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Why I Won’t Shut Up About Being Queer

By Christina M. Xiao
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Being vocally, unabashedly, look-at-me-once-and-it’s-so-obvious queer is important to me. (Once a girl at a party asked me if I was, verbatim, “not straight,” and I rode that elation for a solid week afterward). It’s my way of saying I am here and I have gone through so much strife, internal and external, to be here and so conspicuously queer in front of you, and I’ll do it again.

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Op Eds

What’s It Like To Have Two Moms?

I am the oldest child of two moms in a progressive town once dubbed “Lesbianville, USA,” which boasts a women’s college, a 35,000-participant annual gay pride parade, and a population of two-mom families over five times the national average. My moms, my younger twin sisters, and I are blissfully normal here. But when I tell people outside of my hometown — at Harvard, at my summer internships, near my grandparents’ house, when I travel — that I have two moms, they have a lot of questions.

Op Eds

Don’t Call What Israel is Doing Apartheid

Apartheid, to the people it has directly affected, refers to something quite distinct and I would like to give those events their own sanctified space in our language.

Op Eds

Progressive, Except for Palestine

We must organize behind the cause of Palestinian liberation until equal rights are guaranteed for all citizens in Israel and Palestine. It is worth all of us considering how the funding channeled to Israel is being used. It is equally vital to assess to what extent America’s support for Israel’s “right to defend itself” is encroaching on Palestinians’ right to exist.

Opinion's Choice

  1. Four First Steps for a Better Editorial Board
  2. The Language of “Merit” Divides Immigrants When We Most Need Solidarity
  3. Dismissals and Disparity: Racial Inequity in Harvard’s Biostatistics Department
  4. 'Just' Visiting?
  5. Harvard Should Tread Cautiously With Kavanaugh

Editorials

By The Crimson Editorial Board

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Harvard’s Hard Reset Is Our Shot at a New Normal

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We are the architects of post-pandemic Harvard; we must use this opportunity wisely, thinking carefully about which structures to tear down and which to build up.

Wartime Harvard

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Wartime Harvard had many fronts to fight on. It largely chose one.

Something To Hope For

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The flashbulb issues that students at Harvard have been rallying around, including immigration and affirmative action, coincide neatly with the tide of opinions growing more popular among young people across the nation. More than 100 days into the Biden presidency — and, insanely, more than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic — there have been double-digit expansions in support for “progressive” ideas among young people (or what the survey labels as such, anyway). And, if you sift through the shift in America’s ideological landscape, a swell of hope jumps out.

Op-Eds

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Why We Stand With Israel

We maintain that Israel, like all countries, has numerous problems. And, like other democracies, it addresses those problems through its legal system, its commitment to open discussion, and with a populace that has always been willing to seek peace and change for the better. We understand that some well-intentioned BDS supporters are frustrated with the conditions in Gaza and what they see as a lack of progress in implementing a two-state solution. However, BDS is no remedy to these problems.

Boycott Israeli Apartheid: If Not Now, When?

Harvard has a clear choice: It can either stand with Palestinians in their struggle for freedom or it can persist in siding with their oppressors. The physical safety and emotional wellbeing of Palestinian Harvard students, alumni, and their families lie in the balance.

Class of 2021: Withhold Donations Until Harvard Divests

Our time as college student organizers may now be drawing to a close, but the need for fossil fuel divestment is more urgent than ever. For Harvard to serve its country and humankind, it must disentangle itself from fossil fuels and embrace a just and stable future. But it won’t do so without pressure. That’s why we are pledging to withhold any donations to Harvard until the University announces a commitment to fully divest from the fossil fuel industry.

Columns

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Surfing and Suffering: Late Night Conversations about Mental Health

In this column, one thing I have mentioned, but not emphasized enough, is the value of having conversations about mental health. So, when I suddenly remembered that I needed to write the last piece for my column while over at my friend’s house on Sunday evening, I decided to ask the guys I was with a few questions about mental health — feeling like it was an appropriate way to wrap things up. And I learned more than a few things as they answered my questions (perhaps, most notably, how a few drinks could turn them into “surfer-bros”).

Embracing Uncertainty

By Julie Heng
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To increase understanding of science, then, it is necessary to acknowledge and contextualize uncertainty, not hype up or ignore it, both to the public and among scientists. We must embrace uncertainty as we continue along this endless frontier.

Vegans Have a Right to Choose, Too

There are many complicated reasons why each of us consumes the food we do. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, vegan or meatatarian, we can agree that we have the right to maintain our diets of choice. Let’s work together to make sure that everyone has that right by ensuring that the diversity of meal offerings reflects the diverse preferences of Harvard’s student body.

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