QUEENS)

When I was nine years old, I went to South Beach, Florida, with my mom and godmother for spring break. One night, they took me out to a drag show and I was instantly enamored. These untouchable, confident goddesses amazed me. They were like every Disney princess mixed with every Marvel superhero all in one, and they didn’t care what anybody thought. I had never seen a more admirable example of how expansive gender expression can be. Drag culture made me the person I am today—not just loud, covered in sequins, and saying “YAAS QUEEN” way too often, but also creative. Drag represents our freedom to express ourselves, and that rubbed off on me.

But conservative lawmakers in Texas, Arizona, and Florida want to bar children from attending drag performances and are even proposing banning “family-friendly” drag events altogether. In a press conference, earlier this month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described a Dallas drag show for kids as “really, really disturbing.” He told the crowd, “That is not something that children should be exposed to.” Right-wing protestors have also disrupted performances, standing outside one family-friendly drag event in Dallas last month to demand it keep children out.

But despite this pressure, some kids are doing more than just watching drag—they’re performing it themselves, taking to social media to compete in online drag competitions, and putting in the werk. I spoke to three of these young queens. They told me that the right-wing attacks are taking their toll. But they also said that drag was an integral part of their identity—and a place to express themselves in a world full of trauma.

(I’m referring to the children by their drag names, and using she/her pronouns.)

TWO YOUNGSTERS COMPETING IN A DANCE-OFF AT DRAG CON 2022. THIS IS WHAT JOY LOOKS LIKE. (PHOTO BY SANTIAGO PHELIPE VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Vee Miyake Versace has been doing drag for two years since she was 15. Now, at 17,  her drag persona is very much intertwined with her identity as a trans woman. She competes in Instagram drag competitions called fashion races, which replicate challenges on RuPaul’s Drag Race and in which contestants design and create their own garments, dance, sing rap, and even do standup comedy. She loves connecting with other “drag babies” (the term used in the drag community for non-adult queens)  around the country and loves exploring her artistic side. “Drag to me, it’s all about the creativity,” she says. “It doesn’t  matter what you do, how you do it, it’s just about the creativity behind it and the effort you put into it.”

THAT LASH WORK? HIGH ART! (PHOTO COURTESY OF VEE MIKAYE VERSACE)

She’s incredibly frustrated with the conversation around kids and drag. “I just think it’s all so stupid at this point because there are also things like what happened [in Uvalde], but [lawmakers] are more worried about people just dressing up doing drag than actually protecting people.”

Stella Virgin, a 14-year-old Ohio-based queen, describes herself as a “glamour girl” and prides herself on her makeup skills. “I give face and mug,” she says. “I am the mug queen…someone you can meet at a party who you can trust but you know you’ll also have a good time with.”

She got into the drag scene when she was 12, and has excelled in the world of Instagram drag, winning two competitions. Her mother Pam beams when discussing Stella’s passion for drag, “She doesn’t need reassurance from people she doesn’t even know, just as long as she knows her family loves her and we support her,” she said. “We’re just so proud of her and we just can't say enough about her. She’s the most loving, extraordinary child.”

Stella is upbeat—throughout our Zoom call, she can’t stop smiling and practically glows whenever her mom chimes in. She says the current attacks on drag concern her: “It feels like I can’t express myself how I want to, like the way I see myself.” But she manages to keep her head up by continuing to pursue her makeup and dance skills.

STELLA VIRGIN GIVING US PRINCESS PEACH, CANDY LAND EMPRESS REALNESS (PHOTOS COURTESY OF STELLA VIRGIN)

“I want to do more than just online competitions,” she says. “I want to get out in the real world and showcase my talents.”

One of Stella’s best friends is a 12-year-old California queen named The King of Queens. The two met through Instagram when The King reached out to Stella after admiring her online drag performances; the two eventually met in person when The King flew down to Ohio for the weekend, and have been online best friends since.

I had the pleasure of meeting The King of Queens at RuPaul’s DragCon 2022 in Los Angeles. She told me she started drag when she was just eight years old after her older sister showed her RuPaul’s Drag Race. Her mom, Amy, wasn’t surprised: “Since she came out of the womb, she’s been one of those kids that just naturally performs…She’d see a group of people and just start dancing in the middle,” Amy says.

When I ask The King what kind of girl her drag persona is, she replies without skipping a beat: “The King of Queens is dancing. She’s serving face,” she says. “She’s very feminine but at the same time weird.”

