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Students in California rally to require a college campus to offer abortion services to the the students.

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Ellen DeGeneres talks to her massive TV audience and live audience about women finding the courage to speak up about what has happened to them and what is happening in todays society.

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One of Ellen DeGeneres ' biggest breaks in Hollywood? When she made it to the couch - Johnny Carson's couch, that is, in 1986.

After performing that famous "phone call to God" bit on "The Tonight Show," the legendary late-night host called her over to sit down. She was the first woman to earn that invitation.

"That had a huge impact on my career," she said. "It was something that meant a lot to me. It was something that I wanted to accomplish, and it happened."

Comedy remains DeGeneres' bread and butter, and she's tapped into the platform to educate her fans about the political and social issues she cares about most.

In the midst of a polarizing political climate, DeGeneres has been a central force in championing the women who are coming together to protect their rights and stand up for equality. "We should encourage women to claim their power," she said. "Too many women are scared to speak out, because we are taught in sometimes subtle and sometimes very obvious ways in society that we are supposed to be quiet and polite, and we are supposed to be nice and sweet. All those qualities are great, but we should also be powerful."

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Ellen DeGeneres on Encouraging Women to Speak Out, Claim Their Power

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One of Ellen DeGeneres ' biggest breaks in Hollywood? When she made it to the couch - Johnny Carson's couch, that is, in 1986. After performing that famous "phone call to God" bit on "The Tonight Show," the legendary late-night host called her over to sit down.

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Annie Lennox a famous musician talks about her views on feminism and how people can join her on her on bringing awareness to the topics.

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The iconic singer, songwriter, and activist is using social media to spread awareness of the extreme injustices faced by women and girls worldwide. In honor of International Women's Day today, she wants you to join her.
It all started with a graphic tee. "I was in a department store, and I saw a T-shirt that had Wonder Woman on it," Annie Lennox says of the moment that inspired her latest campaign. It was the summer of 2018, and the music icon was trying to figure out how to take the mission of The Circle, the international women's-rights nongovernmental organization she founded in 2008, to the next level. "I looked at the T-shirts and I was like, 'Oh, my goodness, what if Wonder Woman could connect everyday women and men to the facts about the gender inequality experienced by millions of girls and women every day around the globe?' So I bought the T-shirt, took it home, and put it on. Then I wrote a list of facts and statistics on sheets of drawing paper and had a series of pictures taken for Instagram of myself holding up the messaging." The result: #OneReasonWhyImAGlobalFeminist, a social-media hashtag campaign promoting Lennox's message.

"I've witnessed for myself how girls and women are extremely disempowered throughout the world."

Her mission in popularizing global feminism is a fairly lofty one. In this golden age of feminism in pop culture, the women's rights movement has become fractured by endless rifts in theory and praxis. "Feminism is a broad church containing varying beliefs and interpretations, but schisms exist that can prevent us from reaching our full potential," says Lennox. She wanted a term that could draw attention to universal issues of gender inequality, including the two thirds of illiterate adults worldwide who are women, or the one in three women and girls who are affected by physical or sexual violence. "I've witnessed for myself how girls and women are extremely disempowered throughout the world. Gender-based violence is played out everywhere-in New York, in Nairobi. It is endemic at a global level." Enter Lennox's online campaign, which encourages participants to take photos of themselves holding up a sign with the number-one reason they support the fight for gender parity.
Join the Movement
On March 8-International Women's Day-take a picture of yourself with your top reason for fighting global gender inequality, and post it on social media with the hashtag #OneReasonWhyImAGlobalFeminist.

But there's another reason she embraces the term "global feminism." While Western feminists disagree on whether male allies can rightfully use the word "feminist" to describe themselves, Lennox sees the participation of men and boys as vital. "I think men sometimes feel uncomfortable saying 'I'm a feminist,'" she says. "But when we say we're global feminists, we're giving them the key to be a part of the movement." For Lennox, including men in the movement amounts to deprogramming them of problematic views about women that they might have unconsciously internalized. "So much of it goes back to teaching men how to treat women as people just like them, as opposed to seeing them as the property of men in their lives," she explains.
"If we're always going to talk about being feminists, we need to talk about the whole world. We're not feminists just for us."
Lennox, who has fought inequality since long before she was a household name, can still remember the moment that inspired her to leverage her fame to support her advocacy work. "In the late '80s, Amnesty International staged an incredible tour that included Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, and the like. At that time I was like, 'Wow, this is the best way to use music-to build a platform to raise awareness and promote social and political change,'" she says. With the rise of social media, that goal is easier to achieve on an international scale-and more critical. "If we're always going to talk about being feminists, we need to talk about the whole world," Lennox adds. "We're not feminists just for us."
This article originally appears in the March 2019 issue of Harper's BAZAAR, available on newsstands now. GET THE LATEST ISSUE OF BAZAAR Credits: Boss turtleneck and pants; Lennox's own jewelry and shoes; Hair: Philip Carreon at Ramos Carreon Salon for Eufora Hair Care; Makeup: Patrick De Fontbrune; Manicure: Erin Moffett for Chanel Le Vernis.

