Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Good to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

Student Organizers Win Transgender Equality Battle In Maryland

The group’s efforts led to a school board vote of 5 to 1 in their favor.

Tod Perry
By Tod PerryOct 11, 2017
Tod Perry
Tod Perry is a freelance writer from Long Beach, California.
See Full Bio

Last month, the students of the schools in Frederick County, Maryland, returned to a more inclusive educational environment thanks to the hard work of 17-year-old James van Kuilenburg. After the Trump administration revoked federal guidance that said transgender students have the right to use public school restrooms that match their gender identity, a group led by van Kuilenburg went to the school board to make schools safe for transgender students.

Beginning in February, van Kuilenburg, along with fellow students, parents, and educators, launched a Facebook page, held rallies, and went to the local school board to make their schools more inclusive for transgender students. “There’s no procedure, and there’s no policy,” 15-year-old transgender student Maxx Frazier, told the school board, “and it’s worrying because right now with the election and the results of that, a lot of people feel they have the right to hate.”

The group’s efforts led the school board to vote 5 to 1 to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that fit with their identity. They can also participate in sports that align with their gender identity as well. Children who are uncomfortable with the new policy are provided with non-stigmatizing alternatives such as privacy curtains or changes to their locker room schedules.

“I see it as one of the most comprehensive transgender student policies in the country,” Jabari Lyles, executive director of GLSEN Maryland, a group that advocates for LGBTQ students, told The Washington Post.

The policy took effect over summer vacation is already facing a legal challenge. A lawsuit was filed in August on behalf of the mother of a 15-year-old student who feels the policy makes her unsafe and that she’s humiliated to undress in front of the “opposite sex.” The suit was filed by Dan Cox, a Republican candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018.

To show support for their transgender classmates, students have started a social media campaign #IAmFrederick.

The Latest

dying, family, mental health, grief, mortality, love, good byes
Life hacks

4 meaningful things to do when someone is dying and you don't know how to respond

AI, AI Beauty, Artificial Intelligence, makeup, beauty
Culture

How AI made the world’s most beautiful faces obsolete and hurt  self-esteem

introvert, extrovert, mental health, dopamine, healthy lifestyle
Health

Here’s what experts say extroverts can learn from introverts to improve mental health

Marlene Engelhorn, wealth redistribution, inheritance tax, Austrian politics, Guter Rat, economic justice, philanthropy, billionaire heiress, democratic values, social equity
Past Events

Why a millionaire heiress gave away her $27 million inheritance to strangers

More For You

work from home, remote work, healthy living, work life balance, employment

Remote workers tend be happier and healthier than people returning to the office.

Photo credit: Canva

Scientists definitively know why working from home makes us happier and healthier

More and more businesses and industries are pushing for people to work in the office after remote working became the standard during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reasons vary with some companies claiming that remote work lessens collaboration and other theories revolving around power and money. But after four years of analysis, a study showed that remote work makes employees happier and healthier overall, and it boils down to one aspect: time.

A late-2024 Australian study reinforced the realization that many remote workers already know and experienced: working from home makes us happier and healthier. This has been backed up time and again by experts in both business and health fields. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also points out that remote work has no negative impact on productivity in the majority of American businesses, so even if you’re focused on business success rather than the mental and physical health of your employees, remote work could be more beneficial compared to traditional in-office culture.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elizabeth Hurley, model, aging, supermodel, beauty

For her 60th birthday, Elizabeth Hurley shared a nude portrait.

commons.wikimedia.org

What Elizabeth Hurley's naked 60th birthday portrait can teach us about aging fearlessly

Widely considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, Elizabeth Hurley celebrated her 60th birthday recently by sharing a nude portrait of herself on Instagram. Sitting in a lush green field in warm light from the sun, she’s as stunning as ever and she shows us what aging fearlessly can look like.

For a long time, women over 60 were encouraged to cover and conceal, with longer sleeves, flowing fabrics, and scarcely a leg to be seen. Today, however, women are enacting their own decisions of which social conventions work for them and which don't. One of these people, of course, is Elizabeth Hurley. Being 60+ used to look a certain way, but it doesn’t have to anymore. Hurley becomes one example of this in action with her latest nude portrait, which shows us just how fearless and fabulous a person can be over 60.

Keep ReadingShow less
grief support, coping with loss, internet wisdom, reddit advice, GSnow comment, dealing with death, emotional healing, wave theory grief

Grieving couple comforting each other

Canva

This response to someone grieving a friend might be the best internet comment ever

When someone is hit with the sudden loss of a friend or loved one, words rarely feel like enough. Yet, more than a decade ago, a wise Redditor named GSnow shared thoughts so profound they still bring comfort to grieving hearts today.

Originally posted around 2011, the now-famous reply was rediscovered when Upvoted, an official Reddit publication, featured it again to remind everyone of its enduring truth. It began as a simple plea for help: “My friend just died. I don't know what to do.”

