China’s LGBT Communities: Exploring The Chinese “Gay City”

According to Chinese sociologist Wei Wei, Chengdu’s healthy LGBT community is credited to its successful change of “place to space”. Indeed, China’s rapid economic development creates a hotbed for the spread of consumerism, which is especially salient in Chengdu, the beneficiary of the Great Western Development Strategy, which made Chengdu the regional economic development center. One of the many results of consumerism is the emergence of entertainment establishments. However, for people who are oppressed for their identity and would like to meet like-minded people, these establishments are entitled with a different meaning —these places are haven-like spaces in which they can fully express themselves without other people’s judgment and where they can still have fulfilling social lives. 

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Tackling Period Poverty in Canada

In Canada, 1/3 of menstruators under 25 have struggled to pay for period products. Along with many other countries, the Canadian government has not recognized these fundamental necessities as such. This is evident through the federal government's luxury of 1991, also known as the “pink tax” which treated sanitary products as luxury items rather than necessities. This tax points to the gender inequality at play; through this tax, not only were period products made inaccessible, but Canada racked in $37 million from menstruators. It was not until 2015, which is when the #notaxontampons campaigns occured, that it was removed. 

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