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Annie Lennox Talks Her Global Feminist Movement

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The iconic singer, songwriter, and activist is using social media to spread awareness of the extreme injustices faced by women and girls worldwide. In honor of International Women's Day today, she wants you to join her. It all started with a graphic tee.

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A school district in Massachusetts work on making access to birth control and contraceptives easier through the school for student.

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A school committee in a Massachusetts city voted Thursday in favor of a proposal that will give high school students greater access to condoms, birth control pills and emergency contraception.The Lynn school committee voted unanimously to allow the community health center to provide better access for students to obtain condoms and contraceptives. The decision was made in front of a crowded, standing room only meeting in Lynn, where passionate parents voiced opinions in support of and against the plan. Lynn has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state, more than triple the average in Massachusetts. Health officials said the proposal is meant to curb teen pregnancies and provide students with protection against sexually transmitted infections. The proposal will not be phased in until additional guidelines are formed.

A school committee in a Massachusetts city voted Thursday in favor of a proposal that will give high school students greater access to condoms, birth control pills and emergency contraception.

The Lynn school committee voted unanimously to allow the community health center to provide better access for students to obtain condoms and contraceptives.

The decision was made in front of a crowded, standing room only meeting in Lynn, where passionate parents voiced opinions in support of and against the plan.

Lynn has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state, more than triple the average in Massachusetts.

Health officials said the proposal is meant to curb teen pregnancies and provide students with protection against sexually transmitted infections.

The proposal will not be phased in until additional guidelines are formed.

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School district to give students easier access to birth control

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A school committee in a Massachusetts city voted Thursday in favor of a proposal that will give high school students greater access to condoms, birth control pills and emergency contraception.The Lynn school committee voted unanimously to allow the community health center to provide better access for students to obtain condoms and contraceptives.

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Students took a class through planned parenthood to help women coming into the clinic free comfortable due to all the protestors outside of the building.

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Kathleen Walsh '20

Co-Editor-In-Chief

There was a woman just chilling outside the facility holding a bible," said Luis Toledo '20, Vice President of Davidson College's Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA), of a woman who student volunteers saw as he and members of PPGA underwent training at Charlotte's newest Planned Parenthood clinic. Protesters like the one Toledo described often intimidate patients in order to dissuade them from using Planned Parenthood services, making volunteers who help escort patients into the clinic valuable.\

The clinic, the fourth one in Charlotte, opened in June of this year against the backdrop of local and nationwide anti-abortion protests. This tension, says Toledo, exists almost on a daily basis at abortion clinics where students involved with PPGA on campus volunteer their weekends to ensure the safety of patients seeking health services. The clinic, located on Torrence Street in South Charlotte, began offering abortions two weeks ago.

Upwards of 40 students on September 7th were trained in escorting, one kind of volunteer service offered at clinics across the country. Escorting volunteers act as the first barrier to the frequent and often harrassing anti-abortion protesters who attempt to dissuade patients seeking medical aid from abortion clinics.

Grace Colley '21, the secretary of PPGA on campus, is a frequent volunteer at clinics across Charlotte. Colley detailed the nature of escorting as "primarily emotional" support for patients who might otherwise be dissuaded from entering the clinic by protesters, some of whom, Colley claims, masquerade as volunteers by donning similar vests and attire in an attempt to confuse patients.

"It looks different at each clinic, but just generally what you do is even provide a visual barrier between the protestors and the clinic. So it's holding usually an umbrella and going directly to the patient's car," Colley says.

According to Colley, the job requires nuance, sensitivity, and quick-thinking, especially amid the presence of invasive protests.

"If the patient is getting out, they're typically really frazzled, and they're like, 'Oh, what's going on' type of thing. And you're like, 'Hi, are you here for an appointment?' And you make sure that you do not ask any questions that would reveal their identity because protesters can usually latch onto that. So that's a huge responsibility."

Colley, in addition to escorting, has volunteered as a legal observer, a role in which volunteers are asked to analyze protesters' speech and actions to report illegal harassment to authorities. Colley said that escorting requires more volunteer training and an application process.

Colley detailed one particular anecdote that stuck in her mind during her time volunteering. Beyond the run-of-the-mill brochure-toting protesters, some protesters take to invasive and verbally aggressive forms of intimidation. The newest clinic, according to Colley, is in an underprivileged part of Charlotte that statistically supports and treats minority groups and has become a contentious focal point in the community.

Colley recalls in vivid detail a black mother of several children who was harrassed for her racial identity upon entering the clinic.

"We were walking to her car and the protesters were saying, 'how dare you do this, especially when you're black. This is a form of eugenics. That's why this clinic is in your neighborhood.'"

"It became so racialized. The tactics they use become so violent [...] I always have wondered what she felt like entering the clinic after that and if that changed her mind about getting the procedure," Colley continued.

"I think most of the protesters and people just more broadly don't know that the majority of women who get abortions are already mothers. Seeing that woman very visibly perform motherhood by holding her daughter's hand while walking to this clinic seemed to hit such a nerve for the protesters. But I [thought], this is the story of American lives."

