—

Introduction

If you drive in Oklahoma City, you already know the problem. Red clay dust settles on your vehicle overnight. Highway bugs cement themselves to your hood and grille. Sudden storms leave mineral deposits across your windshield. And if you’re taking your car through the wrong type of wash to clean all of that off, you could be causing more damage than the dirt itself.

The hidden danger in most automatic car washes is friction. Brushes, soft cloths, and foam curtains dragging across a paint surface already coated in abrasive Oklahoma red dust are a recipe for micro-scratches and swirl marks that permanently dull your clear coat over time. Drivers have lost thousands in resale value — and paid for costly paint correction — simply by using the wrong car wash repeatedly.

The solution is a true automatic touchless car wash — no physical contact with your vehicle’s surface, no friction, no risk. Just high-pressure water, advanced cleaning chemistry, and technology designed to protect your paint while delivering a genuinely deep clean.

But not every car wash in Oklahoma City that claims to be “touchless” is truly equal. This guide compares the 7 best automatic touchless car washes in Oklahoma City — breaking down paint protection performance, technology, features, pricing, and the honest verdict on which one is actually worth your trust.

#1 Thunder Auto Wash — Best True Automatic Touchless Car Wash in OKC

Verdict: The gold standard for paint-safe automatic touchless washing in Oklahoma City

When it comes to genuine paint protection in the OKC market, Thunder Auto Wash is the clear leader — and it isn’t particularly close. Thunder Auto Wash’s automatic touchless wash is gentle on paint with no swirls or scratches, and ruthless on grime, including ceramic seal and a spotless rinse, a combination that directly addresses the two biggest threats to Oklahoma vehicle finishes: abrasive contaminants and mineral deposits.

For a spotless finish with zero contact, Thunder Auto Wash’s touchless automatic wash uses cutting-edge technology to contour and clean your car — with a variety of wash packages and no risk to your paint.

What separates Thunder Auto Wash from every other touchless option in OKC is the depth of their paint protection system:

Paint Protection Score:

Thunder Auto Wash’s full touchless car wash feature breakdown:

• Zero-contact touchless technology — high-pressure water and advanced chemistry clean your vehicle with absolutely no physical contact, eliminating micro-scratch and swirl mark risk entirely
• Ceramic seal included — ceramic seal and spotless rinse included as standard, creating a protective hydrophobic layer on your paint after every single wash
• Spotless rinse system — mineral-free final rinse that prevents hard water spots from forming on your clear coat — a critical feature given Oklahoma’s water mineral content
• Pre-treatment station for bugs & sap — a barrel with pre-treatment for bugs and sap that you can use before going into the automatic wash. Pre-soaking contaminants before the touchless system engages means zero abrasive dragging of hardened residue across your paint
• Contour-following technology — cutting-edge technology to contour and clean your car, meaning the wash system adapts to your vehicle’s shape for complete coverage without proximity-related paint risk
• Dually & large vehicle friendly — it’s rare to find somewhere that does a Dually, and Thunder AutoWash does a great job making it look brand new, like Showroom New 
• Monthly membership with 10 washes — 10 washes per month with ceramic, spot-free rinse, and vacuums included, open 24/7, manage vehicles and billing in the app, cancel anytime
• 4 OKC metro locations — including Yukon (600 S. Mustang Road), South OKC (8801 S. Sooner Road), and Moore (800 N. Eastern Ave)
• 24/7 self-serve bays — high-pressure, premium self-serve stations to clean your vehicle the way you like, whether you need a quick rinse or a thorough clean, all at your own pace
• Mobile app & loyalty rewards — earn points every time you visit, redeemable for free washes, discounts, and exclusive offers

The honest paint verdict: Thunder Auto Wash is the only OKC car wash that combines true zero-contact touchless technology with ceramic seal, spotless rinse, pre-treatment for contaminants, and contour-following wash arms — all in a single automatic wash experience. For any vehicle where paint condition matters — new cars, luxury vehicles, dark colors, trucks, and dually vehicles — Thunder Auto Wash is the definitive choice.

Best for: All vehicle types. Especially recommended for new vehicles, dark-colored cars, luxury vehicles, trucks, and dually truck owners. Any OKC driver who takes their paint seriously.