King’s popularity has made her a target: Last month, an alt-right Twitter account called Libs of Tiktok got hold of a recording of The King of Queens performing at her local Hamburger Mary’s, a drag-themed diner chain, and posted it. Commenters harassed King and posted hurtful comments about her, says Amy. And Tiktok even took King’s account down after it was reported for “child safety.” They got it back “after several appeals,” says Amy, but “we’ve had to lay low because of that.”

ONLY THREE WORDS CAN EXPLAIN THIS: FAB. U. LOUS. AND MOM LOOKS GREAT TOO! (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KING OF QUEENS)

But even after having adults bully her on Twitter, The King of Queens is still incredibly grateful to have drag in her life—and says she uses it to soothe herself. “Drag is a way to express who I am and when I’m going through something emotionally, I will get in drag or do a weird look or something like that and it will kind of like calm me down and just put me in a place that is less aggressive.”

To her—and to me—drag is a comforting, supportive space. “The community is great, amazing, loving,” she says. “I mean, everything about it is what a child like me should grow up in.”

Before you sashay away, please consider forwarding this newsletter to a few friends. (Do it for the kids!) 

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Dear Meteor readers,

I am sure you are still reeling from SCOTUS’s decision last week to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. I have been reflecting on these words from an interview our editor-at-large Rebecca Carroll did with journalist Rebecca Traister: “We are living in minority rule.” We are. That has to change. And, right now, I have to believe that one day it will.

Today, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate a milestone you might have missed amid last week’s chaos. My newsletter co-sherpa Shannon talks to Alexandra Brodsky about the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

But, first, we try to make sense of all this news.

Xo,

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

WHAT'S GOING ON

The Disappointment party: Abortion advocates are increasingly frustrated with the response from Democratic leadership to the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Despite having seven weeks to plan thanks to the same leaked documents we all saw, they have largely met the moment with flaccid displeasure instead of fiery rage. The only plan leadership has presented is to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. Vote for what, my guy?? We voted the first hundred times around and y’all are not delivering! Someone, please engrave this line from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez onto Pelosi’s desk, “We simply cannot make promises, hector people to vote, and then refuse to use our full power when they do.” So we will vote, but we’re going to complain the entire time until AOC turns 35.

Truck of horrors: On Monday, a semi-truck containing migrants attempting to cross the border—most of whom had suffocated to death—was found abandoned on the side of the road in San Antonio, Texas. According to Time, Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security have stopped the entry of an estimated record-breaking 200,000 migrants in May alone. Why? Trump administration policies like Migrant Protection Protocols and Title 42, which have left the border “all but closed to legal migrants and asylum seekers” are still in place. The Biden administration has barely lifted a pinky to undo these policies; in fact, it fought to keep Title 42 in place. Yet all of this didn’t stop professional clown and Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott from blaming these deaths on Joe Biden’s “deadly open border policy.” Read a fucking book, Gregory.

Small wins: So-called “trigger bans” continue to go into effect after last week’s decision, but abortion providers in Texas, Utah, and Louisiana are fighting back. In Utah, doctors will temporarily be able to perform legal abortions (up to 18 weeks) after a judge granted a temporary restraining order on the enforcement of trigger laws. Similar restraining orders have been granted in Texas and Louisiana as well, although, in the case of Texas, patients can only legally have an abortion if they are within the six-week threshold. (You’ve probably heard this a million times but it is worth repeating: most pregnant people don’t even know they are pregnant until around eight or nine weeks.) Click here to find out what you can do for those seeking abortion right now.

AND:

• Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is reportedly removing social media posts related to abortion pills on the grounds that they violate the company’s standards on “guns, animals and other regulated goods.” Well, at least someone is being honest about the fact that uteruses in this country are now considered regulated goods.

• If you’re confused about how the overturning of Roe could affect ectopic pregnancies, here’s a helpful explainer.

• Justice Stephen Breyer will officially be stepping down from his post on Thursday—and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s time on the court will begin. Godspeed, Justice, we’re all going to need it.

• R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking. After years of credible accusations and survivors’ stories being ignored, often because they were young Black women, let’s hope this provides some semblance of justice.

GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY

Could Title IX Go the Way of Roe?

