Megan Alpert is a fellow at Foreign Policy. Her previous bylines have included The Guardian, Guernica Daily, and Earth Island Journal. She is an Orlando Poetry Prize winner, a former resident-fellow at Vermont Studio Center, and a graduate of The Bennington Writing Seminars.
392910 17: (NEWSWEEK, US NEWS & WORLD REPORT OUT) A water boy, center, rests on a ridge May 2001 while carrying water to the Sar-e-sang lapis lazuli mine in the Hindu Kush mountain range above Madan, Afghanistan. Afghani opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who controls the region, is using a tax on gems mined and sold in the valley to buy armaments to continue his guerrilla war with the ruling Taliban. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
Bolivian members of the transsexual, gay and lesbian community take part in a march during the International Day Against Homophobia in La Paz on May 17. 2013. AFP PHOTO/Aizar Raldes (Photo credit should read AIZAR RALDES/AFP/Getty Images)
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - OCTOBER 15: Teens sit on a new sign reading 'Cidade Olimpica' (Olympic City) in the historic port district on October 15, 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games games, the port district is undergoing a controversial multibillion dollar urban renewal program although some projects have been delayed in the midst of Brazil's recession. Many parts of the port district retain descendants of African slaves along with Afro-Brazilian historical locations including the area where samba music is thought to have been born in Rio. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
BOSTON - JUNE 6: The Gay Pride Flag swirls in the wind before being hoisted atop the flagpole at Boston City Hall during the 20th annual flag-raising ceremony to open the citys Pride Week gay rights events scheduled through Sunday, June 15. (Photo by Joanne Rathe/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Athletes compete during the Ibero American Athletics Championships men's 5000 meters final race, a test event for Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 16, 2016. / AFP / YASUYOSHI CHIBA (Photo credit should read YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)
Bangladesh police parade suspect Shariful Islam Shihab (C) in Dhaka on May 15, 2016, after his arrest in connection with the murder of two gay rights activists.
Bangladesh police have arrested a suspected Islamist militant over the hacking to death of two gay rights activists, part of a spate of murders of intellectuals, writers and religious minorities, officers said May 15. / AFP / - (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)
TOKYO, JAPAN - MAY 13: (CHINA OUT, SOUTH KOREA OUT) Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Yoichi Masuzoe speaks during a press conference at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government headquarters on May 13, 2016 in Tokyo, Japan. Masuzoe admitted to use political funds for dinner and accommodations, as the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)
BRASILIA, BRAZIL - MAY 03: Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, lights the Olympic torch with Brazilian Olympic Committee Carlos Nuzman (L) and first torch bearer, volleyball player Fabiana Claudino at the Palacio do Planalto on May 3, 2016 in Brasilia, Brazil. The Olympic torch will pass through 329 cities from all states from the north to the south of Brazil, until arriving in Rio de Janeiro on August 5, to lit the cauldron. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (2nd R) and her lawyers pose with a sign reading "a part is not guilty" in front of the Tokyo District Court on May 9, 2016.
A Japanese artist who makes objects shaped like her vagina was convicted on May 9 after a high-profile obscenity trial, in a decision likely to reignite accusations of heavy-handed censorship. / AFP / KAZUHIRO NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)
SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES - MAY 04: Protestors hold a vigil at Sydney Town Hall on May 4, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. Hodan Yasin, a 21-year-old Somali refugee is being treated in a Brisbane hospital after setting herself alight in detention on Nauru on Monday. It is the second attempt on Nauru in a week, after Iranian refugee Omid Masoumali set himself on fire last Wednesday. He later died from his injuries. (Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images)
BAHAMAS - JANUARY 01: A crane lowers a submersible into the ocean for a deep dive, Caribbean Sea, Bahama Islands (Photo by Bates Littlehales/National Geographic/Getty Images)
epa05289506 A tree trunk burns due to a forest fire in village Jharet in Palampur, some 52 km from Dharamsala, India, 04 May 2016. As temperatures rise, chances of forest fires in the area increase rapidly in hot weather. EPA/SANJAY BAID
The drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera, El Chapo, looks at the press, guarded by members of Mexican Navy is moved to a helicopter. El chapo, was arrested Saturday at 6:40 hours at a hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa in Mexico city, Mexico, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg
