Writer, photographer, researcher specializing on gender, sexuality, the environment, and human rights in the US and around the globe.
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Articles by J. Lester Feder
The Queer Face of War: Portraits and Stories from Ukraine
Portraits and Stories from Ukraine Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world Description Award-winning photographer and journalist J. Lester Feder shows us The Queer Face of War in this remarkable collection of stunning portraits and moving profiles, capturing the many ways queer people can be vulnerable in armed conflict—and the many ways they feel especially called to fight. Queer people’s experiences of war have largely been invisible.
Verschleppt, gefoltert - und auch im Konflikt mit den eigenen Leuten: Wie queere Menschen in der Ukraine unter dem Krieg leiden
Über die Schicksale queerer Menschen in Kriegen hat der Journalist und Fotograf J. Lester Feder mehrfach berichtet, etwa in Syrien, im Irak und in Afghanistan. Doch niemals konnte er ihre Namen verwenden oder Gesichter zeigen. Diese relative Unsichtbarkeit queerer Menschen in Kriegsgebieten führte oft dazu, dass sie bei Friedenssicherung, humanitärer Hilfe und juristischen Aufarbeitungsprozessen nach Kriegsende übergangen wurden.
The Queer Face of War moving to Beehiiv
Thanks so much for supporting me as I wrote and photographed The Queer Face of War. Your contribution really helped, and your support means a lot to me. The book has just launched in Europe, and I’ve …
Award/The Queer Face of War goes to Press!
Last weekend NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists awarded an Excellence in Journalism Award for an essay adapted from The Queer Face of War and published in The New York Times last year. The piece told the story of Oleksii Polukhin, a survivor of queer persecution by Russian forces, and argued that targeting queer people in armed conflict should be prosecuted as a crime against humanity. NLGJA recognized the essay for excellence in opinion writing. This award comes at an exciting time.
30- i 40-latkowie nie mogą liczyć nawet na kryzys wieku średniego. "Nie zaryzykowałbym teraz"
Czytaj także w BUSINESS INSIDER W klasycznym wyobrażeniu kryzysu wieku średniego, tym, na którym wychowało się wielu milenialsów i przedstawicieli pokolenia X, człowiek kupuje czerwony sportowy samochód i zrzuca z siebie wszelkie oznaki dorosłości. Badania wskazują, że kryzys ten dotyka od 10 do 20 proc. ludzi, zwykle w czwartej lub piątej dekadzie życia. Ale taki moment zwątpienia może też być oczyszczający.
30- i 40-latkowie nie mogą liczyć nawet na kryzys wieku średniego. "Nie zaryzykowałbym teraz"
Milenialsów nie stać dziś na kryzys wieku średniego José (poprosił, by nie podawać jego nazwiska) ma ustabilizowane życie i karierę. Marzy o tym, by wszystko to rzucić. Ma 42 lata i od dwóch dekad pracuje w branży cyberbezpieczeństwa. Zarabia sześciocyfrową kwotę rocznie, mieszka z dziewczyną pod Dallas, stać go na pokrycie wszystkich podstawowych wydatków i odkładanie na emeryturę. Ale jego praca już go nie ekscytuje.
Warum Millennials das Gefühl haben, sich keine Midlife Crisis leisten zu können
Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI Ältere Millennials in den USA kommen jetzt in die Phase der klassischen Midlife-Crisis. Doch obwohl sie gerne ihr Leben umkrempeln würden, haben sie das Gefühl sich die Sinnkrise zwischen Inflation, Massenentlassungen und KI-Entwicklung nicht mehr leisten zu können. Die Midlife Crisis steckt also selbst in der Krise – und Millennials haben das Gefühl, festzustecken. Experten und Coaches erklären, was ihr tun könnt. José hat ein stabiles Leben und eine stabile Karriere.
What Millennials Really Need Is a Midlife Crisis. Too Bad They Can't Afford One Original
José has a stable life and career. He wishes he could blow it all up. The 42-year-old has worked in cybersecurity for two decades and earns a six-figure salary. He lives with his girlfriend outside Dallas and earns enough to cover their basic expenses and put some money away for retirement. But he's no longer energized by his work.
Los 'millennials' entran el pánico por la jubilación
Una jubilación con viajes, buena comida y estabilidad financiera, como la de muchos boomers, parece cada vez más inalcanzable para las nuevas generaciones. Aunque sigamos todos los consejos financieros, la incertidumbre climática y económica hace que soñar con una jubilación estable parezca cada más difícil. Para celebrar el 80 cumpleaños de mi padre, mi familia alquiló una encantadora casa de campo en la Toscana y pasamos una semana disfrutando de grandes comidas y vinos italianos de calidad.
