Today, Taiwan’s parliament legalized same-sex marriage in a landmark vote. The self-governing island is the first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. In 2017, Taiwan’s constitutional court ruled that defining marriage between a man and a woman was unconstitutional and that same-sex couples had the legal right to be married, furthering LGBT rights on the already LGBT-friendly island. The court gave parliament two years to enact this ruling into law, and the new law will go into effect on May 24. Many LGBT activists, while happy...

  Tammy Jackson, a detainee of Broward County Jail, FL, was forced to give birth alone in an isolated jail cell. After reporting experiencing contractions around 3:00 AM, it took hours for jail staff to contact the on-call physician. The physician said he would check on Jackson when he arrived in the morning. He arrived two hours later, at 10:00 AM. Jackson had already delivered her baby by the time he arrived. She had been in labor alone without any medical assistance for nearly seven hours. Jackson...

By 1586 Mary, Queen of Scots had been imprisoned by her cousin, Elizabeth I, for almost two decades. She’d lost her throne in 1657, having been forced to abdicate in favor of her baby. Then, after fleeing Scotland for safety in England, she’d been (at least in her mind) royally screwed over. Instead of helping Mary regain the Scottish throne, Elizabeth had her locked up.  Mary was a serious threat to Elizabeth’s rule. Viewed by Catholics as the true Catholic ruler of England, there was many a plot...

  Last Thursday, Massachusetts' Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph and Court Officer Wesley MacGregor pleaded not guilty to charges against them for allegedly helping a defendant leave court through the back door a year ago. The defendant was facing fugitive and drug charges, and almost certainly would have been taken by a plainclothes ICE officer waiting for him in the lobby. Joseph and MacGregor are currently facing obstruction of justice and other federal charges for being believed to be responsible in aiding defendant Oscar Manual Peguero....

  Back in January, the Supreme Court decided to revive Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military personnel. The edited version of the ban went into effect this past Friday. Under the ban’s terms, transgender individuals must receive an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria and have had it submitted by April 12th to continue serving openly. If not, transgender members of the military must serve as the gender they were assigned at birth or be forced to leave service.  Around 15,000 transgender people will be affected by the new...

Chicago has a new mayor in town. She isn’t a white male so that should be a triumph in itself, but we’re still scratching our heads trying to figure out what to do with the woman who won in a blaze of glory. Lori Lightfoot, a former corporate lawyer, and federal prosecutor beat Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County board president, in a historic runoff Tuesday night. The two made headlines because this was the first time the city has ever had to choose between two Black women...

  The mystery of Anastasia Romanov has fascinated for decades.  Did she die at 17 or live to the ripe old age of 87? Could a suicidal asylum inmate called Anna Anderson really be a Russian princess and, if so, how did she survive against all odds? It’s a story with twists and turns for days – and it all starts in a basement in a far-flung corner of Russia… Colourised image of Russia’s last Royal family, the Romanovs. (Warning: the next three paragraphs are pretty bleak…) On July...

  Last Friday, the marching sounds of young environmentalists could be heard throughout the world as hundreds of thousands of students walked out of class and took to the street to demand that politicians and world leaders take serious measures on the undeniable fact that our climate is in crisis.  The #FridaysForFuture movement began in August 2018 when Greta Thunberg, who, in her Twitter bio, describes herself as "a 16-year-old climate activist with Asperger," started skipping school every Friday to protest outside Sweden’s parliament. Fridays for future. The school...

  I grew up watching Selma Blair in movies like Legally Blonde and the Hellboy series. In the latter, she was a fire pyrokinetic super-human and the former a whip-smart law student. Though I wasn’t allowed to watch most of her films (being in grade school, my mother didn’t exactly want her eleven year old watching Cruel Intentions) I looked up to her. I admired her power, her courage, and her willingness to stand up for what’s right. When Blair’s Multiple Sclerosis (MS) diagnosis came to light...

  Beginning this summer, free tampons and other sanitary products will be offered at all medical establishments across England that are managed by the National Health Service, The New York Times reports. The announcement was met with enthusiasm from advocates and members of the medical community, who consider the measure to be a positive advancement in the effort to end period poverty. A 2018 investigation by the British Medical Association found that 42% of trusts and health boards either don’t provide sanitary products at all or will...