IW Features

In late June, over 3,000 delegates attended the Daughters of the American Revolution’s 135th Continental Congress in Washington, D.C. What was supposed to be a three-hour Special Order of Business meeting turned into 12 hours as members debated a contentious topic: whether the organization would adopt a formal definition of the word “woman” in its National Bylaws.

At 13-years-old, Jonni Skinner was made to believe he had somehow been born in the wrong body. Adults in white coats told him he had a medical condition that required medical intervention. He was diagnosed as transgender after just one appointment, referred to specialists, prescribed hormone blockers and estrogen, and assured that transition was the only path he could walk for a livable future. Today, Skinner believes something very different.

Last month, Independent Women’s Center for American Safety and Security brought together some of the brightest foreign policy thinkers for an honest debate on the threat Russia poses to the U.S. The day-long seminar featured a variety of perspectives on how the U.S. might best deal with this threat, but one point of consensus was that the conversation itself is vital—especially now.

Kristy Borrego Ojinaga has spent her entire life in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s where she was raised, where her family is rooted, and where she chose to raise her own children. For generations, she said, it has been the kind of place where families could trust the institutions around them—until now. The state has slowly changed, Ojinaga said, and like most parents, she first saw the effects at the edges.

Carrie Balkcom grew up on a cow-calf ranching operation in rural Florida. Raising calves for sale, she said few people thought about whether their beef was grass-fed, but that was during a time when local American farms were still the bedrock of many communities. Today, many of those farms have been lost to large, industrialized operations—or outcompeted by overseas production—and this change has had a ripple of consequences for American communities, consumers, and land.

As our great nation celebrated its 250th birthday, Americans found themselves caught up in a wave of patriotism launched by the most unexpected of sources: European soccer fans. This June, the FIFA World Cup was held in the United States for the first time since 1994. As European tourists experienced American culture for the first time, they helped rekindle national pride.

During what should have been a time of celebration, high school student Sarianne Beronja found herself caught in a battle over whether she could express her faith during graduation. This past spring, Arrowhead High School in Merton, Wisconsin, blocked Beronja from including either a Bible verse or a reference to God in the slideshow at her graduation ceremony.

This week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states can protect female-only sports. In a 6-3 decision on West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, the court has defended female athletes like me—and our right to fair play. Coming on the heels of Women’s Sports Week and the 54th anniversary of Title IX, the federal statute that enshrined the right to sex-separate spaces and opportunities in education, the ruling is a victory for female athletes across America.

Denise Lever’s journey to being an education freedom advocate started in the Oregon wilderness, where she kept watch for deadly wildfires and lived off grid. At just 18-years-old, before drones and heat-sensing technology could be used to spot fire, Lever served as a first line of defense on a watchtower and later joined a crew to fight fires on the ground. “I spent two years as a fire lookout on a 60-foot tower in [the] middle of eastern Oregon,” Lever told IW Features.

Growing up in deep blue Santa Fe, Dana Tapia didn’t think much could still surprise her. But when her 6-year-old son Levi witnessed inappropriate behavior from a male student who identified as female, she realized that radical gender ideology had infiltrated even the first-grade classroom. “I thought that this happened more in junior high or high school,” she told IW Features.