Rise of Millennial Retirement Panic: People Worry Saving Isn't Enough Original
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . To celebrate my father's 80th birthday, my family rented a lovely farmhouse in Tuscany and spent a week gorging ourselves on epic meals and fine Italian wines. It was a fitting cap to my father's already pretty great retirement. As octogenarians, my parents have more disposable income than they've ever had.
The Ukrainians on my mind today
Reverend Yunus Coldman at a vigil for Sam Nordquist. Last week, I went to a vigil for Sam Nordquist, a transman who was tortured and murdered in upstate New York. When it began, the organizers announced that two other trans people who had recently been murdered would also be honored that night.
The New Queer Purge
It’s been a busy summer. While working to find a publisher for The Queer Face of War, I’ve also been reporting a couple magazine pieces about sexuality and gender persecution in wars beyond Ukraine. One published this week in Foreign Policy, looking at how the homophobia Russia is deploying in its conquest of Ukraine is affecting queer people at home. In January, Russians learned the government had declared the “International LGBT Movement” an “extremist” organization in a secret proceedings.
Heading to Kyiv
Hello dear friends! Thanks for being my first subscribers! I arrived in Warsaw yesterday from New York, and tomorrow I head to Kyiv. Some of you have asked about the logistics of getting to Ukraine during the war. The airspace is closed, so the easiest way to go is by train. Tomorrow morning I’ll take a train from Warsaw to the border, wait a couple hours, and then board an overnight train to Kyiv. That trip takes 14 hours, but it’s not so bad because it’s in a sleeper car.
Queer stories matter to Ukraine - and to the world.
We've never had a war where so many LGBTQ people are willing to be out about their experiences. And they're fighting a government that has made homophobia an explicit weapon of war. The Queer Face of War is the first broad documentary project showing how queer people can be especially vulnerable in conflict — and how they can feel particularly called to fight for their communities. And for queer people, visibility is power.
My NYT Cover on Queer Persecution in Ukraine
The New York Times published my essay this morning about Russian persecution of queer Ukrainians, in which I argue LGBTQ persecution should be treated as a crime against humanity. It is slated to be the cover story of the print edition of Sunday Opinion. This comes from reporting I did in Ukraine last fall and in the several months since my return.
From Pride Volunteer to Soldier
Hello from Ukraine, where the beautiful fall weather turned cold and rainy this morning. I wanted to share with you a complete sample chapter from The Queer Face of War to give you an idea of what the book will look like when it’s finished. The complete work will include some 30 to 50 profiles of different people.
New in the New Yorker: The Pursuit of Gender Justice
It may be hard to believe, but international law has never punished armed groups persecuting women on the basis of gender. For The New Yorker, I teamed up with my colleague Jina Moore to write about a landmark case from the International Criminal Court that found for the first time that an armed group committed gender persecution. This is the same charge that queer rights advocates hope can someday also be used to prosecute LGBTQ persecution.
Health information exchanges supply missing public health data
Republish this article <h1>Weaving data into the fabric of public health</h1> <p>The field is finding new and creative approaches to how it uses data.</p> <p>Written by J. Lester Feder</p> <p>This <a rel="canonical" href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/tech-innovation/health-information-exchanges-supply-missing-public-health-data/">article</a> originally appeared in<a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/">Harvard Public Health magazine</a>.
Community information exchanges quench health data droughts
Republish this article <h1>Community information exchanges quench health data droughts</h1> <p>Data-sharing models from San Diego and Chicago could provide a roadmap for the rest of the country.</p> <p>Written by J. Lester Feder</p> <p>This <a rel="canonical" href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/tech-innovation/community-information-exchanges-quench-health-data-droughts/">article</a> originally appeared in<a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/">Harvard Public Health magazine</a>.
One man’s recovery is helping other families through the grief of overdose deaths
Republish this article <h1>One man’s recovery is helping other families through the grief of overdose deaths</h1> <p>“It was like a saving grace to find Levi,” said one woman after her brother's death from opioids.</p> <p>Written by J. Lester Feder</p> <p>This <a rel="canonical" href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/mental-health/opioid-deaths-leave-families-behind-hes-there-to-help/">article</a> originally appeared in<a href="https://harvardpublichealth.org/">Harvard Public Health magazine</a>.
The Pursuit of Gender Justice
In the spring of 2012, members of a militia known as Ansar Dine seized control of Timbuktu, in Mali. The militia, which was working with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, meant to restore “proper” Islam to a city it saw as corrupted by secular influence. It forbade women from wearing jewelry, leaving the house at night, being alone with men other than their husbands, and even from speaking to their own brothers-in-law and cousins.
The Court Decision Driving the LGBT Community Into Exile
Human Rights Russia In March, a little-known volunteer organization dedicated to “reviving the religious and secular unity of the Russian people” escorted agents from the Internal Affairs Ministry and the Russian National Guard on a raid in the remote city of Orenburg, a city of 500,000 near the Kazakh border.