An assessment from Alexandra Brodsky, who's spent her career fighting to expand this now-50-year-old law

BY SHANNON MELERO

AN NCAA BASKETBALL PLAYER SPORTING TITLE IX LANGUAGE ON HER WARM UP TEE (PHOTO BY ELSA VIA GETTY IMAGES)

If you missed the 50th anniversary of Title IX on June 23—no one would blame you. The gutting of reproductive rights in America happened the very next day, robbing all of us of any sense of joy.

Which is why it’s so crucial to celebrate the few victories we still have. Title IX—the 1972 law that significantly curtailed sex-based discrimination in education—carved a pathway for women and girls to compete in school athletics. This aided in the formation of professional women’s leagues and is why its birthday has been an orgy of well-produced commercials for sneakers and energy drinks.

While Title IX is best known for changing the sports landscape, it’s also done a lot of other things for girls, women, and non-binary people—like limiting gender-specific dress codes, allowing women to enroll in academic institutions previously closed to them, and, importantly, compelled schools and campuses to take steps in handling sexual assault.

To understand what the 50th anniversary of Title IX means—and whether it, like Roe, could be at risk—I spoke to Alexandra Brodsky, an attorney, advocate, founder of Know Your IX, and author of Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash.

Shannon Melero: So Title IX is most closely associated with protections for women in athletics, but can you get into what other protections it offers? 

Alexandra Brodsky: Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in schools and other educational programs that receive federal funding. That includes all public schools for every age group, and almost all private colleges and universities. Title IX requires equal access to educational programs, like STEM classes, for students of all genders. It prohibits schools from discriminating against pregnant and parenting students. It forbids anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. It forbids sex discrimination in school discipline. As I discuss in my book, Title IX also requires schools to prevent and address sexual harassment, including sexual violence.

We are now living post-Roe, a reality that felt improbable for quite some time until it just wasn’t. Are we at or near the risk of losing protections given to us under Title IX?

I don’t think Title IX itself is going anywhere, but I do think we are seeing a concerted effort by anti-feminists to water it down. The Trump administration fought Title IX's protections for queer and trans students and weakened the rights of student survivors of sexual harassment—something Biden [has begun to fix]. Courts keep imposing technical obstacles to Title IX’s enforcement.

Going back to 50 years ago, was there a catalyst event that led to the birth of Title IX? 

Title IX was passed in 1972, during a wave of federal civil rights legislation. And it was passed to address widespread, blatant discrimination in education. Women were just fed up. Back then, it was taken for granted that women and girls would have fewer athletic opportunities. They were also often excluded from traditionally “male” academic disciplines. Many colleges and universities didn’t allow women to attend at all, or set strict quotas to limit their attendance. And female teachers faced blatant sex discrimination, including lower pay.

DESPITE TITLE IX PROTECTIONS, CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT IS PRESENT AS EVER (PHOTO BY CHELSEA GUGLIELMINO VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Is there a specific case we can point to in Title IX’s history that functioned as a turning point—in the way that Roe was so defining for abortion rights? 

There's nothing quite so path-determinative as Roe, but the first Title IX case heard by the Supreme Court in 1979 was Cannon v. University of Chicago. Geraldine Cannon sued the University of Chicago’s medical school over its discriminatory admissions policy. By the time the case made its way to the Supreme Court, the question was whether private individuals like Geraldine could bring Title IX lawsuits on their own behalf, or whether they had to depend on the federal government to enforce Title IX. And the Supreme Court said, yes, Geraldine could bring her own suit. I know that probably sounds boring and technical but it’s so important. We’ve seen from the Trump administration that students can’t always depend on the federal government to care about sex discrimination in schools. Students have to be able to advocate for themselves.

Another big case is Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, and it really demonstrates the dual sides of Title IX’s history. [A parent sued the Monroe County, Georgia BOE on behalf of her daughter claiming the school did not do enough to prevent sexual harassment between students.] There, the Supreme Court said that schools had a responsibility under Title IX to address student-on-student sexual harassment. That was huge! But the Court also announced a legal standard that would require schools to address only “severe and pervasive” harassment, and said they only had to respond in a way that wasn't “clearly unreasonable.” Basically, schools could mistreat survivors so long as they didn't mistreat them really badly. So even in this moment of triumph, we saw the Court imposing real limitations on students’ rights.

To your point, how have we seen Title IX develop over the last 50 years? Have protections shrunk or expanded? 

