Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
Don’t tell me to “be civil”
Every country, culture, and region has unspoken rules that its residents or members internalize. The Deep South is no different. We’re quite well known for our etiquette and manners. Walking down any street in my city, you can expect greetings from many of the people you encounter. Here, we’re all about being civil. Civility is an interesting concept, especially when you consider how it’s become a buzzword touted as a solution for the divisive times in which we exist. If only we could hold civil conversations, talk to each other through civil discourse, be civil when debating the merits of one policy over another, and so on. You get the point. It’s equally interesting to think about who this is mostly applied to. Who is seen as civil? (Hint: It’s… Read more »
Visibility is not Enough
(Marsha P. Johnson handing out flyers in support of the Gay Liberation Front in New York in 1970.) Every October 11 since the anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, thousands of LGBTQ people and allies celebrate National Coming Out Day. To many of us, this day is a positive celebration of our gender identity and our sexuality. The visibility granted by coming out is a refusal to live a life of secrecy. Sharing with others an authentic piece of ourselves can feel like an affirming, liberating, and empowering experience. While coming out might appear to be an outward, one-time event, it is not. Coming out encompasses many experiences and all of them are deeply personal. It starts with an internal process of coming to… Read more »
Is Hate Speech, Free Speech?
Anytime a protest happens on my campus, whether it be a counter-protest or a protest in response to signs to something, the argument of hate speech versus free speech is brought up. It seems as if nobody can come to a consensus, and it usually ends in people shaming our university administration and policies for allowing and tolerating “hate speech”. I often find myself torn between arguing for and protecting something a constitutional right and advocating for what I feel lines up with my morals and beliefs. This truly brings up the question: Is hate speech, free speech? Attempting to answer this question has forced me to do a lot of research. So much so, that I’ve read about 50 court cases on the matter. Yet, somehow I feel like… Read more »
My Experience with Abstinence-based Sex Ed
All people should have access to comprehensive, inclusive, evidence-based sex education. Unfortunately, that’s not often the case. Abstinence-based sex education is the culturally normative, federally funded status quo. The harms that arise from abstinence-based sex education, which largely relies on shaming young people, are very real and persistent. These harms are even greater for marginalized populations, such as the LGBTQ+ community. However, I’ve observed abstinence-based sex education becoming a society-wide punchline. We tend to lightly talk about experiences with abstinence-based sex education in jest, treating them more as an inconvenience than anything. We think of Coach Carr from Mean Girls and his culturally pervasive quote: “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die…. OK, now everybody take some rubbers.” His incompetence as a sex education instructor was intended to be the… Read more »
A FEMINIST ARGUMENT FOR NOT GOING DUTCH
This Halloween, men will pay…. ….for dinner. The other day, one of my colleagues told me that when he goes on dates with women he doesn’t pay for their meals or drinks because it’s—2019. To which I responded, “If a man doesn’t pay in my mind, I think ‘hmmm…must not have been a date.’” He then told me that this is one of those areas that I am more traditional in. However, he said that feminism is about “equality” and therefore, women should pay for dates. Nope. Not my brand of feminism. For one, feminism (or any framework of social justice for that matter) should not be about equality. As the founder of PolicyLink, Angela Glover Blackwell, said, “equality is about making sure everyone has shoes. Equity is making sure… Read more »
Building Resilience through Care
We’re all familiar with self-care at this point. In popular culture, it’s become a great go-to excuse for indulging yourself, a la Parks & Rec style. And for this reason, it’s also become co-opted by brands and commercialized. Brands use it as an excuse for you to buy their products or use their services. And we have to be careful because we are young and we are broke. But moreover, it’s not a sustainable way to take care of yourself. Self-care as we know it in activism is about resilience and the radical act of survival. We need to be able to engage with self-care in a way that can nurture us for as long as we need to continue our work. We can be distracted by ableist notions of… Read more »
Let’s not fetishize East Asian women this Halloween
As Halloween approaches, the hunt for costumes is in full swing. With that comes the deluge of culturally appropriative costumes—and the “sexy” culturally appropriative costumes. “But Hannah,” you say. “It’s harmless! I’m appreciating how pretty I think this looks!” Let me make this clear: all culturally appropriative costumes are bad and have very real harms. This is not a post debating on whether they are or aren’t. There are a plethora of resources on the internet dedicated to educating others on this subject. However, as this time of year rolls around, I find it even more tiring when non-Asian people wear hypersexualized traditional or cultural East Asian garments. Not only is it deeply offensive and problematic to wear parts of East Asian culture as a costume—particularly when actual East Asian… Read more »
The Supreme Court Doesn’t Get to Rule on Our Humanity
On Tuesday, October 8th, Supreme Court Justices heard arguments on whether existing federal law should protect LGBTQ people from employment discrimination. For the 1 million American workers who identify as transgender and another 7.1 million identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, the Court’s decisions will have a significant impact on their lives and livelihood. Currently, only 48 % of the LGBTQ population lives in states prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; the other 52% can be fired from their jobs and evicted from their apartments for being who they are. If the Supreme Court decides that Title VII doesn’t apply to LGBTQ workers, millions will be left without legal protections. Ohio is one of the states where there are no explicit prohibitions for discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. No non-discrimination or… Read more »
Dealing With Activist Burnout
Whenever I publicly identify myself as an activist, I often find myself looking into a metaphorical mirror, staring at my reflection, asking me, “But are you really?” The question then leads me down the never-ending rabbit hole of imposter syndrome. I know that most of this comes from my white privilege and trying to be as self-aware as possible about it, and making sure that I am utilizing it for good and the protection of others. I am very fortunate to have both a supportive and educational activist community, where women of color (WOC) validate me and help me change my language and learn when to step back. This kind of support and learning is what motivates me to continue to be involved with my community as much as I… Read more »
15 Ways You Are Privileged as a Cis Person
In my work at URGE and as a volunteer at the New York City Anti-Violence Project, it has always been common practice for everyone to ask for name and pronouns upon meeting a new person. Now that I’ve stepped outside these spaces to start my tech career, I’ve encountered people who aren’t familiar with this practice. People who have rarely been asked to rethink the ideas of gender that they’ve been taught growing up. They feel threatened by the idea that there may be more than two genders, that you cannot tell someone’s gender by looking at them, and that one’s genitals don’t determine their gender nor do they determine their life experience. Additionally, while I’ve been living in southern Europe, I’ve tried to ignore most news about the United… Read more »
