Skip Navigation
Author

Melissa Gira Grant

Melissa Gira Grant is a staff writer at The New Republic, the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (published by Verso), and the co-director of They Won’t Call It Murder (executive produced by Field of Vision). She was a senior reporter at The Appeal, and a contributing writer at The Village Voice and Pacific Standard.


All Articles
February 3, 2022
Melissa Gira Grant
To Trump, the Law Is Always White
In his attack on Black elected officials, Trump is harkening back to the worst of post-Reconstruction America.
August 9, 2021
MagazineMelissa Gira Grant
Behind the GOP Strategy to Outlaw Trans Youth
Activists are beating back Republicans’ virulent attacks on trans rights. But the battle is costing the trans community.
July 22, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Did FBI Informants Thwart or Encourage the Plot to Kidnap Gretchen Whitmer?
An explosive report on the plot against Michigan’s governor raises crucial questions about “anti-terror” enforcement, which can rest more on appearances than tangible change.
July 13, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
The Power of the State and the Christian Patriarch Fully Align in Texas
An anti-abortion law in the state marries a chaotic legal strategy with a long-standing tradition in denying women access: family and community surveillance and punishment.
June 30, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
The Damning Truth Behind Cop “Walkout” Stories
The New York Times and other news media are laundering an exaggerated narrative about besieged officers—one that’s meant to threaten anyone who questions police power.
June 23, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
The Real Story of the Bipartisan Anti–Sex Trafficking Bill That Failed Miserably on Its Own Terms
SESTA/FOSTA was never about trafficking victims. It was just a convenient lie its supporters liked to tell.
June 21, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Who Are the Police Protecting and Serving at Pride?
Demands to welcome cops at Pride amount to a collective hallucination, as if the policing of gender and sexuality by the state was a thing of the past.
June 9, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Will Biden’s Obsession With Compromise Poison His Agenda on LGBTQ Rights?
An opaque court filing in an anti-LGBTQ discrimination case has advocates asking if this administration will “bargain down” the rights of students to reach an uneasy peace with Republicans.
June 8, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
The New York Times’ Culture-War Definition of Free Speech
Michael Powell frames policing and racial justice as issues moving the ACLU away from its core mission around speech. It’s a false antagonism—and a trap.
May 20, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Bill Gates and Matt Gaetz Reveal the Shallow, Dangerous Truth About the American War on Sex Trafficking
There’s no great conspiracy at play in the crises unfolding around the philanthropist and the congressman—just the banal myopias of power.
May 4, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
The Right-Wing War on Trans Youth Was Hiding in Plain Sight
Conservatives’ moral panic over Drag Queen Story Hour set the stage for the anti-trans bills flooding Republican legislatures today—and the same hate groups are behind it all.
April 28, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
On Biden’s American Families Plan and Resisting the Conservative Politics of Care
The president’s forthcoming proposal on care could both meaningfully address the current crisis and open up space for more radical demands about work and family life.
April 20, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Derek Chauvin Was Not an Aberration
State prosecutors argued, and a jury agreed, that George Floyd’s death was outside the boundaries of good policing. But the truth was more ambiguous, and tellingly so.
April 20, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Republicans’ Criminalization of Protest and Cops’ Crackdown on Journalists Go Hand in Hand
While police in Minneapolis assault reporters, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is endorsing violence against demonstrators. It’s time for journalists to put up a fight.
April 14, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Once Again, Police Rally Around Their Death-Dealing Power
Daunte Wright was dead. Minnesota police raised a “thin blue line” flag, claiming their deadly force with a mark of pride.
April 8, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
What Kind of Monster Is Matt Gaetz?
What we already know about the Florida congressman is plenty contemptible and corrosive without having to fall back on pernicious myths about sex trafficking.
March 31, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
The Republican Disinformation Campaign Behind Arkansas’s Vile Anti-Trans Law
Even before the vote was called, the bill’s supporters were given the floor to cast doubt on trans peoples’ lives.
March 29, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Derek Chauvin’s Defense Puts Black Lives Matter on Trial
If George Floyd was somehow culpable in his own death, the defense seemed to argue, then so were the bystanders.
March 24, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
Saying Never Again to the Violence in Atlanta Means Saying No to More Policing
Massage workers and sex workers know how to fight the kind of extraordinary violence we saw last week. It’s time we listened.
March 17, 2021
Melissa Gira Grant
The Right’s Fight Against LGBTQ Rights Is More Than a Culture War
The power to control people’s lives through institutionalized bias, stigma, and violence is key to the Republican project. That’s why they hate the Equality Act.

Our Writers

Kate AronoffClimate & Energy
Matt FordLaw & The Courts
Melissa Gira GrantLGBTQ Rights
Jason LinkinsPower & Plutocracy
Timothy NoahPolitics & Economy
Ellie Quinlan HoughtalingBreaking News
Edith OlmstedBreaking News
Hafiz RashidBreaking News
Greg SargentPolitics & Democracy
Grace SegersCongress & Elections
Alex ShephardPolitics & Media
Heather Souvaine HornClimate Change
Michael TomaskyPolitics & Ideas
About The New Republic’s history