Tindall Adams '22 heads volunteer coordination for PPGA and emphasized the ways in which escorting humanizes an otherwise nerve-wracking process as Colley described. Along with escorting, the new abortion clinic in Charlotte communicates this intent with its homey decor. Adams along with other members of the PPGA were given a tour by the clinic's volunteer coordinator, Taylor Pigney, at the beginning of the semester.

"[Pigney] really emphasized how other clinics seem clinical and cold and unfeeling, which is difficult for a lot of patients. She emphasized how they wanted to focus on making it a warm and inviting place and making people feel comfortable there. And I definitely really felt that."

Toledo, Adams, and Colley all agreed that PPGA's role on campus is to bring more awareness to the many facilities and procedures that Planned Parenthood offers. Toledo claims that that bridge lies at the heart of the chapter's involvement on campus.

"I've actually seen students reach out to us one day for example about the vending machine that we have on campus, but also with things off campus. I would say that in general, our chapter is transitioning into that: providing that bridge between on campus resources and off campus resources."

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Student Escorts Assist Patients at New Planned Parenthood Clinic - The Davidsonian

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Kathleen Walsh '20 Co-Editor-In-Chief There was a woman just chilling outside the facility holding a bible," said Luis Toledo '20, Vice President of Davidson College's Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA), of a woman who student volunteers saw as he and members of PPGA underwent training at Charlotte's newest Planned ParenthoodRead More

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This article talks about workplace discrimination of pregnant women and the need for maternity leave. It touches on the struggle of women having to find a balance of family and work.

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Maternity and pregnancy discrimination is unfortunately still very common, and here we explain how to negotiate an exit from your employer if you are experiencing it.

You can also read our separate page: 10 tips for returning from maternity leave.

What is maternity and pregnancy discrimination?

A report (published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2017) found that 77% of mothers felt that they had been discriminated against at work. Of this 77%, only 28% raised this with a manager, 3% submitted a grievance and 1% pursued it in an employment tribunal.

Legally, this type of discrimination is defined as being treated less favourably than other employees because of being pregnant or being on maternity leave.

It may become evident in any workplace circumstance, for example, during the recruitment processes, in promotion exercises, training opportunities or in selection for redundancy or other types of dismissal.

Discriminatory or unfair treatment of a woman who is also pregnant or on maternity leave may also occur at any time during her pregnancy or maternity.

If you have been discriminated against or treated unfairly on these grounds and have the evidence to back it up, then you can use it to negotiate an exit settlement agreement if you decide to leave your employer, or - if all else fails - to bring a case against them in the employment tribunal.

What are your rights?

The legislation protecting women and new mothers in the workplace is extensive. However, for the purposes of identifying and making a claim against your employer, we will just focus here on the rights that tend to be most commonly breached by employers.

When you are pregnant...

Employers are required by law to carry out adequate health and safety assessments of any risks that a pregnant woman may be exposed to in her working environment.

All pregnant employees have a right to paid time off for ante-natal care.

When you are on maternity leave...

In total you are entitled to 12 months maternity leave. The first 6 months of your maternity leave is known as 'ordinary maternity leave'. The second 6 months is known as 'additional maternity leave'.

After your ordinary maternity leave you are entitled to return to the job in which you were employed before your absence and on no less favourable terms. Your seniority and pension rights must be the same as if you had not been absent.

If you take additional maternity leave (i.e. more than 6 months) you have the right to return to the same job, unless it is not reasonably practical for you to return to that job. If that's the case, then you have the right to return to another job which is suitable and appropriate for you in the circumstances and you're entitled to return on terms and conditions that are no less favourable than those which would have applied had you not taken maternity leave. Your seniority, pension and other similar rights should also all be treated as if you had not been away.

Statutory paid annual leave continues to accrue during both ordinary and additional maternity leave.

If you are made redundant whilst on maternity leave you must be offered any suitable available vacancy. The terms and conditions (including capacity and place of work) must not be substantially less favourable than if you had continued in your old role.

If you are put at risk of being redundant whilst on maternity leave your employer is still under a duty to consult with you and act fairly. If they do not, then the dismissal for redundancy could be unfair as well as discriminatory.

Finally, if you're entitled to benefits such as pay rises, promotion or bonuses it's illegal for your employer to withhold them as a result of your maternity leave.

What to do if my employer has breached my maternity or pregnancy rights?

Despite the low opinion in our society of employers who fail to uphold a woman's pregnancy or maternity rights, statistics show that discrimination and unfair treatment in such circumstances are quite common. However, as mentioned above, many women simply don't raise any breaches with their employer, as their employer's poor treatment of them may well mean that they would simply rather not work there any more. Instead, they would prefer just to move on and start afresh with an employer who places greater value on working mums.

If that is your experience, you could approach your employer about having a 'without prejudice' discussion about an exit package or settlement agreement. In other words, your employer agrees to give you a sum of money in return for your employment ending and you agreeing not to pursue a claim against them. It is also important to remember that if settlement talks break down, a 'without prejudice' discussion cannot be used against you at later stage.

Negotiating a settlement for maternity and pregnancy discrimination

Here, we consider how best to negotiate an exit package from your employment that relates specifically to pregnancy or maternity discrimination. As a first step, we briefly consider who should carry out the negotiations with your employer that might lead to a satisfactory settlement (or - in the worst-case scenario - an employment tribunal).

New mothers who take a year out of the office often return to find that they are no longer wanted by their employer, or that they are to be made "redundant". If this were to happen to you, it could have significant adverse financial, career and other implications. Also, if your employer wants you to leave, they are highly likely to suggest a settlement agreement while you're still on maternity leave and that is, of course, a time when you are probably not in the best position to negotiate.

In order to substantiate any claims you may make about pregnancy or maternity discrimination, you can also follow our advice we offer on how to collect and present supporting evidence and also on how to construct a 'without prejudice' letter which you will need if and when you commence negotiations. You can also download an example template letter specific to someone being made redundant whilst they were on maternity leave.

Remember, discrimination on the grounds of maternity is common, yet is also seen as one of the worst things an employer can do. The last thing your employer wants is to be held to have discriminated against a pregnant woman, or new mother, as this looks bad to the general public, its customers, and most importantly its workforce.

Very few cases of maternity discrimination end up in the employment tribunal, and that's not because discrimination is not rife (it is), it is because employers almost always settle.

1. Did your employer pay you an enhanced rate of maternity pay which is repayable if you don't return to work for a certain period of time after your maternity leave ends? If so make sure there is a clause in the agreement which says that you do not have to repay the enhanced package.

2. Make sure you keep all documentary evidence. Do you have an email from your manager saying that your duties have been allocated to someone else? Has HR confirmed a change in job role? If so, then you make sure you keep records of this.

3. Send a 'without prejudice' letter to your employer setting out how much money you want and why.

4. Emphasise to your employers the impact that their treatment has had on you. In discrimination cases you can claim compensation for 'injury to feelings'. The greater the impact of the discrimination, the more compensation you should be entitled to.

5. Be willing to compromise. Aim high, but you may have to compromise in order to do a deal and reach a settlement with your employer.

6. If you still can't reach a 'without prejudice' settlement, submit a formal grievance to your employer. This creates a paper trial and puts on record your complaints of maternity or pregnancy discrimination. In addition, if your employer treats you badly as a result of sending a grievance then you may be able to also claim that you have been victimised as result of raising concerns about maternity discrimination.

MATERNITY DISCRIMINATION TOOLKIT:

If you believe you have suffered maternity discrimination or unfair treatment you may find these free letter templates useful:

> Without prejudice letter: Made redundant on maternity leave

> Redundancy on maternity: Grievance & without prejudice letter

> Grievance appeal letter: Maternity leave, mishandled return, indirect sex discrimination

Find out more about Monaco Solicitors here.

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Pregnancy and maternity discrimination at work - Equality & Diversity

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Maternity and pregnancy discrimination is unfortunately still very common, and here we explain how to negotiate an exit from your employer if you are experiencing it. You can also read our separate page: 10 tips for returning from maternity leave. What is maternity and pregnancy discrimination?

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In this article we hear about how the work place if effected by intersectionality.

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The Effect of Intersectionality in the Workplace (Published 2018)

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A feeling of having to protect against bias or unfair treatment, of always having to be on guard.

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This is a picture of my cousin and her family. They adopted Xavier when he was a baby and this year he came out to our family as gay. Being black and gay in a white family is a challenge for him even though we try and support him in the best ways we know how.

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A festival charged people different ticket prices based on their skin color. The backlash of this choice was an eye opener for many people on the idea of privilege and oppression.

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an afrofuturist festival in detroit charged white people $20 and black people $10

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A Detroit festival charged white people $20 and black people $10, then they got hit with backlash

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The group behind AfroFuture Fest reversed its decision to charge white people more than others for tickets to its August festival after it says they received threats and a ticketing website threatened to unpublish their event.

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This video talks to two different groups of students that attend Yale about the college admission scandal and how they feel about the privilege many students have that got them into the school.

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Yale Students Aren’t Surprised About The College Admissions Scandal

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In this video the concept of intersectionality is broken down into an easier way to understand. It also talks about who we can change the idea of intersectionality

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On Intersectionality in Feminism and Pizza | Akilah Obviously

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Kristin Davis talks about how she has been dealing with raising her black children. Along with her realization of white privilege and how prevalent it is in society.

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Kristin Davis may be best known for her role as Charlotte York in Sex and the City, but off camera she's a mother to two children - Gemma Rose, 7, and a 1-year-old boy.

And while Kristin keeps her family life extremely private, she's now opened up for the first time about the effect raising two black children has had on her own perception of race.

Speaking during an episode of Red Table Talk called "Should White People Adopt Black Kids?" Kristin explained that the last eight years have opened her eyes to the extent of her white privilege.

Kristin went on to say that she's been left "horrified" by the "institutionalised" racism her daughter has been subjected to over the years.

Kristin also recalled the specific moment in her daughter's early years that "lit a fire under [her]" and changed her attitude towards racism forever.

"It was a very harsh moment of understanding," she said, "I don't know how every person of colour has gotten through this. I don't understand how you could take this every day."

And Kristin concluded by revealing that she's made it her "mission" to ensure both of her children feel "part of, not separated from" the black community.

You can watch the full episode of Red Table Talk here.