The answer is really both. Courts and advocates have, over the years, recognized Title IX's breadth, and seen how it can protect students who experience all these different kinds of sex discrimination. That progress is still ongoing. Just last week, a federal appeals court published a big opinion explaining that Title IX forbids discriminatory dress codes that impose different rules on boys and girls. And recently we've seen advocates successfully use Title IX to challenge transphobic school policies and state laws. So, in that way, protections have expanded.

But, at the same time, courts have adopted rules and standards that make it quite difficult for students to enforce their rights. For example, the Supreme Court has established a very high bar for student survivors to hold their schools accountable in court for mishandling sexual harassment allegations. Many courts have also held that students can't sue over what we call “disparate impact” violations—basically when a school's policy isn't discriminatory on its face, but disproportionately hurts women and girls. Opinions like those have shrunk Title IX's power. 

How is the media doing at covering Title IX and campus or high school sexual assault? 

We've seen media coverage of sexual harassment in schools do a lot of good, and also do a lot of harm. In the early years of my organizing, smart reporting by journalists like Katie Baker and Tyler Kingkade did a lot to spur public attention and policy reform. And USA Today has recently been doing a lot of great investigative work into the nitty-gritty of how schools respond to sexual violence. But we've also seen media promote a narrative that support for survivors poses a direct and unjust threat to men and boys—[even] though a man is more likely to be sexually assaulted himself than to be falsely accused of doing so. And that narrative has had terrible policy consequences, ultimately leading to Trump's Title IX regulations.

What can the average person do to ensure that we don’t lose the protections that we’ve gained under Title IX? 

National advocacy is certainly important, so it’s great if people can contribute their skills or support to organizations like Know Your IX or the place I work, Public Justice. But there’s also so much work that can be done on the local level. In recent years we’ve seen K-12 and college students organizing to push their schools to do better by sexual assault survivors. We’ve also seen really effective protests of discriminatory dress codes that have resulted in concrete policy changes. So my answer is basically: figure out what students are doing at your local high school, or at a nearby college, and follow their lead.

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Dear Meteor readers,

This Sunday, we have a special send for you. My friend and editor Megan Carpentier talked to reproductive rights activists and advocates from places where abortion was or is currently banned (including pre-Roe America). These women share advice with us on the long road ahead. Hope is important but elusive; these stories might provide some.

With love,

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

DEPT. OF HOPE

“We’re Stuck for a Minute… But it’s Just for a Minute”

Stories of strategy—and resilience—from people who have been where we are now

BY MEGAN CARPENTIER

A CELEBRATION OF DECRIMINALIZED ABORTIONS IN COLOMBIA, 2022 (PHOTO BY ELIZABETH PALCHUCAN VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

For many of us, the official news on Friday morning that the Supreme Court had overturned the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade was a devastating loss.

That devastation was not helped by the knowledge that Justice Clarence Thomas, who the day before had authored the decision significantly restricting the ways in which states can regulate handguns, was also suggesting that the Court should revisit its decisions to legalize birth control, to decriminalize consensual sex between same-sex adults, and to legalize same-sex marriage. All those decisions were equally reliant on the Court’s prior interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

But the truth is that we’ve known this decision was coming since Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion leaked less than eight weeks ago. Plus, the anti-abortion movement has, for decades, been working on the state level to pass laws that could either restrict access to abortion within the confines of Roe— see also: Casey v. Planned Parenthood and Gonzales v. Carhart—or present the Court with an opportunity to overturn it.

And now they’ve done so.

So the question for Americans who value reproductive rights is: What happens now? How do we help each other, help our friends, and, ultimately, win back our freedoms?

But American women need not start from scratch on this new, old ground. Abortion restrictions exist around the world, and we asked leaders who have lived under them to share their advice and stories.

“What you need to do with that sadness—that rage—is to use it as a catalyst to keep on resisting.”

—Angie Contreras, spokesperson, Mujeres Vivas y Libres campaign in Mexico, where abortion was illegal until September 2021, when activists helped win a Supreme Court decision to legalize it

Abortions are going to continue existing whether they are illegal or not.

In Mexico abortions have always existed and, in states where they are prohibited, there are still abortions. That has been thanks to networks of women who have confided in other women, in other organizations, in allies, in collectives that are going to resist and inform them. Because the state cannot prevent us from exercising our rights over our bodies; only we can decide that.

This is a reminder that women won these rights for [themselves], and we have to continue defending them because we can’t always rely on the state.  We need to create networks among women to help each other to continue fighting for our rights.