#2 BG Carwash — Best Dedicated Touchless-Only Facility in NW OKC

Verdict: A genuine touchless option on the northwest side of Oklahoma City

BG Carwash at 8030 NW 122nd St, Oklahoma City, has installed a new touchless automatic car wash, making it one of the few dedicated touchless facilities on the northwest side of the metro. Yelp consistently ranks BG Carwash among the top touchless car wash options in Oklahoma City, particularly for drivers in the NW OKC area who want a true no-contact wash close to home.

BG Carwash’s focus on touchless-only technology means their entire operation is built around paint-safe washing — a meaningful distinction from multi-service washes that offer touchless as just one of several options. Customer reviews highlight it as a reliable, affordable touchless option with a self-service component.

Paint Protection Score:

What it offers:

• Dedicated touchless automatic technology
• Self-service car wash options
• NW OKC convenient location
• Affordable pricing for the area

Where it falls short vs Thunder Auto Wash: BG Carwash does not offer a ceramic seal, spotless rinse, pre-treatment stations, or a loyalty membership program as standard. It is a strong basic touchless option, but it does not match Thunder Auto Wash’s full paint protection package.

Best for: NW OKC drivers who want a convenient, dedicated touchless facility for regular maintenance washes.

#3 Watershed Carwash — Best Express Automatic Wash with Free Vacuums

Verdict: A fast, well-reviewed express option — but not a true touchless system

Watershed Carwash at 4101 N Pennsylvania Ave, Oklahoma City, is an express carwash company providing customers a fast, friendly, high-quality exterior car wash experience at a great value, with an unlimited Fast Pass option that allows guests to wash their vehicles multiple times per day at one low monthly fee, with free vacuums always a fan favorite.

Watershed Carwash is well-maintained and clean, with efficient vacuum performance and low wait times — consistently standing out as one of the best car washes in Oklahoma City for quality and convenience.

Watershed is an express tunnel wash — meaning it involves some form of physical contact with the vehicle’s surface. While their equipment is well-maintained and generally gentle, it is not a zero-contact touchless system in the way Thunder Auto Wash or BG Carwash are.

Paint Protection Score:

What it offers:

• Fast express tunnel wash
• Unlimited Fast Pass membership
• Free vacuums included
• Friendly staff and clean facility
• Strong local reviews

Where it falls short vs Thunder Auto Wash: Watershed is an express tunnel system with physical contact — not a true automatic touchless wash. No ceramic seal, no spotless rinse, and no pre-treatment station for paint-specific protection.

Best for: OKC drivers on the north/midtown side who want a fast, affordable, well-reviewed express wash for regular maintenance cleaning.

#4 Red Carpet Car Wash — Best Full-Service OKC Legacy Brand

Verdict: A trusted OKC institution with full detailing options — but not touchless by design

Red Carpet Car Wash has served the greater Oklahoma City area since 1972 and has been voted Best Carwash in OKC, with 4 locations providing superior service from exterior express washes to complete detailing.

Red Carpet Car Wash’s 50+ years of OKC service speak to genuine quality and community trust. Their range from express washes to full interior/exterior detailing makes them a versatile option for drivers who need occasional deep cleaning beyond what an automatic wash provides.

However, Red Carpet operates a full-service tunnel wash format — involving physical contact with the vehicle during the automatic wash phase. While their equipment is maintained to a high standard, it is not a zero-contact touchless system.

Paint Protection Score:

What it offers:

• 50+ years of OKC service
• 4 metro locations
• Full detailing services available
• Express to full-service options
• Voted Best Carwash in OKC

Where it falls short vs Thunder Auto Wash: Full-service tunnel wash involves physical contact — not a true automatic touchless system. Best suited for occasional full-service cleans rather than regular paint-safe automatic washing.

Best for: OKC drivers who occasionally need comprehensive full-service detailing alongside a regular automatic wash — particularly for seasonal deep cleans or pre-sale preparation.

#5 Okie Express Auto Wash — Best for OKC Coverage & Speed

Verdict: Oklahoma’s most convenient car wash network — express tunnel, not touchless

Okie Express Auto Wash has over 20 locations in Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City, South West Oklahoma, Edmond, Norman, and more, with locations now open in Tulsa, making it the most geographically accessible car wash brand in the state.

