@huffpost

"It was October 2019 when my new OB-GYN ― let’s call her Dr. Can’t Be Bothered ― gave me what I considered to be life-changing news," says guest writer Taryn Hillin.⁠ ⁠ “You have a two-centimeter tumor on your uterine cervix,” she said, without even a hint of concern. For me, those words felt like a knife to the gut."⁠ ⁠ "Do I have cancer?"⁠ ⁠ "'No, no,' Dr. Can’t Be Bothered assured me. 'This is not how cancer behaves.' Then she added a sentence I’ll never forget: 'For you to have cancer at this age, with this medical history, it would be like winning the lottery.'"⁠ ⁠ "She explained I would need a biopsy ... Not wanting this tumor-thingy hanging over my head, I asked to schedule the surgery as quickly as possible. Dr. CBB once again told me there was no rush, even though the radiology report stated the tumor was 'of concern.'"⁠ ⁠ "In fact, she was going on vacation for two weeks and her schedule was full. We would have to put off the procedure for at least four weeks."⁠ ⁠ Read the full essay in our link in bio. ⁠

April 17, 2022

Jen Psaki and Fox News reporter Peter Doocy have gone head-to-head in press briefings, but at least she has a sense of humor about it. ⁠ At a live taping of the “Pod Save America” podcast, Psaki was quick to shift the blame for Doocy’s actions to his employer when she was asked if the journalist really was “a stupid son of a bitch.”⁠ ⁠ “He works for a network that provides people with questions that ― nothing personal to any individual, including Peter Doocy ― but might make anyone sound like a stupid son of a bitch,” she said, drawing laughter from the audience.⁠ ⁠ Read the full story at our link in bio. // 📷: Getty Images

April 16, 2022

"Coming of age in the early ’90s in a small city in southeastern Wisconsin meant growing up in a time and a place when no one said 'gay,'" writes HuffPost Head of Personal Noah Michelson. "My town didn’t need legislation like Florida’s disgusting new “Don’t Say Gay” law that specifically prohibits discussing sexuality and gender identity with kids in kindergarten through third grade, but which is strategically so vaguely worded it could possibly apply to kids in any grade. That’s just how it was. Everywhere. Always."⁠ ⁠ "Once I started kindergarten, I quickly learned how boys behaved and how girls behaved and, consequently, that how I behaved wasn’t how I was supposed to behave," Michelson writes. "But no matter how hard I tried to change, nothing changed... In eighth grade, I begged God to make me straight. And guess what happened? Nothing. I was still gay and headed straight to hell ― aka high school."⁠ ⁠ "When I tell you I had no friends in ninth grade, I mean I had no friends," Michelson continues. "My gayness made me dangerous. Odious. Poisonous. I hadn’t come out ― that was just not an option ― but everyone still knew. No one wanted to be seen with me or talking to me ― unless they were torturing me ― so I spent all of my time alone. Hiding."⁠ ⁠ "Because God never got around to making me straight and because I wasn’t sure I could face another day of high school ― or whatever horrors most certainly awaited me if I were to somehow make it out of high school ― I decided to take matters into my own hands and I began to look for ways to kill myself."⁠ ⁠ "Not saying gay ― not hearing gay or seeing gay or knowing that there were gay people somewhere out in the world living healthy, happy lives (or that being gay and living a happy, healthy life was even a possibility) almost killed me. It almost made me kill myself."⁠ ⁠ "Thirty years later, I’m proud to call myself gay and to identify as part of the queer community. So much has changed over the last three decades but so much hasn’t and I know there are kids who feel the way I felt. Even with all of the progress we’ve made. Even with all of the victories we’ve had."⁠ ⁠ Read the full story at our link in bio.

April 15, 2022

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry quietly visited Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle together on Thursday for the first time since their move to America.⁠ ⁠ The couple stopped by on their way to the Netherlands for the Invictus Games, according to their spokesperson. The athletic competition for wounded military service members and veterans was founded by Prince Harry, who served 10 years in the British Army.⁠ ⁠ Witnesses reported spotting the couple around Windsor Castle, saying they seemed relaxed and happy.⁠ ⁠ “I couldn’t believe it when I saw who it was. We waved and they waved back,” a tourist told The Sun.⁠ ⁠ Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty Magazine, described the visit as “a very welcome if long overdue move.”⁠ ⁠ It’s the first time the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have returned to England together since their move to California in March 2020, which was the last time Markle was there.⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 📷 Getty Images

April 15, 2022

In an incredibly unusual move, the Air Force is making a point to let its hundreds of thousands of personnel know that it will provide families with medical and legal help if they are personally affected by new state laws attacking gay and transgender children.⁠ ⁠ And if those service members feel they need to leave those states entirely, for the sake of their kids’ mental or physical health, the Air Force will help them to do that, too.⁠ ⁠ The Air Force is the only branch of the U.S. military doing this. Its leaders informed personnel late last month, both internally and in a press release, that they have several resources available to them if they need help navigating anti-LGBTQ state laws that may be hurting their families.⁠ ⁠ Specifically, Air Force leadership is telling service members that military medical facilities are available to provide mental health support to them or their children if they need it in the wake of new laws in states like Florida, where schools are banned from talking about gender identity or sexual orientation, or Texas, where the governor is ordering state officials to investigate parents of transgender children for child abuse.⁠ ⁠ They’re also telling service members that military legal personnel are available to provide free counsel to families trying to understand their legal protections in states targeting gay and transgender kids.⁠ ⁠ The largest Air Force base in the world happens to be in Florida, too: Eglin Air Force Base.⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 🖊️ Jennifer Bendery