It’s valid to be sad [after Roe] because they’re prohibiting the exercise of a right that women had already won. But what you need to do with that sadness—that rage—is to use it as a catalyst to keep on resisting. Women have historically always needed to resist. We were sad for a while too, but then we organized, and we are going to continue to organize because the reality is that we don’t need the state to continue having abortions.

Also, this is a good moment to learn about other strategies: In Mexico, we learned from our sisters in Argentina and Colombia.

And this is a reminder that we are not alone, because when we talk about a life free of violence and with the security of access to abortion, it’s for everyone. Not just for women in Mexico or in the United States. We want the same for all women—and, in Latin America, we know that it is possible to achieve this.

“Maybe it's time for people in the States—for women particularly—to look at where you can find hope.”

—Catherine Heaney, director and chair, DHR Public Relations, and former chief executive of the Irish Family Planning Association, Ireland, where abortion was legalized by referendum in 2018

I started working with the Irish Family Planning Association around 2001 and, at that time, obviously, there was a ban on abortion—but the government had started making very small moves to be more supportive of women in crisis pregnancies.

Then, a key moment was the death of Savita Halappanavar [an Indian dentist living in Ireland who died of sepsis in 2012 after being denied an abortion during a miscarriage]. That was a huge shock to the nation. People really related to her…and that drove so many people out onto the streets.

On a very personal level, it was the first time I started to hear from relatives and people that I would never have discussed abortion with—even though I was a public voice on abortion for many years—that people were just outraged by it. Women were out in the streets, men were out in the streets and many of us brought our children out onto the streets around the time of her death.

[Waiting for the referendum results], I met somebody who was out there fighting for abortion rights 30 years before. She stuck with it and was there…and it was a joy. It's really important to be resilient and stick with it.

America gave me great hope when I was at IFPA. Now maybe it's time for people in the States—for women particularly—to look at where you can find hope. There's a lot of really progressive stuff happening across Europe, not just in Ireland, on reproductive rights and health in general.

To me, I think there's lots of potential to be hopeful, but it does require hard work.

ABORTION RIGHTS PROTESTORS IN BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND 2019 (PHOTO BY CHARLES MCQUILLAN VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

“I think there is a need for health care professionals in the U.S…to really band together and make their voices heard.”

—Rostom Deiparine and Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, steering committee members, Philippines Safe Abortion Access Network (PINSAN), Philippines, where abortion is illegal except where deemed necessary to save the life or health of the mother

Ana Maria: PINSAN — which literally means “cousin”—is a coalition of reproductive health, reproductive rights, and women’s groups that felt after the passage of the reproductive health law, that it was time to…expand the full meaning of “reproductive health” to address the issue of abortion.

Rostom: There are real restrictions on safe abortions [even when it’s legal]. Still, there is [an] understanding among women and health care providers that abortion is illegal under all circumstances, and not many providers are trained to provide safe abortions at all.

Ana Maria: The main campaign we embarked on was to demystify, destigmatize and decriminalize abortion. It took us quite a while to get women in the communities to discuss the issue [but] we thought it was time to bring it out into the open – discuss it, address it, face it – so that we can do something about it. And we really framed it as a public health issue. [There are an estimated 610,000 illegal, unsafe abortions in the Philippines every year.] But the Catholic Church has continued to oppose even the reproductive health law at every twist and turn for religious reasons.

Rostom: Personally, I feel there is a need for the American community, particularly women, to revisit and define and strengthen the community of care among themselves.

“It’s never only about taking away the right to abortion.”

–Jinna Rosales, executive director of Grupo Estratégico por la PAE, Honduras, where abortion is illegal

First, keep calm. Analyze the social context and acknowledge first of all that you’re in a country that has always had battles over reproductive rights. Remember, too, that this is a country that for years and years has had people who believed in these rights. So now it’s time to identify those political actors and call on them for assistance in the restitution of these rights.

It’s also really important to identify those actors who are working to take these rights away in the United States and ask yourselves: What’s behind this decision? And what are they really playing at with this? Because it’s never only about taking away the right to abortion—there are other themes that maybe we aren’t seeing and those are the things we need to keep an eye on, too.

I think organization is very important: In general, you need to have an organization that is intersectional—which is to say that they must include the experiences of both older women and young women in order to build strategies.

PROTESTORS IN NEW YORK, FRIDAY EVENING (PHOTO BY JOHN SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

“We can get past this because number one, we’re more educated now.”

