When a Boy's Life Is Worth More Than His Sister's

A policy adopted in Eugene’s 4J School District has been creating safe spaces for transgender students from kindergarten through high school. Gender-inclusive programs at the University of Oregon have marked the school as a national leader in LGBTQ acceptance.

In a post-war Iraq, a salon has become a gathering place for women to share their stories of trauma, and heal. “The salon is necessary. For women to continue, they need it. Women must have it.”

The first Human Library emerged in 2000 in Copenhagen, and has since exploded in popularity to the point of operating chapters in more than 70 different countries. The concept is that readers should not judge a book by its cover, so in this library, actual people are the books available to read with titles like "Polyamorous", "Soldier (PTSD)", and "Refugee". The 30-minute "reading sessions" (face-to-face conversations) allow people to learn in a judgement-free zone and put a real person behind the story they are hearing.

In the nearly two years since Sweden broadened the definition of rape offenses to include cases in which a victim fails to signal consent, both the reports of alleged rapes and convictions have risen. During that time, 76 convictions were in cases that previously would not have been classified as rape because they lacked evidence of force, threat, or sex with an incapacitated victim. Rapes still go largely unreported to police and there's still no evidence that the new law will achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the incidence of rape.

Amid the pandemic, medical researchers and an abortion-rights advocacy group in the U.S. are working to make the abortion pill available via mail. Although there is ambiguity surrounding the rules and regulations of how the pill must be distributed to patients, some doctors have helped efforts by agreeing to register with F.D.A.-approved manufacturers and a handful of states are allowing the pill to be mailed after an in-person ultrasound has been conducted.

Qrate provides menstruation workshops at schools to teach young people about their bodies, good menstruation hygiene, and - importantly - to decrease the stigma, shame, and embarrassment associated with periods. The group presents to both girls and boys in order to address the health of non-binary, transgender, and intersex people who may menstruate, and to engage boys in fighting the stigma. In addition to providing the necessary products, the workshops use fun, child-friendly, lessons. The interactive activities and exercises have been more impactful than simply having someone lecture to students.

Better Reproductive Health, Better Communities Project is a partnership between nonprofits and medical providers working to increase awareness about unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, while also ensuring women have better access to high-quality post-abortion care. The project has focused on providing family planning and emergency contraception to women in low-income urban areas. Volunteer peer educators and social media has helped reach over 4,000 women, spreading information about sexual and reproductive health services and connecting women to quality abortion care.

Coaches and players around the world are using sports to teach boys about masculinity and the importance of integrity, both on and off the field. From cricket in India to rugby in Fiji, games are used as a foundation for teaching important life lessons and values. As a result, young men participating in these programs have been found less likely to show aggression and more likely to believe abuse against women is wrong.

Mayday Health is a health-education nonprofit that helps patients in states that have banned abortion figure out how to get abortions anyway. For people living in states where abortion is banned, Mayday provides step-by-step instructions for how to obtain abortion pills, as well as medical information about the safety and reliability of medication abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Ahead of a vote on a ballot measure that would have ensured that no right to abortion could ever be added to Kentucky's constitution, pro-choice activists connected with voters via protests and door-knocking campaigns. Their efforts focused on registering new voters and exploring the nuances of reproductive health care, and the amendment was successfully defeated by a margin of nearly 5 percentage points.