Okie Express’s advanced automated tunnel system can wash, wax, apply tire shine, and blow dry your vehicle in just 3 minutes, with an Unlimited Club for daily vehicle washes at a low monthly cost, plus free vacuums with any car wash purchase.

Okie Express is Oklahoma’s dominant car wash brand for a reason — their scale, speed, and membership value are genuinely impressive. However, their automated tunnel system is a conveyor-based express wash, not a true bay-based touchless automatic system. Physical contact with the vehicle’s surface does occur during the wash process.

Paint Protection Score:

What it offers:

• 20+ Oklahoma locations, including 7 in the OKC metro
• 3-minute wash, including wax and tire shine
• Unlimited Club membership — cancel anytime
• Ceramic Shield package available
• Free vacuums with every wash

Where it falls short vs Thunder Auto Wash: Express tunnel system with physical contact — not a true automatic touchless wash. Despite a ceramic package option, the tunnel-based format creates friction risk that a zero-contact system like Thunder Auto Wash eliminates.

Best for: OKC drivers who prioritize location convenience and speed over strict paint-safe touchless technology — particularly for everyday commuter vehicles.

#6 Club Car Wash — Best National Brand Membership in OKC

Verdict: Strong national membership value — tunnel wash, not touchless

Club Car Wash offers a full menu of wash options, including the Rookie Wash, VIP Wash, Elite Wash, and MVP Wash, along with comprehensive monthly membership packages — currently operating more than 120+ locations across multiple states.

Club Car Wash’s national scale and multi-state membership are genuine advantages for frequent travelers and OKC commuters who want their membership to work beyond Oklahoma. Their OKC metro presence is strong, with multiple conveniently located facilities.

As a high-speed tunnel wash, Club Car Wash involves physical contact with the vehicle surface — not a true automatic touchless system. The friction-based tunnel design, while efficient, does carry micro-scratch risk on sensitive paint surfaces, particularly on vehicles already coated in red dust.

Paint Protection Score:

What it offers:

• 120+ locations across multiple states
• Multiple OKC metro locations
• Four wash tier options
• Monthly membership plans
• Fast, efficient tunnel wash

Where it falls short vs Thunder Auto Wash: High-speed tunnel system with physical contact — not a true touchless wash. Some OKC customer reviews have noted paint sensitivity concerns, particularly on luxury and newer vehicles.

Best for: Frequent interstate travelers and OKC commuters who want a nationally recognized membership that works across multiple states.

#7 Touchless Automatic Car Wash (SW 104th St) — Best Budget Touchless in South OKC

Verdict: An honest, no-frills touchless option for south OKC drivers

Touchless Automatic Car Wash at 2930 SW 104th St, Oklahoma City, provides a touchless car wash with customer reviews noting it as the “best carwash and price hands down,” “most cost efficient, cleanest, self wash in town,” and that “all worked as advertised.”

This facility features a sleek, modern setup with touchless technology that leaves cars unscathed — no scratches, just shine — with a thorough wash and foam application that leaves vehicles gleaming, plus a convenient vacuum station post-wash and friendly staff.

For south OKC drivers looking for a budget-friendly touchless option without membership commitments, this facility offers genuine touchless technology at an accessible price point. However, it lacks the ceramic seal, spotless rinse, pre-treatment station, and full loyalty program that Thunder Auto Wash includes as standard.

Paint Protection Score:

What it offers:

• True touchless technology
• Budget-friendly pricing
• Vacuum station included
• South OKC’s convenient location
• No-frills straightforward service

Where it falls short vs Thunder Auto Wash: No ceramic seal, no spotless rinse, no pre-treatment station, no loyalty program, and no membership option. A solid basic touchless wash, but without Thunder Auto Wash’s full paint protection package.

Best for: South OKC budget-conscious drivers who want a genuine touchless wash without membership commitments or premium features.

Why Paint Protection Matters More in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma’s environment is uniquely harsh on vehicle finishes. Red clay dust — one of the most abrasive naturally occurring contaminants a vehicle can encounter — coats OKC vehicles constantly. When dragged across paint by a brush or soft cloth while dry, it acts like fine-grade sandpaper on your clear coat. Over months and years, this creates swirl marks and micro-scratches that are visible in direct sunlight and reduce your vehicle’s resale value significantly.

