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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
December 10, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Nick Kristof and the Holy War on Pornhub
Having declared victory in its war on Backpage and sex work, the liberal-conservative coalition has pivoted to porn.
December 2, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Girlboss Feminism of Joe Biden’s Cabinet
The boys’ club hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s just accepting a few new members.
November 23, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Dangerous Inversions of the Debate Around Trans “Censorship”
The author of a book on the supposed “transgender craze seducing our daughters” claims she is being silenced. It is a very loud silence.
November 7, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant, Nick Martin, Katie McDonough, J.C. Pan
The Election Is Over. Here’s a Vision From the Left for the Next Four Years.
Organizers and thinkers on where we are in the major fights of our moment—from prison abolition to climate justice and the housing crisis—and where we go next.
November 4, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Nothing Was Inevitable About This Election
We are facing a series of contradictions, expressed in big and small ways. Learn the wrong lessons, and we’re doomed.
November 3, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Violence and Hope in Texas Is Our Future
The state has seen an inspiring expansion of the progressive grassroots—and the mobilization of increasingly desperate state and private militants.
October 30, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Quiet Suppression of Trans Voters
“Trans people don’t know if that polling place is going to be safe. We don’t know if any place is going to be safe.”
October 28, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Getting Out the Vote in the Maze of Mass Incarceration
Denying people the vote is presumed—wrongly—to be part of the deprivation of being locked up.
October 27, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
We Can’t Trust Cops to Protect the Polls
Election officials have to reckon with the reality that the police may be a threat to free and fair elections.
October 20, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
An Anti-Rape Movement Without Police
A case out of Wisconsin reveals how fragile—and superficial—coalitions between anti-violence organizations and police really are.
October 14, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Amy Coney Barrett’s Gentle Deceptions
The Supreme Court nominee would have us believe she’s just a vessel for the law, but her rise to conservative power tells the real story.
October 7, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Imagining the Post-Trump Internet
The idea that social media platforms need to be made civilly or even criminally liable for harmful content appears to be gaining ground in Congress.
September 29, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Elite Sisterhood of Amy Coney Barrett
Her nomination to the Supreme Court isn’t just about overturning Roe. It’s about redefining womanhood.
September 22, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Accelerating Attack on Trans Student Athletes
The Trump administration’s fight to dismantle trans students’ rights is a reminder of how fragile Supreme Court victories really are.
September 19, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the End of the One Great Woman Myth
The meme-ification of the justice was just one part of the brand-driven, girl-bossed, leaned-in conception of women’s freedom in which it incubated.
September 17, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
ICE Is the New Face of America’s Legacy of Forced Sterilization
“What would it mean to give consent to be sterilized in a prison or detention center?”
September 15, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Era of Disaster Militiaism in America
The vigilantes running wildfire checkpoints in Oregon are the latest right-wing militants to take advantage of a crisis.
August 31, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Far-Right Militias Are Learning Impunity From the Cops
Trump’s supporters in law enforcement and government play Kenosha as both a threat of what’s to come and an invitation to join in.
August 27, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Real, Paranoid Housewives of the Republican Convention
Patricia McCloskey and Kimberly Guilfoyle are a new twist on a dangerous lineage of conservative women.
August 24, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
When “Police Reform” Came to Kenosha, Wisconsin
Jacob Blake was critically injured when cops shot him in the back on Sunday. Six years ago, a new law was supposed to bring change.

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Kate AronoffClimate & Energy
Matt FordLaw & The Courts
Melissa Gira GrantLGBTQ Rights
Jason LinkinsPower & Plutocracy
Timothy NoahPolitics & Economy
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