By Mareisa Weil, MFP Director of Development
If you’re anything like me, you may not have it all together in terms of end-of-the-year tokens of affection for your friends and family. The fact that I sent out six holiday cards was a huge achievement for me. So, to help us all out, I have compiled this list of last-minute gift ideas for the reproductive justice advocate in your life. (And I’m just gonna state the obvious — it’s totally okay to buy gifts for yourself right now, too. It has been a year.)
BOOKS
Books! Who doesn’t love a good book? University of California Press has an excellent selection of Reproductive Justice titles, including the definitive Reproductive Justice: An Introduction by Loretta Ross—one of the founders of the RJ movement—with Rickie Solinger.
Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice (2004) is authored by Marlene Gerber Fried, Elena R. Gutiérrez, Loretta Ross, and Jael Silliman and is a canonical overview of the movement’s development in the 1990s.
Hot off the NYU Press in September 2020, Zakiya Luna’s new book Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice takes a look at SisterSong, the WOC-led organization at the center of the Reproductive Justice movement.
Peggy Orenstein’s two books Girls and Sex and Boys and Sex are great reading for parents, caretakers, or anyone who wants to help youth grow into healthy, happy sex lives as they develop.
TOYS (ADULT)
Two words: Shop local! For grown-up toys to get through the long Maine winter (wink, wink), visit one of our local sex shops, or support friends who might have a little side hustle selling sex toys and accessories. You can always stop by your friendly, local Maine Family Planning clinic for lube and condoms if you need those, too. Curbside is an option!
MASKS
The sooner we can get COVID-19 under control, the quicker we can get back to more intimacy overall (sexual and otherwise), so mask up—in style! Again, shopping local is a great idea. DownEast magazine put out a nice list of Maine-made masks here, and UMaine has a resource here. For repro-specific gear, though (we love it), our allies at the Abortion Access Front have fresh merch for the discerning activist, and these masks from National Abortion Federation are the most comfortable masks I have tried so far. One word: Silky.
DONATIONS
If you’re feeling philanthropic, you can always make a charitable gift in someone’s honor, or in memory of a loved one. You can do that right on our web page (‘Donate’ tab, top right!) to support Maine Family Planning, or you can support any of the thousands of other organizations out there doing great work here in Maine and around the world. We are all in this together.
No matter how you are celebrating the end of 2020, we hope that you are holding space in your heart for joy as we get ready to close the book on this year and start a new chapter in 2021.
PS: If you do shop on Amazon, don’t forget to use Amazon Smile to support your favorite nonprofits!
