Happy Birthday Lori!

White House. Black Power.

Today is the birthday of one of my most favorite people in the world, Feministing’s own Lori.

One of the first times I hung out with Lori, at the beginning of our first Feministing retreat, was probably the most epic night of my life. A full accounting should never appear on the internet, but I can tell you a locked snow covered playground and inappropriate behavior at Brooklyn Bowl were involved. I knew then it was love.

Lori is a true visionary. Feministing’s Campus blog was her idea, and there’s some exciting projects in the works that she planted the seed for as well.

Lori is incredibly collaborative. Some of my favorite posts of hers were co-productions with other Feministing bloggers, like her chat with Maya on “Beached White Males,” video with Chloe about victim blaming, take down of anti-feminist pop-psychology with Courtney, and our recent take on tired lists of feminist types.

She’s also my definition of an ally, which was on display when she took up the cause of expanding our understanding of abortion beyond being just a “women’s issue,” even in the face of massive backlash.

Lori brings an invaluable focus on international issues to the blog. She sets a high ethical standard we should all aspire to and is always ready to grapple with hard, complex, but important questions.

Oh, and you know how “internet feminists” supposedly don’t actually do anything in real life? Remember when Lori co-organized the huge protest against the acquittal of two NYC cops for rape? Yeah.

Lori’s also done great writing at the intersections of race and gender over at The Grio.

Join me in wishing Lori a very happy birthday in the comments!