My talk to the NYC Bar Association
The Queer Face of War Ukraine is the first country under siege that has so many queer people willing to publicly tell their stories and show their faces. The Queer Face of War captures their stories and portraits. For queer people, visibility is power. No thanks
Russia’s Persecution of L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians Should Be a Crime Against Humanity - The New York Times
Opinion|‘Wear It or We Will Beat You to Death’ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/15/opinion/ukraine-russia-putin-crimes.html You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Oleksii Polukhin’s 64 days in detention began when Russian soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint.
"Gej nie może być patriotą”. Putin po raz kolejny strzela sobie w stopę. Ci Ukraińcy mu za to podziękują [OPINIA]
We wtorek 7 marca do ukraińskiego parlamentu wniesiono propozycję ustawy, która przyznaje prawa partnerskie parom tej samej płci. Jeszcze rok temu byłoby to nie do pomyślenia. Wspomniane ustawodawstwo, wraz z przyjętym w grudniu zakazem mowy nienawiści wobec osób LGBTIQ, odzwierciedla porażkę działań Rosji, która chciała podzielić Ukraińców i wykorzystać ich homofobię do własnych celów związanych z inwazją.
Opinion | How Russia’s War Against Ukraine Is Advancing LGBTQ Rights
Ukrainian soldiers Oleksandr Zhygan, 37, and Antonina Romanova, 37, who are a couple say goodbye before leaving for the front. In the past year, queer people have achieved unprecedented visibility in the military as Ukraine fights to preserve its sovereignty. | Edgar Su/Reuters J. Lester Feder is a journalist and senior fellow with the global LGBTIQ organization Outright International, which is supporting 27 queer organizations in Ukraine through the war.
Taliban persecution against LGBTIQ Afghans heightens
Viewpoint “I hope those considering themselves trans allies feel embarrassed- transphobic faculty feel ashamed, & the university feel disgraced” By Eric Tannehill | MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada – Hi! I’m Eric Tannehill. The last time I contributed to the LA Blade about Trans students related issues was in 2020. I was in my senior year of high school and wrote about the importance of trans inclusivity in youth sports as a wave of anti-trans laws targeting kids were being passed around the country.
Taliban persecution against LGBTIQ Afghans heightens
When Pari, a 48-year-old gay man in Afghanistan, was beaten and forced into sex by Taliban officials, his body was so badly bruised that he told his family he had been in a car crash. Pari had tried to lay low after the Taliban captured control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021. He is a 48-year-old gay man who worked at a health clinic before the Taliban’s return to power, providing services to men who have sex with men.
Ukraine
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Gay Couple Struggles to Stay Together as War in Ukraine Rages On
Russian bombs brought Stepan and Maxim together. Now Russian bombs have driven them apart. The men, now both in their early thirties, were living almost 20 miles apart in the eastern Ukrainian region called the Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists went to war in 2014. They likely would not have met if not for a bomb that exploded in Maxim’s yard, blowing all the windows out of the house he shared with his parents.
Inside the Shelters Helping Trans Ukrainians Seek Refuge Original
Olha Poliakova first realized something was wrong at 5:20 a.m. when her cat leapt from his usual sleeping spot on her shoulder. As Poliakova entered consciousness, she was vaguely aware of a loud boom outside. She thought a truck driver had taken a shortcut through her neighborhood. "What an asshole," she thought. The sun wouldn't rise for another hour, but her martial arts class started at 7:30, so she figured she might as well start her day.
“People Are Not Coming Back to the Closet”: The Fight for Ukraine Is Also a Fight for LGBTQ Rights
“Now it’s like the whole international system is crashing,” Shevchenko told me. And in Ukraine, as we’ve seen in Afghanistan, Syria, and countless other conflicts around the world, LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups face special vulnerabilities in getting to safety. Earlier this week, armed men broke into the offices of the LGBTQ organization Nash Mir, beating four activists sheltering there.
“People Are Not Coming Back to the Closet”: The Fight for Ukraine Is Also a Fight for LGBTQ Rights
Anisha Kukreja 17h ago / 8:33 AM UTC Russian troops have encircled the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, as confirmed by the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence. Although there have been recurring attacks from Russian forces, a strategic city on the Azov Sea still remains under Ukraine’s control, officials said. …
Detroit's urban ballroom dancers have been hit hard by COVID, but the community aims to stay on the dance
J. Lester Feder Charlotte Andrews has hazy memories from the three weeks she spent on a ventilator in the early part of the pandemic: struggling so hard to disconnect the machines keeping her alive that the hospital staff tied down her hands. A nurse trying and failing a dozen times to insert a needle into her beleaguered veins. Being surrounded by other patients fighting their own battles against covid-19 right beside her.
