Friends, lovers, comrades, I think it’s time we had this long overdue conversation.  Most of us partake in “stan culture” in some form or fashion. Maybe you’re a member of the BeyHive, or you’re a Star Wars diehard. Stan culture can be a fun way to build online communities of like-minded folks. But “stan culture” left unchecked will be subsumed by its worse impulses — the purity and superiority of the thing you love over everything else, no matter at whose expense. When NPR music critic Ann...

In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that much of the state of Oklahoma is Native territory. This ruling means that only federal authorities, as opposed to state prosecutors, can charge Native people who have committed serious crimes on the land. The decision upholds an 1833 treaty that promised about half of Oklahoma's land to Native tribes. The four liberal justices and Justice Neil Gorsuch ruled in favor of this decision, with the other four conservative justices dissenting. Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, stating,...

“I feel an empty presence in my chest,” Marya Guillen, older sister to Vanessa Guillen, told The New York Times. “And for my mom, it’s hard to accept. But she knows that heaven has an angel.” Vanessa Guillen was an Army Specialist at Fort Hood in Texas who went missing on April 22. After two months of searching, on June 30, her remains were found in a shallow grave near the fort, according to CNN. An autopsy showed that Guillen was bludgeoned to death with a...

On June 29, a city in Massachusetts, Somerville became one of the first cities to recognize polyamorous domestic partnerships. On June 25, the City Council voted to pass an ordinance that recognizes polyamorous domestic partnerships unanimously and it was signed on June 25 by Mayor Joe Curtatone. It is now municipal law in Somerville. This change was done by shifting the language in what constitutes a domestic partnership. Instead of saying that a domestic partnership is defined as an “entity formed by two persons”, the...

This morning, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump Administration to allow employers to opt-out of the Affordable Care Act’s birth control coverage mandate. Here’s what this means: Under the Obama Administration’s Affordable Care Act, employers are required to provide coverage of contraception in their insurance policies to their employees. After a 7-2 ruling in the Supreme Court on the Trump v. Pennsylvania case today, employers with religious or moral objections are now allowed to opt-out of this policy that helps provide thousands of Americans attain...

On July 4, 2020, Donald Trump addressed a crowd of thousands at the Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota. The rally was undoubtedly a response to the recent protests against racial injustice, which President Trump called “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.” He stood under the faces of former U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt on what’s known to Indigenous people as the Six Grandfathers, an edifice that...

Kellyanne Conway, who’s currently serving as a counselor to President Trump, has a daughter named Claudia who’s gone viral in recent days. Claudia Conway, the 15-year-old has been posting TikToks like many people her age do. Many of the TikToks that Claudia has posted are blatantly against Trump, the person that her mother works for and often defends. So far, she has over 96,000 followers on TikTok. Conway's early videos largely didn’t have political messaging, but her account slowly became more political as time went on,...

It would be an understatement to say that this Pride month has been a little different: coinciding with a global pandemic and the surge of activism following the murder of George Floyd, Pride celebrations took on a different character as queers charged, masks on and protest signs in hand, to support the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black members of the community. One important aspect of this year’s Pride month is that it has centered Black and Latinx queer and trans womxn voices. Hundreds of...

Chrissy Teigen recently posted a photo to Instagram to her over 30 million followers in which she was wearing a protective face mask while waiting for her smear test. In the caption, Teigen told her followers, “Don’t forget to keep up with your paps and have your boobs touched even though the world is ending!”             View this post on Instagram                   don’t forget to keep up with your paps and have your boobs touched even though the world is ending!! A post shared by chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) on...

In the state of New Jersey, the Department of Health issued an executive directive that exempted doulas from the limits on support persons during a pregnant person’s hospital stay during the COVID-19 pandemic. This executive directive from the DOH recognizes the importance of doulas and affirms that they play an essential role in an expectant mother’s care team. Before this directive, only one person including the doula could be with the mother in the hospital. This directive will allow doulas to resume their duties during...