Which Songs Helped You Come Out of the Closet?
Angela Weiss/Getty To celebrate National Coming Out Day, I asked the queers of the Twitterverse what music was instrumental in their coming out to the world: hey queers!! I’m really curious as to what music was instrumental in your coming out process. If you’re interested in talking to me about it for a music bit…
California Now Has the Nation’s Strictest Private Prison Ban
A guard walks with a detainee in the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.Chris Carlson/AP In his inaugural address in January, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared private prisons an “outrage” and promised to end them “once and for all.” Today, he signed the strictest private prison ban in the country, setting the stage for thousands of immigration…
California Becomes the First State to Require Public Universities to Provide Medication Abortion
Gov. Gavin Newsom Terry Pierson/ZUMA California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill today requiring the state’s public universities to offer medication abortions on campus. The new law, which will take effect in 2023, will apply to 34 schools—11 University of California campuses and 23 California State University campuses—that serve almost 750,000 students. “For four years, students have been…
“Repugnant to the American Dream”: A Judge Just Blocked Trump’s Plan to Target Poor Immigrants
An 1893 cartoon titled “Looking Backward” depicts the irony of American immigrants turning away additional newcomers. The caption reads: “They would close to the new-comer the bridge that carried them and their fathers over.” In a written decision filled with unmasked contempt, a federal judge blocked on Friday a Trump administration policy designed to punish…
Where Do Our Ideas About Queerness Come From?
Mother Jones Illustration On a cold night in January 2011, 300 people piled into Hugh Ryan’s loft in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It was a special evening for Ryan. His Pop-Up Museum of Queer History was making its debut, right here in his living space. Together with more than 30 exhibit makers, he had curated a makeshift…
Hooray, More Troops for Saudi Arabia
Oh great: The Pentagon will deploy an additional 1,800 U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia, senior defense officials announced Friday, a modest increase in the U.S. military’s presence in the Middle East meant to deter aggressive Iranian actions. This isn’t a big deployment or anything, but any kind of increase is symbolic of our endless commitment…