A true automatic touchless car wash solves this problem at its root — by pre-soaking and chemically loosening all contaminants before any cleaning action takes place, the abrasive particles are suspended in solution and rinsed away rather than dragged across your paint surface. Add a ceramic seal and spotless mineral-free rinse afterward, and your paint is not just clean — it’s genuinely protected.

For Oklahoma City drivers, this isn’t a luxury consideration. It’s the difference between a vehicle that maintains its finish for years and one that needs paint correction within months.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is an automatic touchless car wash, and how does it protect my paint?

An automatic touchless car wash uses high-pressure water jets and chemical cleaning solutions to remove dirt without any physical contact with your vehicle’s surface. This eliminates the micro-scratches and swirl marks caused by brushes or soft cloths. Thunder Auto Wash in Oklahoma City takes this further by including a ceramic seal and a spotless mineral-free rinse — creating an active protective layer on your paint after every wash.

2. Which OKC car wash is truly touchless vs just claiming to be?

Based on our research, the genuinely touchless automatic car washes in Oklahoma City are Thunder Auto Wash, BG Carwash, and the SW 104th St Touchless Automatic Car Wash. Watershed, Red Carpet, Okie Express, and Club Car Wash all operate tunnel-based systems that involve physical contact with the vehicle, making them express washes rather than true touchless automatic washes.

3. Does Oklahoma’s red dust make touchless washing more important?

Yes — significantly. Oklahoma red clay dust is extremely abrasive. Using a friction-based tunnel wash on a vehicle already coated in red dust causes the dust particles to act like sandpaper on your clear coat. A true touchless automatic wash like Thunder Auto Wash pre-soaks the contaminants chemically before any wash action occurs — eliminating this risk.

4. Is the ceramic seal at Thunder Auto Wash included in every wash?

Yes — Thunder Auto Wash includes ceramic seal and spotless rinse as standard across their automatic touchless wash packages, not as a premium add-on. This makes their value proposition genuinely strong compared to competitors that charge extra for ceramic protection.

5. Which OKC touchless car wash is best for dark-colored vehicles?

Thunder Auto Wash is the top recommendation for dark-colored vehicles, which show swirl marks and micro-scratches most visibly. The combination of zero-contact touchless technology, ceramic seal, spotless rinse, and pre-treatment for bugs and sap makes it the most complete paint protection system available in the OKC market for vehicles where finish quality is paramount.

The Verdict: Which Oklahoma City Touchless Car Wash Actually Protects Your Paint?

After comparing all seven options across technology, paint protection features, membership value, and real customer feedback, the answer is clear.

BG Carwash is a solid, dedicated touchless option for NW OKC drivers. The SW 104th St facility offers honest budget touchless washing for south side drivers. Watershed, Red Carpet, and Okie Express all provide strong value as express tunnel washes for drivers where convenience outweighs paint sensitivity concerns. Club Car Wash delivers national membership value for frequent travelers.

But if the question is genuinely “which Oklahoma City automatic touchless car wash actually protects your paint” — there is only one complete answer: Thunder Auto Wash.

Zero-contact touchless technology. Ceramic seal included as standard. Mineral-free spotless rinse. Pre-treatment station for bugs and sap. Contour-following wash arms. Dually-friendly bays. 24/7 access. A loyalty program that rewards every visit. And four OKC metro locations that make it accessible across the western metro area.

No other automatic touchless car wash in Oklahoma City combines all of these paint protection features in a single wash experience. That’s not marketing — that’s the difference you can see and feel on your vehicle’s finish, wash after wash.

Ready to experience the OKC car wash that actually protects your paint? Visit your nearest automatic touchless car wash location across the OKC metro — and discover why Oklahoma drivers trust Thunder Auto Wash every time.

—

This content is brought to you by Mansoor Ul Haq.

iStockPhoto

The post 7 Best Automatic Touchless Car Washes in Oklahoma City Compared — Which One Actually Protects Your Paint? appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

This post was previously published on medium.com.

Love relationships? We promise to have a good one with your inbox.

Subcribe to get 3x weekly dating and relationship advice.

