Let’s say you’re like me: a person between the age of 18 and 50 with a uterus. Imagine you work a job that pays the bills, but you don’t have as much time off as you’d like, and working from home isn’t an option. When you find out you’re pregnant, you decide—for any number of […]
Author: Lil Kalish
I Escaped the Trauma of Homelessness—Only to Face Your White Savior Complex
This is the true story of what happened when all the trauma was supposed to be over, when I left my “home” on the park bench on the outskirts of Salt Lake City for the last time in 2017. People like to call this transitional period an “emergence,” lending a triumphal note to the narrative—the […]
I Drove More Than 1,000 Miles to Help a Texan Get an Abortion
Last month, Texas legislators passed Senate Bill 8, banning abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. For the Austin-based Bridge Collective, which provides transportation and accommodations to people in central Texas seeking abortions, that forced a radical shift in operations. Many members began coordinating out-of-state trips for their clients. Some traveled to neighboring New Mexico and […]
The California Recall Effort Has Officially Failed
California voters have chosen to retain Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in the state’s high-profile gubernatorial recall election, with early results giving the first-term governor a landslide 70-30 mandate to remain in office. That means the Democratic-leaning state, which last recalled a governor in 2003, will retain its mask and vaccine mandates, its minimum wage, and […]
The Strip Club Boss Who Said: “Dancers Are Like Cockroaches. They’re Drawn to the Sugar.”
When the pandemic hit, dancers from Jumbo’s Clown Room, a popular Los Angeles joint—part dive bar, part strip club—were out of a job. To make money with the world shuttered, they created Cyber Clown Girls: an online show that became explosively popular, reaching thousands of viewers, many outside of the city. For the first time, […]
How the Pandemic Prepared Texas Abortion Networks for the Worst
Anna Rupani woke up last Wednesday to grim news: Texas, her home state, now banned abortion after six weeks of pregancy—effectively barring 95 percent of procedures. The night before, she’d waited anxiously for a last-minute Supreme Court injunction against the law. It didn’t come. Rupani is a co-executive director of Fund Texas Choice, an Austin […]