Keep ReadingShow less
princess, queen, queen elizabeth, royalty, royal, mechanic, war, world war II

HRH Princess Elizabeth in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, April 1945.

commons.wikimedia.org

In WWII, Queen Elizabeth II was called "Princess Auto Mechanic." Here's how she earned the title.

While she was known as Princess Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, during World War II the woman who later became Queen of England was known simply as No. 230873, an Auxiliary Territorial Service mechanic specializing in trucks.

Princess Elizabeth entered the war voluntarily in 1944, joining the women’s branch of the British Army, the aforementioned Auxiliary Territorial Service, or ATS. In joining the ATS, she became the first, and as of this writing, only female member of Britain’s royal family to participate in active duty. While there, she trained as a truck driver and mechanic, intent on doing her part for the war effort.

Keep ReadingShow less
owl, interview, wildlife, hoot, birds, wildlife expert

The Lesser Horned Owl is a lot chattier than you might expect.

Diucón, commons.wikimedia.org

Interviewing a wild owl, a man got an answer he never expected

Owls typically prefer to be left alone, so getting close enough to one to have a conversation is extremely rare. Yet this is what happened to renowned birder and wildlife expert Emin Yogurtcuoglu while traversing Argentina on a recent expedition.

As Yogurtcuoglu told The Dodo, at first he spotted an owl pair from his car. The next day, he saw the owls again, and this time got out of the car and close to the ground, to be eye-level with them. And on the final day, the female of the pair had gotten even bolder, coming up to Yogurtcuoglu upon his arrival, less than two feet away. He decided to interview her, and in the video this lovely feathered friend hoots warmly into the microphone, inching ever closer: “What do people think about our nature?” he asked. “How often do you hoot?” Eventually, Yogurtcuoglu was close enough to see himself in her own eyes, snapping a picture in the process, and the female owl stayed close. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Keep ReadingShow less
bill gates, article, philanthropy, good, sharing, journalism, gates

Bill Gates discusses the work that helped him understand philanthropy.

Steve Jurvetson, Wikimedia Commons

Bill Gates reveals the 1997 article that convinced him to use his incredible wealth for good

As Bill Gates shared in his GatesNotes newsletter recently, he read a New York Times article in 1997 that changed his life. The article was “For Third World, Water Is Still a Deadly Drink” by journalist Nicholas Kristof. In the article, Gates learned of the health and sanitation issues faced by poverty-stricken countries in different parts of the world, and quickly realized he wanted to focus part of the philanthropic efforts of his Gates Foundation on helping to fix this problem.

“Nick reported that diarrhea was killing 3.1 million people every year, almost all of them children. We were shocked…How could that many children be dying from something that was, as far as we knew, little more than an uncomfortable inconvenience? We learned that the simple lifesaving treatment for diarrhea…wasn’t reaching millions of children. That seemed like a problem we could help with,” Gates wrote in his 2022 book, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, explicitly citing Kristof’s article as the catalyst for the Gates Foundation’s efforts.

Keep ReadingShow less
gossip, community, ego, research, narcissists, self identity, social status, personal information

Gossiping in the office

Image via Canva - Photo by Science Photo Library

Surprising study shows these types of people actually really like being gossiped about

Almost every one of us wants to be accepted socially and gain some form of group attention. Studies have consistently shown that social isolation and loneliness leads to poor physical and mental health which includes a high risk of mortality. Trying to find a sense of community and elevate one's personal status at the same time can be confusing and often emotionally challenging. The need to be accepted and seen positively by others all influence our drive to fit in socially.

Some of our favorite secrets are about our friends and colleagues, and we divulge this information through a process called gossip. One of the main determining factors in finding pleasure through gossip is being an active participating witness instead of the actual subject. However this balance isn't the truth for all of us. Some people really like being talked about.
Keep ReadingShow less
red hot chili peppers, led zeppelin, john frusciante, jimmy page, letter

John Frusciante once wrote a letter to Jimmy Page, with a bold musical request.

Photo credit: Avda via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (left) / Afirebenside via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (right)

Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante once wrote Jimmy Page a letter, with a bold request

As a young guitarist, John Frusciante worshipped at the altar of rock giants like Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa. But as he recalled at the 2004 Mojo Awards while handing out a prize to Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin visionary was "the first person that made [him] want to play" the instrument. "[His] playing in Led Zeppelin was the perfect rock guitar playing, and he himself was the perfect rock guitar player," he enthused. "Four years before I started, I was taught the beginning of 'Stairway to Heaven' and stopped learning because my teacher could not show me the solo. Of course, I got around to it eventually…"

So in the early 2000s, when Frusciante started collaborating with Omar Rodríguez-López, bandleader of experimental prog-rock band The Mars Volta, he saw the perfect opportunity to connect with his childhood idol. Taking a personal approach, he sent Page a charmingly eager, handwritten letter, asking him to join in a triple-guitar solo for a Mars Volta song. While that would have been an incredible mind-meld and a notable moment in rock-guitar history, there’s no evidence to suggest it happened. Nonetheless, the letter itself is a thing of beauty, highlighting Frusciante’s reverence toward Page and a wide-eyed wonder about music creation.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025