Matt Alderton

1 week ago | usatoday.com | Matt Alderton

When Dylan Mason was an incoming freshman at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, his mom dropped him off at his dormitory with three earnest admonitions. “She told me: Don’t get a tattoo, don’t get your ears pierced and don’t join a fraternity,” chuckles Mason, 20, who recently finished his second year of college and his first year as a member of the fraternity Phi Kappa Tau. Mason, who identifies as gay, had never planned to join a fraternity.

2 weeks ago | usatoday.com | Matt Alderton

The date was May 17, 2022. It was more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and Americans everywhere were epidemiologically exhausted. In Massachusetts, however, public health officials had just clocked the first case in a brand-new infectious disease outbreak. The pathogen now known as mpox was first documented in monkeys in 1958. Caused by a virus similar to the smallpox virus, it causes flu-like symptoms; a painful, pustulous rash; and, in the rarest cases, death.

2 weeks ago | usatoday.com | Matt Alderton

When she was 16 years old, Rev. Shelley Washington realized two immutable truths about herself. The first was that she felt called to serve in the ministry. The second was that she was a lesbian. “I was raised as a Missionary Baptist, and in the Missionary Baptist church women were not pushed to the forefront of ministry … And yet, I knew that was something God was leading me to do,” Washington says. “I also knew something was holding me back, and that was my sexual orientation.

2 weeks ago | wisconsinrapidstribune.com | Matt Alderton

Matt AldertonStudio GannettDiversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is under assault. Conceived to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people in business, education and government — particularly those who have been historically underrepresented, such as LGBTQ+ people — it has been the subject of a flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump.

2 weeks ago | usatoday.com | Matt Alderton

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is under assault. Conceived to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people in business, education and government — particularly those who have been historically underrepresented, such as LGBTQ+ people — it has been the subject of a flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump.