Currently, being transgender is considered a mental disorder that could get you dismissed from the military—but that may change soon. On Monday, a Pentagon working group will begin preparations for dismantling the ban.
Another day, another statement from the Pope to make right wing-types tear out their last, sparse remaining hairs: at a rally in Turin, Italy, the pope condemned weapons manufacturers, suggesting they can’t consider themselves Christians.
It's really hard to say when this all began.
More than 10,000 women have fought in the Kurdish-Islamic State conflict in Syria. These mourners carry the body of 20-year-old Hanim Dabaan, killed in combat with Islamic State militants in the Turkey-Syria border town of Kobani, which has been under attack by ISIS for the last two months.
In a talk with Ronan Farrow, living inspiration and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai discussed the many encounters she's had with world leaders, including President Barack Obama. "It's very important to reach those people and [tell] them that it is their responsibility to contribute to education and…
People with an internet connection and a digital camera are doing their part to end the age old conflict between Israel and Palestine by posting selfies alongside plates of hummus. Why didn't we think of this sooner?
This week, members of the extreme al Qaeda splinter group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams) took control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. And they wasted no time instituting Sharia law that requires women to stay inside and cover themselves from head to toe.
On Thursday, William Hague, the UK's Foreign Secretary, announced that London will host a global summit next year to demand "justice and respect" for the victims of wartime rape. Oh, and by the way, Angelina Jolie will be co-chairing the event.
The ongoing civil war in Syria is being felt beyond the Syrian borders. In neighboring countries like Iraq, Syrian fighting can be felt most acutely in the strain of hosting thousands of refugees. In Israel, the threat of a broader conflict transcending Syria’s borders looms large. Syrian conflict, however, isn’t…
Retired General Wesley Clark might have failed at his bid for the highest office in the land, but he's really racking it up late in life. Ever since filing for divorce from his wife of over three decades in May, Clark has been linked up with Shauna Mei, a woman almost 40 years his junior.
Remember Alex Minsky? Today did a profile on him this morning.
Ripped, tattooed underwear model Alex Minksy will take your breath away. Not because he's beautiful — he is! — but because his story is heart-squeezingly inspiring.
Toru Hashimoto, the unfortunately loquacious mayor of Osaka, Japan, managed to keep talking long enough to apologize for one offensive comment he made about contemporary American Marines making “more use” of Japan’s local, legal sex industry to “relieve” their sexual energy, and then stand by the other offensive…
Nusreta Sivac vowed to memorize the names and faces of the guards that repeatedly raped her and 36 other women at a Bosnia concentration camp in the early '90s so that one day they would pay for their crimes.
These gorgeous color photos are...whoa. Taken by Alfred T. Palmer, a photographer for the US Office of War Information during World War II, these images are largely from the rubber, metal, and aircraft factories in Ohio, Kentucky, and California. And damn, they are rad.
Wow: Pentagon Chief Leon Panetta just officially removed the longstanding military ban on women in combat, which opens up "hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs," according to the AP.
The Pentagon might let women become infantry troops, but do most female soldiers and Marines actually want to be front-line war fighters? Does it matter? No. Framing the debate as "but the ladies don't even want to fight!" is offensive and besides the point.
Earlier this year, we asked if you remembered Afghanistan. The answer then, obviously but somewhat unofficially, was no. Now, with the release of several news organization's year-end top stories lists, we know that, objectively, no one gives a shit about the 11-year-old war.
The Marine Corps: notoriously fabulous at marketing itself, notoriously shitty at attracting officers who aren't white men. (Only 7 percent are women; 6 percent are black.) Now, the Marines are launching a new marketing campaign to draw more minorities and women into its ranks by focusing on the things they think…
"Gotta go, something's exploding over here." That's how Anthony had signed off from our Facebook chat session the last time we had talked. He was deployed in Afghanistan, and we had been typing back and forth about how life was going.
How was life going? It could be better, I told him. I'd been broken up with by a…