April 14, 2022

The war effort is everywhere in Lviv. The city, the largest in western Ukraine, has swelled with about 200,000 people who were displaced from elsewhere in the country since Russia invaded in late February. Some of its schools and theaters were transformed into shelters to hold the new residents. Street musicians on the narrow streets sing Ukrainian and foreign songs like they always have, but now with signs that read that half the money will go to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The street music and birdsong are routinely overlapped with air raids. The residents of Lviv, along with displaced Ukrainians, are united. Many Ukrainians feel it as a continuation of the long history of fighting for independence. Read the full story and see more photos at our link in bio. // 📷: @seth_herald

April 14, 2022

“My name is Zack,” Tahhan said in video captured by witness Samantha Zirkin recounting his actions. “I was working inside the store, security cameras inside, and I see the guy from the cameras and I say, ‘Oh shit, this guy! Let me call the police.’ So I call them and we catch him!”⁠ ⁠ Tahhan was referring to James, whom he spotted walking near St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. Tahhan immediately sprung into action, yelling at passersby to keep their distance from the suspected shooter after James set a bag down on the street.⁠ ⁠ “I said, ‘Guys, please keep far from him, this guy is gonna do something,’” Tahhan recalled while speaking to the media. “People think I am crazy, no choice but to believe me. I say, ‘Guys, trust me, this is the guy!’”⁠ ⁠ Tahhan said he called for police, who then arrested James.⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 📷: David Mack/BuzzFeed

April 14, 2022

Police are still searching for a suspect after a mass shooting on a New York City subway train during Tuesday morning rush hour that left dozens wounded. Several photographs posted to social media showed a bloody scene, with people lying on the subway platform and tending to wounds at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Green-colored smoke appeared to billow from a train car that pulled into the station in video posted online. Photographer Derek French captured the chaotic scene of riders lying on the subway platform near pools of blood. He said he’d just gotten onto an R train when one of the victims ran to his subway car. “I saw the victims laying down with two citizens treating them,” French told HuffPost. “All [victims] were talking, but I’d say in a state of shock.”

April 13, 2022

Rihanna has been grabbing a whole lot of attention for her unapologetic ensembles since she announced her pregnancy with boyfriend A$AP Rocky in January.⁠ ⁠ “When I found out I was pregnant, I thought to myself: ‘There’s no way I’m going to go shopping in no maternity aisle,’” she told Vogue. “I’m sorry — it’s too much fun to get dressed up. I’m not going to let that part disappear because my body is changing.”⁠ ⁠ The centerpiece of each of the style icon's body-bearing fashions is always her belly — reminding the world that she is very much pregnant, and owning it.⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 📷 Getty Images // 🖊️ Elyse Wanshel⁠ ⁠

April 13, 2022

San Francisco Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken on Tuesday became the first female coach to make an appearance on field during a Major League Baseball game.⁠ ⁠ Nakken took to the field after Giants’ first base coach Antoan Richardson was ejected in the previous inning. Eric Hosmer, the San Diego Padres first baseman, shook Nakken’s hand in acknowledgement as she walked on.⁠ ⁠ It’s one of multiple shattered ceilings for the former Sacramento State softball star, who became the first female full-time MLB coach when she joined the Giants’ major league coaching staff in January 2020.⁠ ⁠ “I was 3 weeks old when I went to my first game, so it was like a combination of one, like ‘Wow no female has done this before,’ and two, I get to represent this baseball team that has meant so much to me for so many years, and what an honor that is,” she told San Francisco’s KGO-TV earlier this month of that 2020 achievement.⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 📷: Getty Images

April 13, 2022

A snippet from an interview Emma Watson did with author and activist Paris Lees in 2019 for British Vogue has been making the rounds online, with many people praising the “Harry Potter” star for her remarks on transgender issues.⁠ ⁠ In the viral clip, Lees, who is trans, asks Watson if she would feel comfortable with Lees using a public women’s restroom.⁠ ⁠ “Oh my god, of course,” Watson says with zero hesitation. “That’s another human being.” ⁠ ⁠ “I understand fearing what you don’t know,” Watson continued. “I understand kind of being like, ‘I don’t really understand this, I’ve never met someone [trans].’ But go ... go learn, go speak ... go look into the whites of someone’s eyes that’s had this experience and tell me after you’ve done that … there’s any part of you that feels it’s OK to make that person not feel included.”⁠ ⁠ In a full video of Watson’s interview with Lees, Watson elaborates on how she feels that “making people feel not included” is “such a painful, awful thing to do.”⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 📷 Getty Images // 🖊️ Elyse Wanshel

April 12, 2022

Selena Gomez has no time to tolerate people who “b**ch about” her weight.⁠ ⁠ “So I be trying to stay skinny, but I went to Jack in the Box and I got four tacos, three egg rolls, onion rings and a spicy chicken sandwich,” Gomez said in a candid TikTok she recently posted.⁠ ⁠ “But honestly I don’t care about my weight because people b**ch about it anyway,” she said, before mimicking her detractors. “‘You’re too small.’ ‘You’re too big.’ ‘That doesn’t fit.’”⁠ ⁠ “B**ch, I am perfect the way I am,” Gomez said. “Moral of the story? Bye.”⁠ ⁠ Gomez has repeatedly addressed those critical of her body and spoken about how it affects her.⁠ ⁠ Read more at our link in bio. // 📷: Getty Images

April 11, 2022