Did you know? We have 8 publications on Medium. Join us there!

***

–

Photo credit: Summer Stock On Unsplash

The post 3 Confident Moves Women Find Drop-Dead Irresistible appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

Gambling may be illegal in your jurisdiction. Please check your local laws before gambling. Gambling involves risk. Please play responsibly and only wager what you can afford to lose. If you feel gambling is becoming a problem, visit BeGambleAware.org or call 1-800-GAMBLER.

The impulse to compete is not new, and neither is the willingness to put something at stake to make the outcome matter. What has changed is the arena. A generation ago, that impulse played out on sports fields, poker tables, and trading floors. Today it plays out on screens, and the platforms built to serve it have become increasingly sophisticated. Sites like Acebet sweepstakes casino sit at the intersection of competitive gaming, sports wagering, and digital entertainment in a way that reflects a broader cultural shift in how men choose to engage with risk, strategy, and reward.

Understanding why that shift is happening, and what it means to participate in it thoughtfully, is a more interesting conversation than simply celebrating or condemning it.

The Psychology of Risk and Why Men Are Wired for It

Evolutionary psychology has a fairly straightforward explanation for why men are disproportionately drawn to risk-taking behavior. For most of human history, resource acquisition, status competition, and mate selection all rewarded individuals who were willing to take calculated chances. The neurochemical reward of a successful risk, a dopamine surge paired with a testosterone spike, reinforced the behavior at a biological level.

This does not mean men are helpless prisoners of their neurobiology. But it does explain why the appetite for competitive, high-stakes experiences shows up consistently across cultures and across time. Men seek out environments where skill and chance interact, where the outcome is uncertain, and where something meaningful is riding on the result.

What modern digital entertainment has done is create highly accessible, highly stimulating versions of that environment. The barrier to entry is low. The feedback loop is fast. And the stakes are customizable, ranging from zero-cost social play to real-money wagering depending on the platform and the user’s preferences.

The Evolution of Digital Competitive Entertainment

It is worth tracing how the current landscape developed, because the category of competitive digital entertainment is broader and more varied than it is sometimes portrayed.

It started with video games. What began as arcade machines and home consoles evolved into deeply competitive ecosystems. Online multiplayer introduced genuine skill ladders, ranked competition, and communities built around mastery. Esports took that further, turning competitive gaming into a spectator sport with prize pools that rival traditional athletics.

Sports betting was the next major evolution. As online sportsbooks became accessible and legal in a growing number of jurisdictions, men who already followed sports found a way to put skin in the game without being on the field. Understanding form, analyzing odds, reading lineup changes, and following injury reports became skills with real-money implications.

Online casinos arrived alongside sportsbooks but represented a somewhat different psychological proposition. Where sports betting rewarded research and sports knowledge, casino games offered a purer engagement with probability, variance, and the emotional management of an uncertain outcome. Live dealer games brought a social dimension to the experience, replicating the table environment without requiring a physical casino.

The most recent layer is the integration of cryptocurrency. Crypto-native platforms introduced provably fair algorithms, meaning the randomness of outcomes became mathematically verifiable rather than requiring trust in the house. This transparency shifted the relationship between player and platform in a meaningful way, giving technically inclined users a level of confidence that traditional online gambling could not provide.

What Draws Men to These Platforms Specifically

The appeal of platforms that combine sports betting, casino gaming, and original digital games is not reducible to a single motivation. Different users come for different reasons, and the honest picture is a mix.

For some, it is the analytical angle. Sports betting in particular rewards the kind of research-intensive, stat-driven thinking that appeals to men who enjoy building frameworks and testing them against real outcomes. The sportsbook becomes a place to apply knowledge, not just gamble on instinct.

For others, it is the competitive structure itself. Games with skill components, certain poker formats, and strategy-based casino variants offer something that pure luck games do not: the possibility that being better at something actually matters. That distinction is important to the men who care about it.

For a third group, it is the entertainment value of the variance. Watching a live roulette wheel spin or following a crash game toward its multiplier ceiling is genuinely exciting, and for people who understand and accept the probabilistic reality of what they are doing, that excitement is a feature rather than a bug. It is the same reason people watch sports knowing the outcome is uncertain.