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Kristin Davis Opened Up About The "Horrifying" Racism Her Children Experience - And What It's Taught Her About White Privilege

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Kristin Davis may be best known for her role as Charlotte York in Sex and the City, but off camera she's a mother to two children - Gemma Rose, 7, and a 1-year-old boy. And while Kristin keeps her family life extremely private, she's now opened up for the first time about the effect raising two black children has had on her own perception of race.

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This YouTube video is from a race that a showed many students in a community about privilege and how the things that they have very little control over put them ahead of others.

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Social Inequalities Explained in a $100 Race - Please Watch to the End. Thanks.

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This article written talks about how African immigrants that also identify with the LGBTQ community.  It talks about struggle to be who they are in todays society and how they are using photography to help express themselves.

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Mikael Owunna is an American photographer of Nigerian and Swedish descent, and a finalist in the 2019 FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo. The following are edited excerpts of interviews carried out by Owunna for his new book, " Limitless Africans."

I closed my eyes as the traditional priestess poured a basin of mysterious oils over me. Stinging my body from head to toe, she repeated the motion several times to wash the "gay devil" out of me.

I was 18 and spending Christmas in Nigeria, where homosexuality is illegal, as it is in more than 30 African countries. Gay and Nigerian, this was my third exorcism in just a few days' time.

But returning to the United States, my struggles continued. As a gay African immigrant, I existed in a strange middle ground of rejection from all corners. Rejected from white LGBTQ spaces and American society due to my blackness and immigrant status, and from African circles due to my sexuality. I was "unacceptable" everywhere I turned.

I found photography as my voice in this darkness. Over the course of four years, I would travel to 10 different countries across North America, the Caribbean and Europe to document the LGBTQ African immigrant experience.

Shooting and interviewing dozens of LGBTQ African immigrants, nine of which are featured below, I found that every individual had experienced a similar sense of rejection on all sides. This body of work is a collaborative response between me and my community to redefine what it means to be an immigrant, African and queer.

I am Rwandan by my parents but I grew up in Tanzania, Niger, Kenya, Benin and the Central African Republic. I answer to "him" and "her" and I identify as queer. I, for a long time, thought that I could only fully embrace one of the two identities, that they were mutually exclusive.

When I decided to embrace my LGBTQ identity, I subconsciously pushed away my African one. I found myself becoming what some call a "Bounty" or "Oreo" -- black on the outside and white on the inside. But prior to that I had already tried to push away my LGBTQ identity. It was complete denial.

And then one day I thought to myself 'why not try embracing both identities, just for the sake of trying.' I remember feeling butterflies in my stomach and feeling so light as if an enormous weight was lifted off of me.

As a disabled black and fat person, and body non-conforming person, style is empowerment. I'm very much influenced by my African heritage. I like big earrings, earth colors, but also colorful colors, and I like to show my body as it is and to bring it out in the best way I can. For me, it's like the queerness in my outfit is that I wear what I want, even if I'm a feminine person. It's a queer femininity and not a cis-hetero-normative femme style.

As a black intersectional person, I always have to give myself a bit more love than other people in the world give me. I look for other people who have the same or nearly the same identities. I look for homes where I fit in and sometimes I find them, sometimes I find part of them.

I have never felt at home with just one community, or any place that doesn't allow for intersectionality (the overlapping of multiple societally marginalized identities).

Recently I have been embracing the Q in LGBTQ. Queerness allows and builds beautiful transformative magical energy that transcends labels and boundaries. So I definitely embrace "queer." My preferred gender pronoun is "they," but I truly call and respond to many gender IDs: he, they, she, Odera, Sailor Senshi, Goddess, Gw0rl.

The first words that come to my mind for my family are, "crazy," "toxic" and "trauma." It would be ridiculous and unfair to not mention, "dedication," "strength," and "resilience." Recently, distance allows for at least the possibility of healing. I love my family, and I know they love me. However "love" doesn't always equate to acceptance.

I am lucky because, I have built a home and inner fire within myself that simply does not accept the binary. And it certainly doesn't accept others defining my identity. It simply isn't in my nature.

Tobi (with daughter Gabrielle)
Essex, UK

I am not fully "out" to all my family members. I have quite a large and religious family tree. The few times I have been back home (to Nigeria) since we moved to England, I almost always have to hide my identity as a queer, non-binary person: take out my piercings, deal with being mis-gendered or read as a woman, hide my shaved sides with unnecessarily long braids, wear clothes that are definitely not my style or choice, and refrain from talking about my partners. It makes me feel "othered" within my own culture and in my own home.

Motherhood means a lot to me and the relationship that I have with my daughter has brought me into my strength in so many ways: physically, spiritually and emotionally. Knowing that I have no other choice but to cherish, protect and create a space in this world for another human is magic personified.

Something that's important to me is that, as much as is possible, especially if I'm going to an event, I wear some sort of African clothing. You'll never find me in a cocktail dress or anything like that.

It's an ongoing struggle, having both my African identity and my identity as a queer person. Those things have definitely created a sense of fragmentation in my life. They have affected my family, and that's been really, really difficult. In some ways, I think that's been the central tension or conflict of my life.

