For me, feminist struggle is a move towards a more perfect, more equal, happier and healthier world. It is an all-encompassing movement that works to dismantle all inequality and oppression.

Adrian is a sophomore in college and a member of the Campus Organizing Team.

I’ve never been afraid to call myself a feminist. In fact, I’ve never not considered myself one. It’s like being gay. I didn’t know what feminism was as a kid, or who feminists were, but once I figured it out I knew deep down I was one of them. There is a reason I’m entirely in love with feminism. For me, feminist struggle is a move towards a more perfect, more equal, happier and healthier world. It is an all-encompassing movement that works to dismantle all inequality and oppression. It includes anti-racist, anti-classist, anti-homophobic, and of course anti-sexist struggle, and can be a tool for all instances of inequality – everything is a feminist issue.

 As a youth growing up and going to school near the Mexican-American border in south Texas, one of the many injustices I witnessed was the complete lack of information on sexual health available to my classmates and myself.  As victims of abstinence-only programs, we could only resort to knowledge gleaned from one another to cultivate an understanding of sex. Unfortunately, such knowledge was often rooted in myth and misunderstanding. Witnessing the results of what a lack of comprehensive sex education looked like, I’ve come to understand the importance and urgency with which we must work and struggle to achieve a sex-positive culture, one in which individuals are given the right knowledge to make healthy personal choices about their lives.

My first activist action came shortly after I found out about the “partial-birth” abortion ban. I arrived home from school that day in a fit of rage and made my own “Keep Abortion Legal” t-shirt from scraps of fabric and paint. The shirt might have been a little sloppy looking, but it represented for me finding my activist voice. Now, having just completed my first year of college and college activism(!) as a proud member of the Harvard College Students for Choice (which helped wage a stellar local campaign against the Stupak-Pitts amendment) I know that this is something I am prepared to continue fighting for. I may have only just started out as an activist, but I’m going to be here for a while.