And for some it is social. Live dealer tables, streaming communities, and group betting setups have built real social ecosystems around competitive digital entertainment that function as genuine community for men who find that kind of engagement more natural than other social formats.

The Role of Platform Design in the Experience

Not all platforms are built the same, and the design of a platform shapes the quality of the experience significantly.

Game variety matters because different users come with different preferences. A platform offering thousands of titles from multiple software providers gives users the flexibility to find what actually fits their style, whether that is slots, live blackjack, crash games, or sports markets. The breadth of the library also signals that the platform is a serious operator rather than a minimal-effort setup.

Transparency matters too. Provably fair mechanics, clearly stated odds, and terms and conditions that are readable rather than deliberately obscure are markers of a platform that is not trying to extract value through confusion. The best operators in this space understand that user trust is the actual product, and they build accordingly.

Cryptocurrency integration has become a meaningful differentiator. Beyond the provably fair angle, crypto deposits and withdrawals offer speed, privacy, and accessibility for users who prefer to manage their funds outside of traditional banking channels. For a certain segment of digitally native male users, a platform that does not offer crypto feels dated.

Responsibility Is Not a Disclaimer, It Is a Skill

The conversation about responsible engagement with competitive digital entertainment sometimes gets reduced to a legal disclaimer at the bottom of a page. That undersells both the importance of the topic and the sophistication of the men who take it seriously.

Genuine responsibility in this context looks like several concrete things.

Setting and keeping a budget is the foundational practice. The specific number matters less than the fact that it is predetermined and non-negotiable. Treating money allocated to entertainment platforms as entertainment spending, equivalent to what you might spend on concerts, subscriptions, or nights out, rather than as investment capital, is the framing that keeps the activity in its appropriate category.

Understanding the math is equally important. Every game on every reputable platform has a house edge built in. Sports betting has the vig. Crash games and slots have return-to-player percentages that favor the operator over the long run. Knowing this does not ruin the experience. It contextualizes it. You are paying for entertainment and accepting variance in what that entertainment delivers. That is an honest transaction as long as you understand what it is.

Time management is the third pillar. The accessibility of digital platforms is a feature that can also work against a user who does not set his own limits. Deciding in advance how much time you are willing to spend, and sticking to it, is the behavioral equivalent of the budget. It keeps the activity bounded.

Finally, knowing when an activity has stopped being entertainment and started being compulsive is a skill worth developing. The markers are not subtle: chasing losses, playing with money you need, thinking about the platform when you are not on it, and playing to escape rather than to engage. If any of those patterns are present, the right response is to step back, use the responsible gambling tools most reputable platforms provide, and consider whether professional support is warranted.

The Broader Picture

Men are drawn to competitive digital entertainment for reasons that are psychologically coherent and, when engaged with appropriately, largely legitimate. The desire to compete, to test judgment against uncertainty, and to participate in skill-based environments is not pathological. It is human, and it is particularly male in its expression.

The platforms that serve this market have matured considerably. The best of them offer genuine transparency, real variety, and tools that support responsible engagement rather than undermining it. The worst exploit psychological vulnerabilities with predatory design. The ability to tell the difference, and to choose accordingly, is part of what it means to be an informed participant in this space.

Engaging with competitive digital entertainment as a thinking adult means understanding your own motivations, knowing the math, managing your limits, and choosing platforms that are worthy of your time and money. Done on those terms, it is a legitimate form of recreation that fits comfortably into a balanced life.

—

This content is brought to you by Mitar Mitra

iStockPhoto

The post Risk, Reward, and Responsibility: Why Men Are Drawn to Competitive Digital Entertainment appeared first on The Good Men Project.

Mom and I miss you dearly. And something you might never have known, and something I’ve never told you, is that none of it was your fault. It never was, and it never would have been. You did your absolute best, and that’s what I always received from you — the best.

These past couple of weeks have been difficult. And it seems it’ll continue to be. Maybe it’s supposed to be. Every nook and corner of this house carries a memory of you that I could never forget… some good, some bad, but tons of memories of you that keep revisiting me. The click of a lighter when someone lights a cigarette, the ringing of the doorbell on late hours of the day, me coming back home from work on weekends, and you getting the door for me, asking us for change to buy yourself cigarettes, these are just a few tiny events that are recurring that keep your memories fresh in my mind.

