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Looking back: 12 of Transformation's greatest articles

I'm leaving after three years at openDemocracy. Here are some of my favourite, must-read articles from writers to watch out for.

Olympians without nations: first-ever team of refugees heads to Summer Games

With 20 million refugees worldwide, the International Olympic Committee announces a new team to make the games more inclusive for people without a nation to call home.

Why I stormed the Tate Modern in protest against violent men

On 13 June over 150 feminist activists mourned the murder and erasure of artist Ana Mendieta. We were there for our sisters who did not survive.

Nude protests, sex strikes and the power of the taboo

Nonviolent tactics like stripping naked can be highly effective political advocacy, even ending wars, particularly across the African continent.

Islam and the future of tolerance

A new book by best-selling atheist Sam Harris and Islamist-turned-reformist Maajid Nawaz fails to convince.

Four ways mainstream animal rights movements are oppressive

Animal rights campaigns like PETA care more for animals than they do for the lives of marginalized people.

This is why using 'they' as a gender pronoun is so important

The 'they' prounoun carries emotional weight, affirms others, and challenges our assumptions about gender.

Meet the sex workers using art to expose truths about the sex industry

Ahead of the opening of Sex Workers' Opera tonight, these arts activists are fighting the battle for hearts and minds.

The unbearable whiteness of science fiction

Speculative fiction is just as rooted in white supremacy as any other genre. When a transformative vision of racial justice shows itself, it's rooted in communities of color.

Ending the silence around German colonialism

At least 300,000 people died at the hands of German colonizers during its empire. These art projects are uncovering colonial histories to understand racism in Germany today.

Transforming the politics of makeup

Drag is everywhere. Drag is looks you created and looks you woke up with. At heart, the transformative nature of makeup is about allowing your curious self to flourish.

Are refugees really welcome? Inside the fight to save Berlin's Wagenplatz Kanal

The Berlin Senate is trying to replace a refugee-led activist space with a refugee camp. Why?

How to decolonise mental health services

UK mental health service providers are still failing to deal with race and ethnicity.

Seven ways social justice language can become abusive in intimate relationships

There is always a choice. If we have the strength to survive oppression, we have the strength to choose not to abuse each other.

Three myths about sex work that harm everyone

It's not just young girls and big bad wolves. Lies and misconceptions about sex work can hurt women and keep negative stereotypes alive.

Staying alive: Kate Bornstein gives the finger to cancer, suicide, and the gender binary

"Once you break down a huge fucking binary like gender, no other binaries seem to make sense": an interview with the much-loved trans author and artist.

Decolonial love: five ways to resist oppression in your relationships

We're never going to get anywhere as long as our economies of attraction resemble the economies of attraction of white supremacy.

There's more to being gay than anal penetration

Public portrayals of gay men are highly sexualized, often centred around anal penetration. Sex is shown as quintessential; intimacy, dispensible.

The radical work of healing: Fania and Angela Davis on a new kind of civil rights activism

"Self-care and healing and attention to the body and the spiritual dimension – all of this is now a part of radical social justice struggles."

How to make love revolutionary

If you are only attracted to able, 'mentally well', cis, normatively beautiful people, from class privileged backgrounds, then you are upholding violent norms.

Workaholics anonymous: four ways to take time out

Being an effective, productive employee was everything I dreamt of. Until illness caught up with me and I had to learn to take a break.

The legend of Greenham Common women's peace camp

Greenham was an alternative world, an anti-nuclear protest by hundreds of thousands of women activists. At 'Bringing Greenham Home', we relived the spirit with films and talks from those who were there.

Six key messages about sexual violence in UK activist communities

The Salvage research project listens to survivors of activist sexual violence: here's what they've learned.

Is Ireland about to become the pinkwashing capital of the world?

Ireland's political parties are projecting themselves as proud and tireless equality advocates. It's up to voters to reject this.

The Chubsters and me: how my fat girl gang queered activism

An edited extract from Charlotte Cooper's new book Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement.

Welcome to another year of transformation

Can the world be reconstructed through the fusion of personal and social change? We say yes, and here's what we're learning.

Why manning up is the worst thing we can do

Can we cure the toxicity of male trauma and the resulting illnesses it creates?

They cut, we bleed: activists are fighting cuts to domestic violence services

Intimate partner violence kills two women a week, while around the UK refuges are forced to close. Sisters Uncut have had enough.

More than equality: reasons to be a feminist socialist

Equality? Feminist socialism has something better in mind: using power to transform hierarchies.

Inside the Texas megachurch where 90 percent of worshipers are LGBT

There are hundreds of LGBT-friendly churches in the USA—and many are in conservative cities where you'd least expect them. 

Fear and discomfort dressed up as love? The new anti-gay Mormon policy on marriage.

Change often comes through conflict, and looking back through history these changes are overwhelmingly positive: a response to Jacob Hess.

We need to stop the moral panic around chemsex

The picture painted by the mainstream media is partial, distorted and, on occasion, hysterical.

Are Mormons villains, or just people with a different story about their identity?

The Church has declined to accept same-sex couples and their children as full members. What’s going on? Mette Ivie Harrison responds here.

Trans ™: how the trans movement got sold out

From Zoolander 2 to Brewdog, now being transgender is cool, corporations are co-opting the sexy bits to turn a profit. 

Why does religion turn from beauty into beast?

Trauma and abuse are common in faiths supposedly built on love. What's going on? 

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