—Donna Morris, senior director of administration, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, who was involved in abortion politics in the U.S. pre-Roe

Before it was Roe, we had a plan for Roe. So let's get a plan for afterward. Let's let women know there is light at the end of the tunnel. They're not going to stop us. We're badasses. And this is just a little bump in the road.

We can get past this because number one—to me, as a woman that is 73, getting ready to be 74—we're more educated now. Back in my day, we were basically swimming without a raft—on our own. Most of us young women were more hip and educated than our mothers were because they were old school: “I’m just a mother, I'm just a wife.”

We are not that anymore. So, we can come up with some slick ideas, some creative things, some things to meet the moment that, yes, we're stuck in for a minute…but it's just for a minute.

You can still help those seeking abortions who need it most by clicking here or sharing this newsletter. 

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Dear Meteor readers,

The Supreme Court has just reversed Roe v. Wade in a 6-3 decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito writes, “Guided by the history and tradition that map the essential components of the Nation’s concept of ordered liberty, the Court finds the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion.”

In other words: The right to abortion no longer exists.

We knew this day was coming. We knew. But still, our tears—maybe yours—are flowing. And we’re thinking about all of the pregnant people who will be denied care as trigger bans go into effect in (at least) 13 states—a process happening as you read this newsletter.

If you want to help those patients right now, click any of the states below to be taken directly to the relevant abortion fund:

• Arkansas
• Idaho
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota 
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Wyoming

These abortion funds provide transport, counsel, and crucial care to people seeking abortions right now in states that have whiplashed back to a pre-Roe age. They’ve never needed our support more.

In the immediate aftermath of today’s decisions, we will see anger and pain, finger-pointing, and blame games. We will see pregnant people being turned away from clinics, and horror stories of patients, and families, torn apart because they weren’t able to get a necessary medical procedure.

In the middle of all our rage—there will be confusion. But that’s what the right wants. We are holding close to the advice reproductive justice advocate Renee Bracey Sherman gave us last week: “It’s going to be utter chaos…But what we’re asking people to do is to avoid the sensationalism and the wanting to freak out. People will be trying to get abortions in that moment and they won’t know whether this tweet or that information is correct. So take a breath and fact-check.”

But in the end, it’s a dark day for women, for poor people, for science, for health care, and for the basic idea of the will of the people (since this is a minority-rule opinion). As Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan wrote in their dissent, “Whatever the exact scope of the coming laws, one result of today’s decision is certain: the curtailment of women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.”

Winning back those rights will be a long journey—but we will fight. We will keep having abortions and helping the people we love do so safely. We will fight, together, with everything we have.

In love, solidarity, and service,

The Meteor

Please share this newsletter with anyone looking for answers right now. 

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Dear Meteor readers,

Does anyone else feel like SCOTUS is angling for a daytime Emmy with all of the drama the justices are building up over the release of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision? After not issuing the ruling yesterday, the court has added a last-minute decision day for Friday of this week. We’ll take the days we can get—abortion patients and providers need them—but the anticipation is also killing me.

Ahead of what we believe will be The Big Day, Samhita spoke to reproductive justice leader Renee Bracey Sherman about what to expect when the decision comes down.

But before we get to the goods, let’s get through the news.

Patiently,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

No return: Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas is set to be demolished and a new facility built over it. Uvalde’s mayor explained during a press conference, “You can never ask a child to go back or a teacher to go back in that school ever.” (A similar decision was made after Sandy Hook.) Just before the press conference, the head of Texas state police had his own announcement: openly admitting that as many had suspected, the behavior of the officers on the scene that day was an “abject failure.” But the commanding officer has not yet been disciplined for how he chose to handle the operations of that day.

1.6 million reasons: If you don’t follow football closely, the name Daniel Snyder probably means absolutely nothing. Allow me to change that. Snyder, who owns the NFL’s Washington Commanders, was accused of sexually harassing and assaulting one of his employees in April 2009. Three months later, the issue was settled to the tune of $1.6 million, in a confidential settlement. Snyder is now facing another accusation of sexual harrassment. Meanwhile, the entire Commanders organization is under scrutiny by the House Oversight Committee, who’ve determined that Snyder obscured the findings of an internal investigation into the overall rampant culture of sexual harassment within the organization. The Committee  also argues that Snyder “led a campaign” against women who had made claims about “widespread harassment.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been curiously absent from these proceedings but will be hauled out before the Committee this week to answer for what appears to be a gross lack of oversight. To borrow a line from an old superhero movie: “Who watches the Watchmen?” (And why are they doing such a bad job?)