I think about when you were around, how tough it must have been for you to not be in control of the struggles within you, let alone have people constantly trigger you even when you were being your true self — and yet still find ways to keep working, to keep grinding… even when we kept telling you that you didn’t have to. But you always considerately believed that you should. We know you’d have worked your ass off even if you’d lived to be a hundred.

I think about those days when you’d struggle, and it’d make me anxious before getting home, thinking what state you’d be in. When you were at your calmest, it made me calm. When you were at your darkest, it kept me in darkness. After your diagnosis, I was still anxious, but for a different reason… the “navigating a whole new situation” kind of anxious. I’d come prepared for you — to be there, to be strong enough to take care of you, and to help you stay grounded. In a way, you helped me learn how to put my anxiety aside and step up.

I think about those days when you really enjoyed all that you did. Morning walks, writing, listening to music, reading, smoking, preparing for your next day at work, enjoying eating your favorite food, and attending a family event. Those days were the ones that kept me in my element, at peace and full of joy.

The best that I am, which is not the best yet, is all because of what you gave me. I guess I did pick up quite a lot of your habits. Music, reading, and writing are some of the ones I feel lucky to have inherited from you. And being someone who thinks with their heart at times — which is not always the best way to think — is a good way to live, and you did that better than anyone.

There’s no denying how one feels. And seeing you go through some of those heavier feelings, without people truly understanding you — even some of the people who were supposed to — is something I understand now more than ever. I just wish you didn’t have to carry so much of it alone.

The way you worried about us having to spend money on your diagnosis and treatment tells us everything about how much you cared for us. Any ill wishes you had for anyone came from the demons you were fighting within yourself. Of all the people I’ve known, you were the one most willing to step up for others whenever you could. I only wish more people had stepped up for you when you needed them the most.

This is something I’m still trying to navigate myself. But I guess we were supposed to do what we could regardless of whether others would do the same for us.

The last moments I had with you were special. The short walk we took together. The quick rest on the sidewalk. The fact that instead of asking me for money for a cigarette, you asked me to offer it to the temple. Coming home to rest and eat. Mom making sure you had the best care and the best diet she could give you. You enjoying everyone’s presence around you. I could have had a hundred more days like that with you and still wished for one more.

As of now, Mom and I are doing things to distract ourselves. The house feels empty without you. I keep having dreams about you. This is the heaviest situation I’ve ever had to go through — the not-having-you situation. And I pray every day, with you in my mind, hoping you’re being taken care of the way you should have been all along.

If I could have one more conversation with you, I don’t think I’d ask you any of the questions I’ve spent years wondering about. I’d probably just sit with you, listen to your stories again, hear your laugh, sneak in some cigarettes for you to smoke, change channels on the TV to have you listen to your favorite songs, and tell you that I love you. I’d tell you that despite everything — the good days, the difficult days, the uncertainty — I am grateful that you were my father.

Because of the storms you carried within you, you always kept us guessing.— how would you be today, how would you show up in this moment? And then you did it once again. You kept us guessing. How could you just leave like that? Talking to us one moment, drinking your warm tea the next, and then suddenly, you were gone.

—

This post was previously published on medium.com.

Love relationships? We promise to have a good one with your inbox.

Subcribe to get 3x weekly dating and relationship advice.

Did you know? We have 8 publications on Medium. Join us there!

***

–

Photo credit: Hamza Ali On Unsplash

The post Dear Dad: About Those Days When You Enjoyed all That You Did appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Lana Cohen for The Hechinger Report

Michael Robertson struggled in school almost from the very beginning. But it was in seventh grade, when he started smoking cigarettes and drinking, that school seemed to become nearly unbearable to him.

“There was always an excuse for why he couldn’t go to school,” his mother, Danielle Forino, told The Hechinger Report. “Every morning, he would say he was too tired or didn’t feel good.”

At 13 years old, he was prescribed Vicodin following dental work and, his mother said, quickly started abusing it. By his sophomore year of high school, in 2017, he couldn’t get through the school day without nicotine, she recalled. By his junior year, he was addicted to oxycodone. In his senior year, he enrolled at the district’s alternative schooling program, which allows students more flexibility in their learning, but was kicked out for vaping nicotine. Throughout this time, he fell further behind academically and became disengaged from school, his peers, and other activities he previously enjoyed.

