I am elated today because our grantee partners in India have achieved an historic victory for LGBTQI+ rights. Earlier today, the Indian Supreme Court struck down a colonial-era law that criminalized consensual sex between same sex adults. As India is home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, this single ruling removes the threat of …
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It’s been a decade since Maria Hererra’s sons disappeared. First, Jesús Salvador and Raúl. Then Gustavo and Luis Armando, who had gone looking for their missing brothers. Maria may never know what happened to them. When I met her earlier this month, she spoke of her sons in the present tense—even though she, like so …
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I came out to my father in 1998, over the phone. He was in Bombay, India. I was in Denver, Colorado. The first thing he said to me, without missing a beat, was: “I’m proud that you’ve decided to not live a lie.” The very next thing he said was: “I wish you’d never told …
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Since April, Nicaragua’s citizens have been waging a fierce uprising against the repressive, authoritarian government of President Daniel Ortega.
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Emma Molina Theissen and her family are finally getting justice for the crimes committed against them by the Guatemalan military, 37 years later.
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Many Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent work in low-wage jobs on the country’s sugar and banana plantations, or as construction workers or laborers in the informal economy. They reside in bateyes—poor districts that were established to house sugar plantation laborers and their families. Because Haitians and their descendents are often denied citizenship rights …
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Thirty years of armed conflict in Casamance have left many people—especially women—feeling powerless: powerless to stop the frequent deadly bursts of guerilla violence, and powerless to feed and educate their children in the midst of the chaos of conflict. But one woman, Seynabou Male Cissé, a former high school teacher, saw the potential of women …
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Cecelia Danuweli has been to hell and back. As a girl during Liberia’s brutal civil war, she witnessed her stepfather murdered before her eyes and faced the constant threat of rape and other violence as warring factions attacked her village. In 1990, she fled for her life and spent years living in the bush, hiding …
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The rapid growth of mineral mining across Mexico has ravaged local communities. Poverty and disease have soared for workers and people who live near mines and other development projects. The digging has stripped local land—ruining it for farming—and polluted sources of drinking water, multiplying health problems and miscarriages.
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When 43 college students disappeared from Iguala, Mexico in late September 2014, the incident was just one in a long series of tragic stories. As the country’s epidemic of government corruption and gang violence has escalated over the past decade, more than 26,000 people have simply disappeared.
Read MoreParashat Matot opens with a list of the laws governing vows—in particular, vows made by women. The basic principle that underlies these laws is that if a woman makes a vow, her husband or father can nullify the vow. However, if her husband or father is aware of the vow and voices no objection, his silence signals his consent and her vow stands. While the power dynamics with regard to gender are certainly troubling, the principle expressed in these laws—that silence means assent—suggests a powerful lesson about using our voices as we work to build communities committed to the pursuit of justice.
Read MoreIn Parashat Chukkat, we read about the Israelites in a moment of desperation. Forty years into their journey through the desert, they once again find themselves in a new place without any water.[1] The people are distraught, but rather than voicing their fears in a calm, rational manner, the Israelites pick a fight. They approach …
Read MoreParashat Tazria opens with a passage that makes many contemporary readers bristle at its seemingly obvious gender discrimination. Describing a woman who has just given birth, the text relates that not only is she impure, but the length of her impurity doubles for a daughter in contrast to a son. While the gender-based distinctions in the text may arouse anger or confusion, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the topic of gender and they may also offer insights into how gender plays a role in our own lives and in the lives of people around the world.
Read MoreParashat Tazria opens with a passage that makes many contemporary readers bristle at its seemingly obvious gender discrimination. Describing a woman who has just given birth, the text relates that not only is she impure, but the length of her impurity doubles for a daughter in contrast to a son. While the gender-based distinctions in the text may arouse anger or confusion, they provide an opportunity to reflect on the topic of gender and they may also offer insights into how gender plays a role in our own lives and in the lives of people around the world.
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