When the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1 the country seemed to let out a collective sigh. The most unprecedented year many of us had experienced in our lifetimes had finally come to an end.
Then just days into 2021, hundreds of rioters stormed the Capitol in a deadly insurrection that spurred the largest prosecution in U.S. history. Two months later, spa shootings in Atlanta reignited protests and calls for racial justice as the country grappled with a staggering increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans. There was conflict abroad, as violence erupted between Israel and Palestinian territories, the Taliban regained control in Afghanistan and more. Falling vaccination rates and new variants stalled recovery efforts.
Throughout 2021, The Lily’s coverage has sought to contextualize how these moments have impacted the lives of women and gender nonconforming people — examining how the pandemic fundamentally changed a generation, reviewing state laws and federal spending bills, analyzing economic reports and elevating voices most impacted by these events.
We also documented quieter moments of reflection and resilience. Friends discovered new ways to stay connected. Couples shifted their domestic duties. Young activists found their voice amid ongoing calls for social justice and climate action. Relationships blossomed. And families grew.
Ahead of whatever may come in 2022, we decided to revisit our coverage since January to highlight 12 stories and photos that have come to define another whirlwind pandemic year.
The anger on display during the Jan. 6 Capitol riots was hard to ignore, writes The Lily’s Caroline Kitchener. “It’s pure White male privilege,” said Lisa Wade, a professor of sociology at Tulane University who specializes in gender studies. “White men realistically expect that their anger will be validated and that they won’t lose any sort of prestige or status for it.” Read the full story.
More than 30 percent of families within the Phoenix-Talent school district lost their homes in the September 2020 Almeda Fire, one of the most destructive fires in Oregon’s history. At the start of 2021, with school closures due to the pandemic, we spoke to families who were left scrambling to continue distance learning for their kids amid the chaos. Read the full story.
Amid a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, and following the deadly Atlanta-area spa shootings in March, we spoke with three Asian American millennial women from San Francisco. They reminisced on memories of their most sacred spaces in the city — Elisa Szeto, 26, said Chinatown “is like a safe haven for Chinese immigrants” — and how anti-Asian racism has altered their visions of them. Read the full story.
In April, a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter nearly a year after George Floyd’s death. The verdict was a culmination of a case that’d prompted a national reckoning over police violence and racial justice — and drove millions of people to protest. View more photos here.
Months before Texas passed its six-week abortion ban in September, Caroline Kitchener talked to a 17-year-old girl in the state who was making her case in court for why she needs an abortion. Texas is one of 21 states that requires minors to get parental consent before they can have an abortion. To circumvent this, minors have to go to court. Read the full story.
As stay-at-home orders pushed schools into remote learning, many immigrant mothers said they felt the weight of it disproportionately. Trina Haque, a Bangladeshi immigrant who has lived in New York City for 15 years, said although not speaking English was an underlying challenge before the pandemic, it was often mitigated by meeting with her children’s teachers in person, where something as simple as body language would be able to help get the point across. Read the full story.
Documentary photographer and writer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn took a trip down South to understand her grandmother’s story. “This trip to South Carolina was about my grandmother, but this trip was about me,” Barrayn wrote. “It was a reconciliation of my identities as a native New Yorker with Southern roots and a Pan-African woman living in America.” Read the full story.
Many millennial women say the pandemic pushed them to reevaluate their relationship to beauty. For some, there’s a mix of excitement and anxiety about a gradual return to normalcy — and the gendered beauty standards that will inevitably follow. “I feel a pressure for my body — and my weight — to look exactly like it did pre-pandemic,” 27-year-old Abbey Santos said. Read the full story.
Half of the nation’s native tribal languages are extinct, and linguists estimate that up to 90 percent of Indigenous languages worldwide will die out by the end of the century. In a quest to reclaim their cultural identity, these women are seeking to revive or relearn their native languages. Read the full story.
Alexandra Hunt’s campaign for Pennsylvania’s 3rd District could soon make her the first openly former stripper to hold a federal public office in the United States. “If people attack me for it, that’s their misogyny. That’s their bigotry,” said Hunt, who came intro stripping back in college because she needed money. “That’s their discrimination. And it doesn’t faze me.” Read the full story.
As many employers delayed their return-to-office dates with the rise of new variants, across the country, friends are devising another way forward. Now that they’re vaccinated, they are meeting up in each other’s houses, coffee shops and co-working spaces. Such is the case for best friends Rachel Carlsen and Lily Andrule. Read the full story.
Skateboarding and roller skating have exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Last summer, members of OnWord, a skate collective founded to empower what they call nontraditional skaters, built their own DIY skate park. They constructed the temporary space in the parking lot next to Chicago’s Wilson Skate Park — a place many of them had felt unwelcome as women and gender nonconforming skaters. Read the full story.
