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A dozen people stand in two rows facing each other, eyes closed, holding rocks in their palms. Moments later they are traipsing through Central Park, following their guide. They arrive at a boulder-filled clearing and spread out, sprawling over rocks, sitting with their knees drawn up or standing silently. Over the course of a few […]
LGBTQ Ukrainians Face Persecution In Russian Invasion
Yevhen Trachuk left Kyiv on Feb. 28. After a week of hiding in metro stations at night to avoid bombs and spending his days drinking and smoking in his Kyiv apartment, Trachuk got on a train and went west, to the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Trachuk is a 25-year-old LGBTQ rights activist and works with […]
LGBTQ Adults Condemn Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill
Edward Martí Kring knew from a young age that he was different, but he couldn’t say the word gay. To him, gay was synonymous with bad, and he knew he was a good person. It wasn’t until he joined a confidential LGBTQ club at his Florida high school that he started to change his opinion […]
Expanding Drug Checking in Massachusetts Could Help Prevent Overdoses
In 2020, an estimated 92,000 Americans died of drug overdoses and fentanyl became the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-45, beating COVID-19 and suicide. In Massachusetts, fentanyl was found in 92 percent of drug overdoses from January 2020 to September 2021 where a toxicology screen was available. Advocates say this is a powerful […]
New Zealand Becomes First Country To Fully Legalize Drug Checking
Last week, New Zealand became the first country in the world to create legal protections for drug checking, a practice which allows individuals or organizations to test illicit drugs for dangerous contaminants. A number of other countries, including the Netherlands and Portugal, have informal drug checking structures in place, and drug checking organizations are common […]
Covid-19 Pandemic Decimates The Child Care Industry
Early last summer, the directors of The Katmint Learning Initiative had a series of heart-wrenching conversations with their staff. Given their dire financial situation, brought on by the pandemic, six of the Brooklyn center’s ten teachers would have to be laid off. They had already tried everything to keep their teachers employed. They applied for […]