Unsung heroes: On Tuesday, Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman took the stand during the January 6 hearings—and displayed an unimaginable degree of bravery. Moss is a longtime election worker who was threatened, harassed, and made to fear for her life after Donald Trump made false claims about the 2020 election results, and, with the help of  Rudy Giuliani, accused her and her mother of being part of a grand conspiracy to unseat him. Moss’s mother, who also worked the polls that year, testified via video, “There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere...Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?” I strongly recommend you watch their entire testimony.

A LITERAL PATRIOT, SHAYE MOSS. (PHOTO BY KEVIN DIETSCH VIA GETTY IMAGES)

AND: 

• The International Swimming Federation (FINA) has decided—during Pride month no less—to severely restrict trans swimmers from competition. Any trans swimmer looking to compete at the Olympic level will need to have begun transitioning before puberty to be in line with FINA’s new policy. Since most young people do not have the access or funds necessary to start their transition in their tweens, this may as well be an outright ban.

• Back to the issues of the NFL for a moment. Of the 25 total sexual misconduct lawsuits brought against NFL star Deshaun Watson, 20 of them have now been settled out of court. Watson’s attorney claims that the terms and the amounts of these settlements will not be shared with the public and neither will the truth of Watson's actions. I cannot say it enough, it is a travesty this man is still signed to an NFL team.

• Colombia has chosen Francia Márquez as the first Black Vice President in the country’s history! You can read up on Madame VP’s journey here and check out her conversation with The Meteor’s Paola Mendoza last year.

• The Senate’s unprecedented bipartisan gun legislation closes the “boyfriend loophole” but still allows people convicted of intimate partner violence to get their guns back after five years, as long as they don’t commit any other crimes. Crazy idea but stay with me, what if we didn't allow violent offender to get their guns back at all?

RETROGRADE

“It’s Going to be Fucking Chaos”

Renee Bracey Sherman on the impending overturn of Roe, and what to expect in the first 48 hours

BY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY

THE FUTURE COULD LOOK LIKE THIS EVERY SINGLE POST-ROE DAY. (PHOTO BY CHIP SOMODEVILLA VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

As you know, the Supreme Court of the United States of America is set to overturn Roe v. Wade. The decision could come as early as tomorrow or likely in the next 10 days. If our worst fears are realized, this decision would set women’s rights and the rights of anyone with a uterus back generations.

In the days, weeks, months, and years ahead there will be, most likely, a lot of thinking, strategizing, protesting, and rabble-rousing (along with crying and fist-shaking). The path forward will be a long one. But what should we do in the very short term—the moment the decision comes in?

In anticipation of this moment, I sat down with Renee Bracey Sherman, a decades-long reproductive justice leader who, through her organization We Testify, has worked to elevate the stories of people who have had abortions. She also led the charge on the steps of the SCOTUS on the day the court heard oral arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that will determine the future of abortion rights.

A LOVELY STROLL AROUND JUSTICE BRETT KAVANAUGH'S NEIGHBORHOOD. (PHOTO BY BONNIE CASH VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Samhita Mukhopadhyay: So, say the abortion decision comes in and it’s what we expect—meaning it overturns Roe v. Wade. What do the next 24 hours look like, especially in trigger-ban states? What happens if you have an appointment? 

Renee Bracey Sherman: My real answer is just, it's going to be fucking chaos, utter chaos.

In states with the trigger bans, [say] someone is in a clinic waiting for care—they might be mid-care, mid-counseling. And I just really feel for those people who will schedule their appointment and go in and get as far as doing the counseling, doing the ultra[sound], maybe even have their legs in the stirrups, and then when the decision comes down, [they] will have to get off the examination table. And I don't know that people realize how heartbreaking that’s going to be.

And then they’re not going to be able to just go down to another clinic on the street or not even to the next state. And we've already seen the cruelty of states like Oklahoma, that saw that people [coming from Texas, where abortion is largely already banned] needed care, and then turned around and said, “Cool, we're going to get rid of this so you can't come here.”

We’ll [also] have lawyers reading through the decision. Let’s say we are overturning or reversing Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. But then you have to [look] at the fine print of the decision. What about Roe is wrong? What about Casey is wrong? Are there legal grounds for us to sue? What is that in comparison to what the state laws are, or the state statute? What laws are still on the books? Because there are a lot of places where laws from the 1800s are still on the books. Roe [negated] those. Do those laws go back into effect? Is there kind of a cross mix? It's pure chaos.

