Culture

We’re big fans of young people taking sex ed into their own hands. So, it’s no surprise we were thrilled to interview Tara Michaela, who founded the Youth Sexpert Program (YSP) when she was nineteen.

Caos.a (a play with the word “Causa”, Portuguese for “Cause”) began during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was created by television host Barbara Thomaz, with professor Ana Sharp, lawyer Natália Veroneze, advertising pro Flávia Zaparoli and actress Maira Dvorek. Gabriel Leão is here to tell you all about it.

TEAF’s Communications Director Denise Rodriguez explains the current state of the organization and abortion in Texas, and talks about how marginalized people do and will endure the worst of the brunt from both the recent changes due to the Dobbs decision as well as other restrictions and access issues that were already in place.

The Iranian Revolution was co-opted by the clerics who then claimed as an achievement the mass covering of an entire nation’s women’s hair. Who owns my hair, let alone my body, when a revolution in which women fought alongside men soon after declaring victory, enforced hijab? When you shave the hair under that enforced hijab, are you then the revolution of one, defying, disobeying, and disrupting? When you rip off that compulsory hijab in public and shave off your hair in public, are you finally completing the revolution that the theocrats and the misogynists stole from you?

Kate Adamo is a sex worker who heads up the policy and advocacy work at Reframe Health & Justice consulting, which supports organizations and movements engaging in “practices of care, compassion, and collaboration,” all through a harm reduction framework. Kate shared her thoughts on the necessity of sex workers and their perspective as we fight for reproductive autonomy, and the internalized sex phobia that progressive spaces still need to get rid of.

Saniya Lee Ghanoui is a historian and critical media studies scholar who focuses on the intersection of gender and sexuality, medicine, and media. Through her studies, she became intrigued by how society created stigma and taboo around the menstrual cycle, which led her to focus on critical menstrual studies investigating the construction and depiction of menstruation in television, the history of menstrual education films, as well as the history of sex education in the United States.

As more and more states in the United States criminalize abortion, the amount of surveillance, and the negative consequences of that surveillance, are going to increase. That’s just a sad fact. With that in mind, we’ve put together some basics on how to protect your privacy during each step of the process of seeking abortion help. We made this with reproductive care in mind, but many of the steps here also apply to situations like abusive relationships and the increased criminalization of trans people, families and healthcare.

One of the trends that gives me hope for the future is seeing more and more queer media on shelves and screens. It’s heartening that, even in the face of alarming and depressing times, queer and trans people still manage to make art and tell stories. Too, with the pushes to censor queer content, it…

I want to talk about joy. About feeling sweatily, vibrantly alive and connected and lifted up by community. I want to talk about dancing. Specifically partnered dancing, where two people dance together. Dancing is where I find sanctuary, where I celebrate the good days and find my way through the…

Pride is difficult for me this year, as I imagine it may be for many others. For a lot of reasons, I’ve struggled to feel much hope recently. Maybe some of you reading this can relate. I’ve never lived in a world where queer and trans people didn’t face discrimination, demonization, threats of…