My response to folks who say that being queer is un-African, I would invite them, really invite them, to look at the narrative that they're holding about colonization and what it means to own who you are, where you come from and your heritage -- without pushing out those who belong to that heritage, too.

I grew up in Zimbabwe and Botswana, and the moment I realized I liked women, age 14, I did not have the vocabulary to even express what I felt, nor to understand the complexities of sexuality and identity.

I had no problem at the time feeling proud of being African, so I wouldn't say I was being pushed I away. I felt more challenged about my African identity when I moved to the UK and Belgium.

Having to hide who I am, or act a certain way to keep the peace around relatives for fear of causing arguments, were the times I really felt pushed from my identity. People fear what they do not understand. And when someone doesn't understand what it is to truly be themselves and love who they are, then I'm really not surprised that there is such resistance to having an open mind.

Brook
Silver Spring, USA

The LGBTQ community was a lot more accepting for me, so it was easy to distance myself from my African culture. But I've always been deeply rooted in my Ethiopian culture, history and even religion. Support from a few people in the Ethiopian community helped a lot. But more than anything, rediscovering old Ethiopian music made me realize that I have as much right of heritage as any other Ethiopian.

With the exception of some people -- my brother and cousin -- I honestly don't feel accepted by my family. After lots of conversations, my family and I have reached an understanding to be civil with each other and be in one another's life as we need each other. But I don't feel accepted.

I think this sentiment (that being queer is "un-African") is due to Western influence during the colonial era and continual pressure now. There is lots of historic evidence showing LGBTQ inclusion in many African cultures' pre-colonial eras. Homophobia is what's foreign to the continent.

Samuel
Stockholm, Sweden

I identify as a queer person. I love how the term gives me the freedom to be as I am (and) how it allows me to express myself freely.

I had a hard time coming out and telling people around me about my queerness. It was probably one of the most difficult times of my life. I think a lot of Habesha (Ethiopians and Eritreans) queers can relate to that stress.

After a lot of soul-searching and a lot of struggle, and with the help of friends around, I started to dare more, to live as I wanted and it just got better. And the more I became myself, the more I loved myself. There is really not much that can be compared to being yourself. It is amazing!

Being accepted means just being able to be myself all the time without switching some sort of on-and-off switch.

My name is Nolizwe and it means "the nation" in Xhosa. Before, I went by Lizwe and in some cases Liz. I was ashamed of my name growing up and tired of everyone mispronouncing it, so I figured it would be easier to shorten it and not deal with any of the nonsense. As I continue to learn ways to love myself, I've fallen in love with my full name, and value its importance within my ancestral and personal journey.

My mom is supportive; my dad is a work in progress. I went to South Africa this past summer and it was the first time going back in five years. Since my last visit, I (appeared) more "masculine," so there was definitely a lot of thoughts around how to present myself, especially considering my visit was (for my grandmother's funeral). I'm pretty sure everyone knows about my queerness but it's definitely not talked about.

"Limitless Africans," published by FotoEvidence, is available from Oct. 11, 2019. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

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candid portraits explore the experiences of lgbtq african migrants - cnn

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Candid portraits explore the lives of LGBTQ African migrants

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Mikael Owunna is an American photographer of Nigerian and Swedish descent, and a finalist in the 2019 FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo. The following are edited excerpts of interviews carried out by Owunna for his new book, " Limitless Africans." I closed my eyes as the traditional priestess poured a basin of mysterious oils over me.

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Commercials are not afraid to play into the gender stereotypes. Women are often seen as sex symbols and men are a powerful leadership role.

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Prom is a very exciting part of many high school girls life. It is considered a right of passage to shop for your dress and plan your entire day. Prom is thought of by many as something women look forward to and not men

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This article talks about the very obvious division of toys into specific genders. They touch on the gender stereotypes kids today are exposed to.

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Sparkle Unicorns And Fart Ninjas: What Parents Can Do About Gendered Toys

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Toys are more pink and blue than ever before, experts say. But before you ban the sparkle unicorns and foam-dart blasters, consider other ways to help kids expand their play possibilities.

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This video shows the life of a family in Sweden choosing to raise a family in a gender neutral way. It talks about the family dynamic and what being gender neutral involves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sPj8HhbwHs

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This is an article that talks about the increase in gender reveal parties. It touches on how they play apart in assigning a gender personality to the unborn children.

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Gender reveal parties are both thoroughly modern and out-of-date. Why do they exist?

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Thoroughly modern ultrasound technology — and social media demands — led to the rise of deeply retro gender reveal parties.

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This article published in the Washington Post talks about the idea of white privilege in America especially how it is seen and looked over in schools.

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Seeing the picture on the medical school yearbook page of now-Gov. Ralph Northam (D) was a gut punch. A man in blackface standing next to someone else dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. That same 1984 keepsake from Eastern Virginia Medical School also featured students in other racist and offensive images. Three years earlier, under his otherwise stately photograph in the 1981 yearbook of the Virginia Military Institute, Northam listed one of his nicknames as "Coonman," a racial slur that evokes the worst caricature of African American men. One wonders if this was a sanitized version of a harsher moniker for someone having black friends.

