Sarah Benchley

I used to be a teacher. Now I am a freelance writer

The Little Drag Show That Could

The show goes on at a Seattle-adjacent Drag Queen Story Time despite threats of far-right violence. Seattle has been called a lot of things recently; most notably a “socialist” hellhole. If you listen to right-wingers, you’ll likely hear that Seattle and all its surrounding areas burned to the ground in 2020 during CHAZ/CHOP. Still, on a rainy Saturday afternoon in December, surrounded by the smoldering ruins of what once was a city (sarcasm font), members, allies, and accomplices of the LGBT+

A Borrower Be: What I Want You to Understand About Student Loan Debt

The goddam Democrats have yet again not followed through on something that could have helped a large swath of Americans this week when the Biden Administration declined to help many borrowers that have had their lives fucked with by predatory lenders. It has forced me, yet again, to pay attention to the fact that a lot of loud-ass people don’t really understand what student loan forgiveness is, or what it’s like for the regular folks that live under the looming shadow of their student loan debt. I do, and while I did not major in econ or public policy I still consider myself amply qualified to drop some knowledge on why 10k in forgiveness for some people is just not good enough. So sit down while I read you the Riot Act.

The Thing About Roe

The anti-choice crowd appears to be thrilled with the idea of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and his pro-forced-birth record possibly being confirmed to the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Despite his rhetoric of Roe being “settled law,” there is absolutely no empirical evidence that he won’t do his damnedest to overturn it. I suppose to some folks, the reversal of Roe is all about making abortion illegal: they will sleep better at night knowing that pregnant women everywhere have to stay that way

10 Things From Stranger Things Only '80s Kids Understand

That's it. Just riding bikes. Because it was fun. This dovetails nicely with #1: how much freedom we were given. It wasn't uncommon to take off your bike and go play with your friends for hours without encountering a full interrogation from your 'rents. There couldn't have been any more or fewer predators out there than there are now; it just wasn't such a thing back then.Oh, and helmets weren't deemed necessary yet. Seat belts and booster seats and bicycle helmets were mere suggestions: somethi

How Will 'Net Neutrality' Affect My Netflix Streaming and What Can I Do About It? Net neutrality, in a nutshell, is the principle of a free and open internet. What that means is that an internet serv

Netflix is one of the most popular video streaming sites in the world so naturally what many of us are asking right now is, what will that do to video streaming, specifically Netflix? Netflix tv and movie streaming could be affected by price hikes by our ISPs. If ISPs such as AT&T and Comcast begin charging content sites like Netflix more for them to be accessible, the cost will ultimately be passed on to us: the consumers.

How Getting Dumped Helped Me Rebuild My Healthiest (AND Happiest) Revenge Body

There’s nothing quite like getting dumped to make you take a solid inventory of your life, am I right? What do I need from my life now? How am I different than I was before? What can I do to improve myself going forward? Even if it’s not an especially bad break-up, it’s rarely any fun. So when my last conquest flew the coop, I was in the unenviable position to ask these questions. My cousin sent me a meme that at first just made me laugh, but the more I marinated in it the more it struck me: “d