As a home-schooled child raised in Philadelphia, Mississippi, Mackenzie Gray didn’t have access to information about transgender people. The 39-year-old woman, now living in Birmingham, Alabama, thought she was just a gay man drawn to activities people typically labeled as feminine. But after meeting other trans women at drag performances […]
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When West Virginia House of Delegates member Eric Porterfield, R-Mercer, called the LGBT community “the modern-day version of the Ku Klux Klan” in an interview with a Charleston Gazette-Mail reporter last week, it drew condemnation not just in the state, but nationwide. But Porterfield, in fact, joined a long legacy […]
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Research suggests Appalachians experience poorer mental health outcomes than most Americans, but many residents already have access to a potential cure– right in their own backyards. A growing number of Appalachia-based nature enthusiasts are starting a movement to introduce the region to forest therapy, a healing activity alternatively known as […]
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In all but two Appalachian states, transgender workers have no state or federal protections if they are discriminated against or fired for their gender identity. However, a lawsuit up for consideration by the Supreme Court of the United States could change that — not just for Appalachian workers, but for […]
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When one of Maureen Abell’s undocumented clients was arrested on felony hit-and-run charges in Mecklenburg County in 2017, she told him to not to post bail. Paying that fee would almost guarantee that he ended up in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody, she said. “He sat in county jail […]
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Attorney Janice Craft still remembers the praise the Project for the Empowerment of Survivors (PES) received shortly after the legal assistance initiative started offering its services. Craft said PES, a new project run by the non-profit Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, helped a domestic violence survivor find a […]
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