Black Agenda Report
Remains that were found to be those of a Black MOVE teen-ager who was killed by Philadelphia police in 1985 were treated as an anthropological specimen. “The bodies of the six Black men and women and five Black children lay under the smoldering embers of the row house.” The police bombing of 6221 Osage Avenue, in Philadelphia, caused a level of trauma that is difficult to exaggerate.
First, Protesters Turned a Spotlight on Police Violence. Now They’ve Learned to Win in Court.
J. Lester Feder is a freelance journalist and 2020-2021 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow at the University of Michigan. Tammy Fournier-Alsaada was addressing a crowd in front of Ohio’s domed Capitol building one day last spring when someone whispered in her ear: Police were arresting protesters. Fournier-Alsaada, 59, knew a thing or two about protests. She was an organizer with the People’s Justice Project, which had been fighting police abuse in Columbus since 2015.
In a rare show of solidarity, Republicans and Democrats are working together to pass sweeping criminal justice reform in Michigan as the state's jail population grows out of control Original
Michigan lawmakers will have advanced more than two dozen criminal justice reform bills when they close the current session this week. Governor Whitmer created a bipartisan commission in 2019 to look at jails across the state to better understand the problem. Much of the reform effort is modeled on its recommendations. The overhaul aim to reduce the state's jail population, which has tripled over the past 3 decades even as crime rates have fallen to a 50-year low.
About | Lester Feder
I'm a writer, photographer, and musician who tells stories about how global forces shape our everyday lives. I've traveled to more than 40 countries, working from remote villages in Southeast Asia, inside the halls of the Vatican and the White House, and within oppressive regimes in Russia, Egypt, and Uganda.
US Once Defended LGBTQ. Now It's Part Of The Problem
My first job at BuzzFeed News in 2013 was something of an experiment: We wanted to cover LGBTQ rights worldwide as seriously as we cover wars or elections. Over the years that followed, I met LGBTQ refugees who'd fled ISIS in Syria, queer teens who escaped gang violence in El Salvador, and doctors in Japan trying to help win acceptance for transgender people. In retrospect, it seems obvious that these were stories that deserved to be told.
Black Agenda Report
Jussie Smollett, the Chicago Police Department, and the Appearing/Disappearing Video Footage Trick The cops “investigating” the Smollett case have long records of racist brutality, evidence tampering and lying – facts the corporate media ignored. “The nation heard a daily, jarring cacophony: CPD bragging about how great its detective work is.” They say tell it like is, so... It's 2019. Trump is president. Racist and general hate speech has become common.
Female Dems walk out of House contraceptive panel
Maloney and Norton left when the committee chair refused to seat a female witness. | AP Photos Two female Democrats walked out of a House oversight committee hearing on the contraceptive coverage rule Thursday morning, accusing Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) of manipulating committee rules to block female witnesses from testifying. "What I want to know is, where are the women?" asked Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) before walking out.
Some countries restricting LGBT rights despite global progress
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Struggle Among Progress as Countries Restrict L.G.B.T.Q. Rights
A Kenyan High Court ruling upheld laws criminalizing homosexuality, dismaying many who showed up to hear the decision in Nairobi on May 24. June 23, 2019 The world has been transformed in many ways in the 50 years since the uprising at the Stonewall Inn, with major shifts in the past decade alone on every continent. Same-sex marriage is now a reality throughout most of Western Europe, much of the Americas, as well as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
5 ways to kill ACA without repeal
Romney could begin to gut the law immediately by taking some passive-aggressive steps. 5 ways to kill ACA without repeal By J. LESTER FEDER 07/07/2012 04:35 PM EDT Even conservatives admit Mitt Romney’s promise to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law with an executive order might not work — but that doesn’t mean he’s out of luck.
Sanders and Varoufakis to Launch Progressive International
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is teaming up with former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to formally launch a new “Progressives International” in Vermont on Nov. 30, Varoufakis said in Rome on Friday. Varoufakis, who made the announcement during a Friday press conference in Rome, told BuzzFeed News they were also inviting incoming Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to join the new movement.
The Secret Players Behind Macedonia's Fake News Sites
by Saska Cvetkovska, Aubrey Belford, Craig Silverman, and J. Lester Feder 18 July 2018 Tweet this Share this on Facebook DONATE Above: A man reads a magazine near a newsstand in Skopje, Macedonia, 2017. Credit: Nake Batev / Getty Images A joint investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and partners has uncovered new information that rewrites the story of the fake news boom in the Macedonian town of Veles.
Top Susan G. Komen official resigns
Karen Handel was a former Republican candidate for governor in Georgia. Karen Handel, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure official who has been widely blamed for the Planned Parenthood fiasco, resigned Tuesday, signaling that the fallout from the defunding controversy is far from over. Handel’s resignation seemed inevitable to most observers after the group reversed its decision last week to cut off grants to Planned Parenthood.
Mozambique Decriminalizes Homosexuality - BuzzFeed News - Linkis.com
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