When the stunning Northam story broke, countless political observers commented that Northam's 2017 Republican challenger Ed Gillespie should get his money back from his opposition research team. How could they miss something so incendiary, so blatantly racist? How could they resist making something public something that would brand a hypocrite the Democrat roasting Gillespie's rather Trumpian white nationalist campaign? For that matter, how could Northam and his own team not see this coming?

Northam's ugly yearbook photo and the racist origins of blackface

Perhaps they didn't see it because they saw nothing wrong with it. They couldn't because they were steeped in a deeply entrenched culture that demeaned, demoralized and dismissed African Americans. Northam said as much when he admitted to CBS's Gayle King that the controversy opened his eyes to "the way a white person such as myself is treated in this country" and that he "didn't realize really the powerful implications of that." This comment exemplifies the attitude that allowed such a halting photograph like that on Northam's 1984 medical yearbook page (or the other blackface and offensive photos) to be submitted without apology, printed without complaint.

Each character depicted is a moral affront to decency and our national ideals of freedom and equal justice under law. They are symbols of a system of oppression that far too many white Americans (like Northam, until this month) are content to ignore. Who can blame them given how bloody that system and its history are? But that ignorance has created a culture of complicity that continues to hobble our nation today.

As The Post reported in a story on the history of blackface, the racist practice was part of minstrel shows that started in the 1800s and used white actors with shoe-polish-blackened faces to exaggerate every aspect of black life. Blues musician Daryl Davis told The Post that the shows were meant "to depict false stereotypes of black people: the big lips, the lack of education, the poor clothing. ... It wasn't about trying to look black, but trying to look black in a way that portrays blacks negatively."

Such portrayals did something else. They cemented a universal inferior status for African Americans.

"Minstrelsy, comedic performances of 'blackness' by whites in exaggerated costumes and make-up, cannot be separated fully from the racial derision and stereotyping at its core," notes a history of blackface on the website of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. "By distorting the features and culture of African Americans - including their looks, language, dance, deportment, and character - white Americans were able to codify whiteness [italics theirs] across class and geopolitical lines as its antithesis." And as cultural historian Rhae Lynn Barnes writes in an eye-opening essay in The Post, wearing blackface once ranked up there with baseball and apple pie in national lore.

Yes, politicians wore blackface. It used to be all-American 'fun.'

"Blackface is as American as the ruling class," Barnes explains. "Throughout the 20th century, all-male fraternal orders, schools, federal agencies and the U.S. military collectively institutionalized the practice. Watching blackface performances was a common pastime for U.S. presidents from both parties. 'Blacking up' was seen as an expression of cultural heritage and patriotism throughout Jim Crow America ... and up until the civil rights movement."

Blackface wasn't the only way African Americans were caricatured. There were the depictions in books, magazines, household products, figurines, children's toys, postcards, arcade games, restaurants and countless other ways that reinforced the dehumanization of blacks in every aspect of American life. "Caricatures become rationalizations for the denial of opportunities," explained David Pilgrim, founder and curator of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University, in a video tour of the Michigan museum. "If you believe the caricature of African American men as 'coons,' meaning lazy, ne'er-do-wells, ignorant, people who are cultural parasites, if you perpetuate that caricature and accept that caricature, then that becomes a rationalization for denying African Americans the right to vote, to attend good schools. It becomes a rationalization for supporting Jim Crow."

"The fact that school yearbooks of the 1980s normalized these discriminatory practices speaks volumes to the prevalence of racism in our society then and now," Daina Ramey Berry told me. Berry is an associate professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and author of " The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation."

The person dressed as a klansman

There is nothing funny about the Ku Klux Klan. With their burning crosses and other threats, KKK members used fear, intimidation and extrajudicial force against African Americans to maintain white supremacy and the Jim Crow laws that reinforced it. As Pilgrim says in the Jim Crow Museum video, "You cannot tell the story of America's race history or race relations in America's history without talking about the Klan."

One of the most gruesome ways the KKK enforced the color line was through lynchings. But more often than not, these extrajudicial killings were gruesome affairs that were carried out in front of large crowds that could number in the thousands. Entire towns and communities would take part. They would take photos with the lifeless body. They would make souvenirs of the victim's body parts. They would send postcards of the barbarity through the mail. Horrific actions that would embed fear into the DNA of African Americans for generations to come.

'Hey boy, you want to go see a hangin'?': A lynching from a white Southerner's view.

Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, told me about the appalling power of such violence on African Americans during an interview in 2017. "It basically communicated to African Americans: You will not be safe here. You are not secure here. Law enforcement can't protect you. Courts can't protect you. Congress can't protect you. You are at risk all the time. And if you do not comply, without wavering, to white supremacy to racial hierarchy then this will be what happened to you," he said.

"Black people were lynched for things like walking too close to a white woman, for asking for better wages, for preaching equality," Stevenson told me last year just before the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, also known as the Lynching Memorial, in Montgomery, Ala. "So when we talk about racial terror lynchings, we're talking about the racialized violence that was directed at African Americans, following emancipation, to reinforce racial hierarchy, to reinforce white supremacy."

According to "Lynching in America," a report from EJI first released in 2015, Virginia had 84 documented lynchings of African Americans between 1877 and 1950, the fewest among the Southern states. Neighboring North Carolina and Kentucky had 123 and 168 documented lynchings, respectively. Mississippi had the most with 654.

