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Headshot of Melissa Gira Grant
Melissa Gira Grant

Melissa Gira Grant is a staff writer at The New Republic, the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (published by Verso), and the co-director of They Won’t Call It Murder (executive produced by Field of Vision). She was a senior reporter at The Appeal, and a contributing writer at The Village Voice and Pacific Standard.


All Articles
October 27, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
We Can’t Trust Cops to Protect the Polls
Election officials have to reckon with the reality that the police may be a threat to free and fair elections.
October 20, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
An Anti-Rape Movement Without Police
A case out of Wisconsin reveals how fragile—and superficial—coalitions between anti-violence organizations and police really are.
October 14, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Amy Coney Barrett’s Gentle Deceptions
The Supreme Court nominee would have us believe she’s just a vessel for the law, but her rise to conservative power tells the real story.
October 7, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Imagining the Post-Trump Internet
The idea that social media platforms need to be made civilly or even criminally liable for harmful content appears to be gaining ground in Congress.
September 29, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Elite Sisterhood of Amy Coney Barrett
Her nomination to the Supreme Court isn’t just about overturning Roe. It’s about redefining womanhood.
September 22, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Accelerating Attack on Trans Student Athletes
The Trump administration’s fight to dismantle trans students’ rights is a reminder of how fragile Supreme Court victories really are.
September 19, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the End of the One Great Woman Myth
The meme-ification of the justice was just one part of the brand-driven, girl-bossed, leaned-in conception of women’s freedom in which it incubated.
September 17, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
ICE Is the New Face of America’s Legacy of Forced Sterilization
“What would it mean to give consent to be sterilized in a prison or detention center?”
September 15, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Era of Disaster Militiaism in America
The vigilantes running wildfire checkpoints in Oregon are the latest right-wing militants to take advantage of a crisis.
August 31, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
Far-Right Militias Are Learning Impunity From the Cops
Trump’s supporters in law enforcement and government play Kenosha as both a threat of what’s to come and an invitation to join in.
August 27, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Real, Paranoid Housewives of the Republican Convention
Patricia McCloskey and Kimberly Guilfoyle are a new twist on a dangerous lineage of conservative women.
August 24, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
When “Police Reform” Came to Kenosha, Wisconsin
Jacob Blake was critically injured when cops shot him in the back on Sunday. Six years ago, a new law was supposed to bring change.
August 20, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Stories Kamala Harris Won’t Tell Anymore
In her historic DNC speech, the former prosecutor elided most of her resume to craft a different image of her record.
August 19, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
QAnon Is Using the Anti-Trafficking Movement’s Conspiracy Playbook
Both are swimming in the same false claims and exaggerated campaigns.
August 10, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Unfinished Business of Women’s Suffrage
The women who remain locked out of the right to vote are the fractured legacy of a fractured movement.
August 3, 2020
MagazineMelissa Gira Grant
The Occult, Terrorizing Politics of QAnon
Q's followers were promised a war. Now, as federal agents snatch people off the streets, they believe it's arrived.
July 30, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
All Police Can Be Secret Police
Local democratic officials denounce the feds when they act with impunity, but their own police departments use many of the same tactics.
July 14, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Dark Obsessions of QAnon Are Merging With Mainstream Conservatism
With Republican candidates and Trump embracing the strange, child trafficking–fixated movement, it can no longer be dismissed as merely a conspiracy theory.
July 14, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
A Window of Possibility on Self-Managed Abortion
Telehealth has grown increasingly common in the face of Covid-19. A federal judge has now extended that access to medication abortion.
July 10, 2020
Melissa Gira Grant
The Law Was Never Meant for Ghislaine Maxwell
Sex trafficking prosecution has been framed as a universal pursuit people can unite around, but that’s a fantasy.

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