Delilah Friedler

Rolling Stone • 6th January 2023

Does the Queer Scene Have a Ketamine Problem?

Originally a medical anesthetic, “ket” was a popular club drug in Europe, but hardly anyone I knew stateside had tried it. Six years later I couldn’t cross a dancefloor without seeing several people snorting K ... As me and my friends’ usage ballooned during the pandemic, and some began using daily, I wondered what ketamine was doing for us: why in this time, in this community, was it having such a moment?

Pitchfork • 21st July 2022

Trans Women DJs Are Taking Over the Club

Long sidelined even within queer nightlife, trans-run parties stacked with trans talent are now being recognized by nightlife mavens as some of the best parties out there, drawing hordes of queer and straight ravers alike. So swiftly and soundly have the tides turned that some call this era “the doll takeover.”

Vice • 7th June 2022

Manos Amigues: Inside Mexico City’s First LGBTQ Soup Kitchen

In Mexico, gender-neutral Spanish is not yet widely embraced, but here in Guerrero, it has gained a foothold thanks to Manos Amigues. Here, people of all ages, genders, and sexualities dine side by side on iridescent tablecloths, between walls adorned with work by queer and trans artists, as Mexican cantina music shuffles with disco on the speakers.

Slate Magazine • 23rd December 2021

2021 Wasn’t All Bad for Trans People

Not every article about us has to be another “check out this new fucked up law in Montana.” … It’s never really a great year to be trans, but those hashtag-It-Gets-Better people might be on to something, because in 2021, trans people continued to claim power and space in a world that’s still just learning how to love us.

Rolling Stone • 27th July 2021

Want Proof We Need a Civilian Climate Corps? Look No Further Than Louisiana

Climate trauma is now routine across the Gulf South, with families like the Januarys having lived through multiple disasters. The Civilian Climate Corps, a massive program now being debated in Congress, could hire up to millions of people to work on projects like wetlands restoration and sustainable farming in Louisiana and beyond.

Mother Jones, March/April 2020 Issue • 1st March 2020

The Black Hills Are Not For Sale

For Brave, the Dewey-Burdock mine is just the latest battle in a long war to stop settlers’ affronts to Lakota lands and sovereignty. “They’re taking so much from [the earth] and not giving anything back,” Brave tells me, a hand-rolled cigarette dangling from her fingers. “I’m thinking we should say to them, ‘Get the hell off. Your rent is over.’”

Mother Jones, March/April 2020 Issue • 1st March 2020

Ghost Stories

After transitioning, I attracted more straight guys, who hewed to a different cultural script. They tried to charm me with pickup lines and offered to take me on dates. After a long day of getting misgendered in public, I found great validation in turning on my phone to finally be treated like a lady. Of course, that often meant being treated like shit.

Rolling Stone • 7th July 2021

How a Psychedelics Call-In Line is Helping People Trip Better

Rubin teaches volunteers to “sit with” rather than “guide” callers and texters. “When we are trusting the process, we’re also saying it’s OK to feel bad, it’s OK to not be OK,” says Rubin. “This is a part of a bigger thing happening and we’re gonna be with you through it.”

Mother Jones • 11th November 2019

The solution to California's wildfire problem lies in Indigenous wisdom

Tripp would like to see tens of thousands more acres in his tribe’s region burned. “We’ve got people on hand who are ready and qualified, it’s right on our homelands, and we’ve been doing this for millennia. But as long as we’re relying on someone else to make the decision of when to act, I don’t think we’re gonna get there.”

n+1 • 13th March 2017

The Gentrification of Standing Rock

By the end of the meeting, the air was thick with tension. Johnny looked exasperated. He rubbed his temples and spoke once more, seeming to invite sympathy. “Do you see what we’re dealing with here?” he asked. “Our decolonial space is being colonized.”

Jewish Currents • 2nd April 2020

Lessons From Strike University

Across the campuses, the primary demand is the same: a cost-of-living adjustment to help grad students afford the skyrocketing price of California housing. Some UC students have been forced to live in tents.

Teen Vogue • 8th February 2018

If You're Not Indigenous, You Live on Stolen Land

In the past decade, some Western governments have begun to practice land acknowledgments, which show respect for Indigenous peoples and recognize their enduring relationship to the land.

Dissent • 24th January 2018

Before Standing Rock, There Was Alcatraz

The camp became a bustling village as hundreds of Natives converged on Alcatraz Island. Never before had so many Indigenous nations joined in a single undertaking.

Mother Jones • 5th August 2020

How Native Tribes Starting Winning at the Supreme Court

This may be the dawn of a new judicial era, catalyzed by the Tribal Supreme Court Project and by new justices whose opinions reflect an evolving understanding of Indian law and history.

Mother Jones • 24th June 2020

The reckoning is about more than police violence

Giving Native American communities their due might seem even more difficult than defunding the cops—but in a time when police stations have been torched and abandoned, everything is up for grabs.

Mother Jones • 25th September 2020

Dear rich white friends: the pandemic isn't a vacation

“Have they been quarantining?” we ask when deciding if someone’s safe for our roommate to kiss. The subtext is, “can they afford to?”; if not, they can’t come to our party.

Mother Jones • 22nd May 2020

Talking to Rebecca Solnit about fairy tales and COVID-19

"I don’t think the world of January 1, 2020 will ever exist again. There will be losses and there will be gains, and a lot of it is up to us to improvise and demand and prevent and orchestrate as we go forward."

Mother Jones • 7th February 2020

Keystone XL is back. The anti-pipeline movement is ready.

TC Energy’s refusal to admit defeat has led many environmental leaders to nickname the project, first commissioned in 2010, “the zombie pipeline”: no matter how many times they kill it, it rears its head again.

Mother Jones • 15th February 2020

The tiny Indigenous village that ground Canada to a halt

“We shut down railways and highways because they’re just like the pipelines,” says Mohawk elder Kahentinetha Horn. “They transport Native-owned resources that we’ve never given up.”

Slate • 18th October 2018

Gender Collusion

Nonbinary is trending, and gender nonconformers are becoming more and more visible. But does visibility make us safer or more powerful? Will representation help us achieve our most transformative dreams?