In the early hours of March 14, 1889, a group of 70 to 100 masked men removed Magruder Fletcher from jail. The black man was accused of " outraging" a white woman (a crime that likely meant rape). "On Thursday morning, the 14th, ... a party of some seventy masked men took him from jail and hung him to the limb of a pine tree about a mile from Onancock," read a report in the Staunton Spectator on March 27, 1889. "Four shots were fired into his body. On his breast was pinned a paper bearing the words, 'We will protect our wives and daughters.'"

An earlier story in the Shenandoah Herald detailed how Fletcher's body was visited by "hundreds of people" who "carried away branches of the tree on which the negro paid the penalty of his terrible crime." It further noted that Fletcher's "crime was one of the most outrageous ever committed here, and public opinion is with the lynchers. There was not a shadow of a doubt as to his guilt." The story ends by reporting that "there will be no further legal proceedings in the case."

On Virginia's rural Eastern Shore, Northam's views of race took root

On March 25, 1889, the Alexandria Gazette announced the death of the woman Fletcher was alleged to have attacked and noted that the citizens of a nearby community "were so incensed and infuriated over the crime of the negro that several days after he was lynched numerous colored residents of the Neck were notified to leave, which they hastily did."

The Post reports that in August 1907, the tiny Eastern Shore Virginia town of Onancock was rocked by a race riot that resulted in a black man being beaten. "Although a large group of white men burned and shot bullets into black-owned shops," reads the story, "no whites were arrested."

Onancock is in Accomack County. It is where Northam's great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather owned slaves, ages 1 year old to 60 years old, between 1850 and 1860. And it is where the future governor Northam would be raised 340 years after the first Africans landed in Virginia, 70 years after the Fletcher lynching and 52 years after the race riot.

"This culture of fear created an environment in which African Americans who witnessed lynchings or lost family or friends to racial violence were afraid to discuss their experiences and risked violent reprisals if they dared to openly share what they had seen," EJI asserted in the third edition of its report on lynching in America. "Their trauma was intensified by a culture of silence about racial violence that grew out of the same systemic terror that produced racial violence."

To make matters worse, the composition of lynching spectators compounded the terror. The EJI report explained: "The crowds of hundreds or thousands of white people attending as participants or spectators included elected officials and prominent citizens; white press coverage regularly defended the lynchings as justified; and cursory investigations rarely led to identifications of lynch mob members, much less prosecutions."

The lynching memorial ends our national silence on racial terror

Finally, the EJI report notes, "Generations of white people were raised in communities where myths of racial superiority dominated and went largely unchallenged. Many of those people hold powerful positions today." In reading those words, I couldn't help but think of Northam, who now finds himself challenged by his past and is finding difficulty coming to grips with it in the present.

Northam said he didn't learn about the racial offensiveness of blackface until a discussion about the photo fiasco "with a person of color." During an interview with CBS's Gayle King, the governor noted that in 1619, "the first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores." King interrupted Northam to say, "also known as slavery." He told King that one of the things he learned that he didn't now before the controversy was, "I was born in white privilege. ... It is much different the way a white person such as myself is treated in this country." Adding, after King asked if he really didn't know that before, "I knew I was ... but I didn't realize really the powerful implications of that." That response and the yearbook controversy demonstrate the depth of the cultural cave from which the governor must emerge.

I still believe Northam should resign, but it looks as though he's going to "brazen it out." That's what conservative commentator Charlie Sykes calls it when politicians get caught up in a scandal that demands their stepping down but they don't - and survive in office. (See: Trump.) So, since Northam is going to hang on despite his offense, I'm glad he says he is now dedicating himself to racial equity. But he's going to have to do more than read Ta-Nehisi Coates and "Roots" by Alex Haley or go on a "reconciliation tour" to talk about race and healing. He must do more difficult, less passive things.

Mitch Landrieu on the Confederacy: 'I wanna gently peel people's hands off of a false narrative of history'

I want Northam to contact the National Memorial for Peace and Justice to start the process of securing all of the monuments to the 84 documented lynching victims in Virginia, starting with the one for Magruder Fletcher.

I want him to speak out against the shameful celebrations of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson in the state legislature.

And I want Northam to internalize the history he's finally learning and become a rhetorical sledgehammer against the conspiracy of silence that has cloaked his life and hobbles our nation. Do those things and Northam will have made a good headway on his newfound mission.

"This is really an opportunity ... to really have a frank dialogue and discussion about race and equity in this country," Northam told King. We've had so many of these opportunities. You couldn't get more frank than former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu was in his speech when he removed Confederate monuments from the Crescent City in 2017. It's about time another white Southerner in elective office took the lead.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @Capehartj. Subscribe to Cape Up, Jonathan Capehart's weekly podcast

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Opinion | 'White privilege' in America: The blissful ignorance of Ralph Northam

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Seeing the picture on the medical school yearbook page of now-Gov. Ralph Northam (D) was a gut punch. A man in blackface standing next to someone else dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. That same 1984 keepsake from Eastern Virginia Medical School also featured students in other racist and offensive images.