A group of LGBTQ students is suing South Carolina’s Superintendent of Education to repeal a 32-year-old state law making it illegal for teachers to address LGBTQ relationships unless they also discuss STI’s. Represented by Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the students argue that the law discriminates against LGBTQ students and violates […]
Argentinian Abortion Rights Activists Make Progress with New Bill
President Alberto Fernández is expected to put forward a bill to legalize abortion in Argentina when the legislative session opens on March 1. The bill would be a victory for the country’s abortion rights activists who began a grassroots movement in 2018 to push for a legalization bill. Fernández made abortion access a focus of […]
Women at the Forefront of Protests in India Over Citizenship Laws
Women are some of the most vehement opponents of two new laws in India that endanger the citizenship rights of groups such as Muslims, impoverished women, lower castes, and LGBTQ people. Enacted in December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act accelerates the process to obtain Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The […]
Seattle Women’s March Set to Align with International Women’s Day
The majority of the annual Women’s Marches took place in January, but the Seattle Women’s March will happen on Sunday, March 8 which is International Women’s Day. March coordinators wanted to shift the focus of the event away from presidential issues and back to women’s issues. Originally the postponing of the march was reportedly because […]
California Governor Pardons Gay Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin 67 Years After Arrest
Governor Gavin Newsom of California has posthumously pardoned Bayard Rustin, a civil rights leader convicted under anti-LGBTQ laws in 1953. Rustin worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and was the lead organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was arrested for having consensual sex with a man in a parked car and convicted […]
Grassroots Activists Work to Find Solutions to End Female Genital Mutilation
Recent efforts in Gambia show the success of frontline activists fighting to end female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM is a global human rights’ issue that has affected nearly 200 million women and girls worldwide. Although frontline activists receive little to no funding, their efforts have seen promising results in countries from Kenya to Gambia. Kenya […]
Brooklyn State Park Honors Black Transgender Activist Marsha P. Johnson
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans to rename a Brooklyn state park after Marsha P. Johnson on Saturday in a speech at a Human Rights Campaign gala. Calling on New York’s progressive leadership, Cuomo made promises of support for LGBTQ issues. Marsha P. Johnson is a queer icon and pioneer. One of the leaders […]
Australian Feminist Fanny Finch Finally Being Recognized
Australian feminist trailblazer Fanny Finch received a new memorial at the Castlemaine General Cemetery in central Victoria just a few months before the 163rd anniversary of the day she became the first woman to cast a ballot in Australia. Finch was immortalized in the Melbourne-based newspaper The Argus two days after she cast her vote, […]
Actor David Schwimmer Says ‘There Was A Lot of Overreacting’ in #MeToo Movement
Actor David Schwimmer said in a recent interview that the #MeToo movement created an atmosphere of “terror” for all men. David Schwimmer credits his social activism with having grown up in a strong female household, citing both his mother-a feminist activist and lawyer-and sister as examples of women who have shaped his perspective. Schwimmer, in […]
Murder of Activist and Artist Sparks Protests Against Femicide in Ciudad Juárez
Isabel Cabanillas de la Torre, 26-year-old artist and active feminist, was slain on January 18 in the streets of Juárez, Mexico. A week later protesters gathered in the streets to demand justice for her death and bring new attention to Ciudad Juárez’s femicide epidemic that has been allowed to persist for nearly 30 years. Marching […]
#MeToo Activist Released by Chinese Authorities
After being detained for nearly three months, a Chinese #MeToo activist and journalist, Sophia Huang Xueqin, has been released by authorities in China. Police detained Huang in mid-October of last year in Guangzhou on the vague charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Huang has been a prominent figure in China’s emerging #MeToo movement, which […]
Women Lead Protests in India Over Islamophobic Law
Women are leading the charge with protests against India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which provides a path for citizenship for many “persecuted minorities” – but specifically leaves out Muslims as one of those minorities. People are upset that India, an officially secular nation, is singling out Muslim people and not providing them the same […]
Virginia Becomes the 38th State to Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment
The United States has never been closer to officially creating an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the U.S. Constitution. On Tuesday, January 14, a Virginia statehouse committee approved a measure to “bring the amendment to a full vote” which was voted upon by the Virginia House of Delegates and state Senate on Wednesday, January 15. […]
Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem Arrested at #FireDrillFriday Climate Action
Actress and activist Jane Fonda, along with Gloria Steinem, Ai-jen Poo, and Reverend William Barber II were arrested in Washington D.C. earlier today. Dolores Huerta (founder of United Farm Workers and Feminist Majority Foundation board member) was also in attendance. Fonda was arrested for the fifth time today at her ongoing climate action #FireDrillFriday, which began in […]
Dozens of People Blinded by Chilean Authorities in Violent Response to Protests
More than 140 people have suffered severe eye injuries since protests in Chile began on October 18th. At least 26 people have completely lost vision in one eye, according to the Salvador Hospital ophthalmology unit in Santiago, the nation’s capital, and many others are still being treated. “Last Monday, we got 10 people with these […]
Vermont High School Girls’ Soccer Team Penalized for Equal Pay Protest
A Vermont girls’ high school took off their jerseys during a game on Friday to reveal shirts with the slogan #EqualPay, after scoring their first goal of the night. The referees issued yellow cards in response to the protest, penalizing the team. According to league rules, players are not allowed to remove their jerseys during a […]
25,000 Teachers Strike in Chicago for Increased Resources in Public Schools
Chicago Public School teachers have gone on strike with a list of changes that they wish to see in the city’s education system, including reducing class sizes, tackling the increasing rates of homelessness among students, and hiring more nurses, social workers, and bilingual educators. More than 25,000 teachers and 300,000 students are out of the […]
LGBTQ+ Activist Killed in Uganda
Queer activist Brian Wasswa was killed in his home in Jinja, a city in Eastern Uganda. He had been working with the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), a legal aid organization that does outreach work for the LGBTQ+ community. His murder was followed by the Ugandan Minister of Ethics and Integrity announcing that […]
Aisha Khurram Selected as Afghanistan’s 2019 Youth Representative to the United Nations
Aisha Khurram, a law student at Kabul University, has been selected as Afghanistan’s Youth Representative to the United Nations for 2019, joining a group of other young representatives from across the globe seeking to make their voices heard at the world governing body. Khurram — who was selected from among 80 candidates — is tasked […]
Canadian Women Launch a New Project for Afghan Women
Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan.ca) just completed their annual conference in British Columbia. The three-day long conference was packed with inspiring speakers and workshops. During the event, CW4WAfghan launched their new project called Gender Equity in Teacher Training to Improve Girls’ Education in Afghanistan (GETT). This $1.3 million project will train women teachers. […]