5SR - January 26, 2024

Today’s #5SmartReads contributor is Madison T. Clark, a full-time freelance writer, part-time college counselor, and the founder of Grief Cards, a company that makes sympathy cards that don't suck.

A Terrifying 300 Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills Have Already Been Introduced in 2024 (them)

Too often, we hear about hateful anti-LGBTQ+ legislative efforts in a silo. I regularly hear about the nonsense being attempted here in Missouri, while keeping an eye on Pennsylvania and Massachusetts via my friends’ social media who still live in those states. But to zoom out, and see this massive total number, is heartbreaking.

Let’s assume, for a moment, that none of these will pass. The damage that is still done to LGBTQ+ people - especially to young queer people - is impossible to understand. More than 300 bills, across 35 different state legislatures, are telling LGBTQ+ people that we are less than human, that we don’t deserve the same rights as people who aren’t queer. If you also feel like you have a limited understanding of the full extent of this brutal attack on queer rights, this read is a good place to start.

Women and Minorities Bear the Brunt of Medical Misdiagnosis (KFF Health News)

I don’t think it’s dramatic to say that the United States’ healthcare system is a damn disaster. Thankfully, some people are asking what I think are the right questions: why does misdiagnoses happen so much more often to women, especially women of color? How can this be changed? Whose lives are being harmed because of this?

But I also think that there are questions from the “other” side that we need to be having simultaneous conversations about: Why are nurses so overworked and underpaid and mistreated? How can we expect any improvement in healthcare when this is the system we’re operating with? Why is it so hard for a patient to find affordable care, much less high-quality affordable care?

I don’t think there’s a single answer, but I do think there’s value in continuing to have these conversations outside of the insular institutions that populate so much of our healthcare system.

Laura Harvey Compares NWSL to the Champions League (Just Women’s Sports)

Laura Harvey is THE soccer coach. She’s currently the coach of the Seattle Reign FC (formerly the OL Reign), and is in talks to be the new coach at Chelsea. She’s very much a player’s coach, who seems to continue building transformative positive relationships with players no matter where she coaches. She was also overlooked for the last two USWNT coach selections (which, yes, I’m grumpy about; but that’s a conversation for another day).

So to have her speak this highly of the NWSL as a league, and in comparison to similar leagues around the world, is a massive deal. The fast tracked commercial success of the NWSL, coupled with the intense competition within the league and the growth of the game (hi CPKC stadium!), has this league on the rise. And as a massive fan of the game, and the women who play it, I am so stoked to see what 2024 brings.

Writing ‘Maid’ Pulled Stephanie Land Out of Poverty.She’s fine now, Right? (New York Times)

With so many people setting so many financial goals in 2024, the topics of class and income and access have been top of mind. Author Stephanie Land’s life experiences keep coming up as a case study of sorts, a reminder that having what’s deemed ‘massive success’ by some people does not always turn into a sustainable, long-term financial transformation.

This feature story is a deeper dive into how the world of getting paid for your writing, but it’s also a deeper dive into the assumptions we all make about what success looks like -- and how we think other people should handle that ‘success.’

I’m an Ultrarunner. Taylor Swift’s Treadmill Workout Wrecked Me. (Outside)

Sometimes, I’m scream singing to Ashnikko or Noah Kahan or Jessie Reyez so loudly and intensely in my car that I end up out of breath. While driving. I’ll admit it. So knowing the work that went into making Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour possible from a fitness-while-singing perspective…whew.

This ultrarunner (aka super badass athlete with a love of long workouts) tackled the singer’s workout and wrote about the entire experience, showing that singers like Taylor Swift, like Beyonce, like other incredible artists with wildly long sets, deserve an extra level of props for the work they’re putting their bodies through during every single performance.

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