Unhappy person lying lon a couch; their partner is frustrated in the background

There are a lot of reasons why folks are up-in-arms about “50 Shades of Grey.” Here are ten ways that the book (and their subsequent film) shows clear signs of abuse – especially emotional abuse, which can be harder to pinpoint if you’re not sure which red flags to pay attention to. Use this article as a guide for thinking through the relationship in “50 Shades.”

Read More

Despite progress in raising awareness of sexual violence, there are still those who attempt to lay people’s trauma on a spectrum with one end being “shut up, it’s not that bad” and the other end being “legitimate rape.” All this ends up doing is denying the pain of survivors. Here are four important things we need to do in order to abandon perpetrator logic.

Read More

Here’s a lesson for any cause: If we don’t get to the root of the issue, all we’re doing is pulling some individuals to safety while losing others. In combatting sexual violence, we must work to help survivors heal, seek justice, and find the new normal in their life, but that cannot be our only work. We must prevent sexual violence before it happens. But how do we do that? What does it look like?

Read More

If you do social justice work, you’ve undoubtedly suffered your fair share of abuse. And if you’ve been vocal about it, people have likely told you that “you must be doing something right” if people are angry. And I get their point. But sometimes, it doesn’t feel comforting. Here are some reasons why you might want to drop “you must be doing something right!”

Read More

So you’re going to be a gay parent? Congratulations! Don’t worry. This isn’t going to be one of those typical posts that tells you to stock up on diapers and learn CPR. I wanted to write this post specifically for you, the expectant gay parent, because there’s a whole lot of important parenting stuff they’re not going to cover in those baby classes that applies directly to you.

Read More