A lot of clinics will have to stop providing immediately because of the trigger bans, but also because their lawyers are going to advise them to stop until they can read through the decision and assess the level of risk.

And it’s not going to be [just] 24 hours, but months and maybe even a year, because there’s going to be lawsuits. And so there are questions of, “Can we provide abortions today? Can we not?”

And I think that's the saddest part about it: that people are just not going to be able to have clear information. So what we're asking people to do is to avoid at all costs the sensationalism and the wanting to freak out. Because people are trying to get abortions in that moment and they won't know whether this tweet is correct or this information is correct, and it's just exhausting and chaotic.

And I don't know that people realize how heartbreaking that’s going to be. 

It's interesting to consider the idea of staying calm at that moment.

Somebody did a tweet saying that Plan B had been banned in a state and that tweet got tens of thousands of retweets. Plan B hasn’t been banned anywhere! Your insurance might not cover it and that sucks, but it’s not banned. The anti-abortion movement has a vested interest in sowing dysfunction and chaos because they don’t want anyone to be able to get an abortion. What they want is for people to think, This is just too hard, I'm going to go to jail. It's going to be bad. It's going to be unsafe, and give up.

The thing is that, as we’ve known for the last 4,000 years, people who have abortions never give up. We’ve been doing it for a long time. We will keep doing it. That’s not going to change, but what we can do is ask people to take a breath and fact-check the information before spreading it widely and turning into alarmists. Is that a word?

That is a word! This idea of keeping calm and making sure your information is accurate, that’s a really important call to action. What other advice do you have for people who want to help right after the decision? Should we hit the streets? Should we be chaining ourselves to fire hydrants? 

We need all tactics. People absolutely should take to the streets and protest and make their voices heard. I do love a good protest and I want to make sure that we don’t have a couple of protests and then it dies off and people go back to accepting this as the new status quo and normalize this, which I feel is what’s happened over the last decade.

What’s really challenging at this moment is that we are being attacked from eight million different directions and so people do lose interest, because there's another tragedy or another horrible decision to come down. So how do we keep the stamina to actually make a change so that the people who are harmed in the process aren’t forgotten?

Yes, absolutely protest. Absolutely vote, for sure. Vote for pro-abortion candidates up and down. Become a single-issue voter. If your candidate is not super supportive of abortion, I promise you they’re probably not good on a whole lot of other issues either. I've never met an anti-abortion candidate who was excellent on Medicaid coverage of healthcare and immigration and literally everything else.

But then getting involved in your community is really what I ask people to do. Open up to your community. Become a person that people can go to, to receive care. Whether that’s opening up your home, opening up your car for rides, giving up your time at a local clinic or clinic defense, if that’s what the clinic wants. And then, of course, show up and become a monthly donor to your local abortion fund. Also, know the self-managed abortion protocol. You may not need it, but someone in your life may need it.

I think it's really, really essential that people look around at what’s happening in their communities because there is a lot of work happening already. You do not have to recreate the wheel. Do not try to create an “underground railroad”; just stop. That's really anti-Black language. It's terrible. Just get involved with the people who are doing [that kind of work already] because there are a lot of security protocols and if you can’t give of your time or your money, that’s fine. You can just show up with love and support for the people in your life who need abortions and start the conversation at home. That’s really where we need to do the work.

You’ve been doing reproductive justice work for over a decade. How are you feeling right now? 

I feel like I constantly swing between tired, frustrated, feeling a lot of despair, and also feeling like this sucks [but] we've got this. And I think there are days that it's extremely draining because we didn't have to be here if people [had taken] racial justice, economic justice, access to healthcare, and feminism seriously. But also, I'm in the middle of co-writing a book on the history of Black and brown people's experiences with abortion, and in working on that…I feel a little bit hopeful. Reading a lot of books on the history of abortion, it puts it in perspective when I'm thinking about this as something that's been [an] issue for thousands of years.

So I have to just remember that this moment in time is one blip on the large, expansive history of humankind and the history of abortion and that there has always been some sort of white supremacist, white Christian nationalist forces to try to tamp down, not just abortion, but sex and sexuality and people just living their lives. So I have to go, “Okay, this is part of it, and we can survive through this.”

Please be sure to share this newsletter with anyone else wondering what to do once this decision comes down. 

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