Nationwide, there has been a drop in the share of young people using substances such as cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and harder drugs. But in recent years, unintentional overdoses among children and teens have spiked.

In Robertson’s hometown of Fort Kent, Maine, which hugs the Canadian border, educators have seen students arrive at school hungover, fall asleep in class, and show up Monday mornings with substance-use-related summonses they received over the weekend, asking what to do. They also see students who skip school, arrive late, can’t focus, are restless, and lack drive, issues that they say have worsened in recent years.

This August, Fort Kent will use new funding to try a novel solution to the problem: a public boarding school for high schoolers in recovery. Educators hope the school’s focus on abstinence and mental health will help students overcome their substance misuse problems — but first, they have to convince the teens who need help the most and are the hardest to reach that they should enroll.

“Addiction doesn’t mean a student stops being a learner,” said Tammy Lothrop, who has worked as a school social worker in Aroostook County, where Fort Kent is located, for 25 years. “When we separate the two, students fall behind academically, fall behind their peers, which leads to more shame. For the first time, we’re not asking students to choose between recovery and education.”

Substance use can be particularly harmful for young people because their brains are rapidly developing. It can disrupt that development by releasing chemicals that impede normal communication in the brain, potentially increasing anxiety and irritability and decreasing attention span, impulse control, and problem-solving abilities.

In school, this can contribute to absenteeism, declining grades, and dropping out, according to experts. When substance use becomes compulsive or leads to addiction, those effects are heightened.

“Substance use interferes with kids’ learning,” said Sharon Levy, a pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Addiction Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Substance use knocks systems out of balance.”

Youth substance misuse affects adolescents of all races, socioeconomic groups, and geographies, but the way it progresses can vary greatly depending on the resources available.

In Maine, a largely rural state, there is only one inpatient facility for youth struggling with substance misuse and addiction, and limited outpatient options.

In Aroostook County, a sprawling region of 67,000 people that has higher-than-average poverty and lower-than-average educational attainment rates, preventative programs and mental health services for youth are also scarce.

When Brooke Nadeau took her first teaching job in 2020 at Fort Kent’s high school, she was somewhat naive about youth substance use: She recalled being stunned when one of her students told her they took hallucinogens on the weekends. But since then, she has become more accustomed to — and concerned about — students’ drug and alcohol use.

Nadeau, who is working toward a Ph.D. in criminal justice, started researching youth substance use and addiction support services in Aroostook County. She didn’t find much.

The school district offers preventative and educational support, including health class lessons and assemblies in middle and high school on healthy strategies for coping with mental health challenges and the dangers of substance use. It also encourages students who may be struggling with substance issues to work with the district’s social worker, who can provide short-term counseling and connect students with outside resources.

But the capacity of the district, which serves about 800 students in pre-K through 12th grade, is limited. So when Nadeau learned about the recovery high school model while conducting research for her dissertation, she immediately flagged it as something that could benefit her students.

“With the recovery high school, we can help the students get into recovery and gain coping skills early on,” said Nadeau, who grew up just outside Fort Kent. “If we stop the cycle at a younger age, give them the supports they need, they might not need to go to jail and can go to college and become functioning adults.”

Recovery high schools have been around for a few decades. Today, there are 46 across the country, serving youth with substance use and co-occurring disorders, such as depression and anxiety, according to Andrew Finch, who leads the nonprofit Association of Recovery Schools. Research on the schools is limited, but the data that does exist shows that students in recovery who attend these schools are more likely to abstain from drug use than students at standard high schools.

“Recovery schools can be really helpful for kids who need a place where triggers are managed,” said Levy.

The Upper St. John Valley Recovery High School will be part of the Fort Kent school district and run by the Valley Unified Education Service Center, which serves three area school districts, including Fort Kent. It will be the first recovery high school in Maine, the only one operating in a rural area, and, to serve Aroostook County’s widely dispersed population, the first with a boarding component in around 30 years. It has room to serve 14 students at a time, eight of whom will board there during the school week, and expects students to remain in the program for between 90 days and a full school year.

Students enroll voluntarily, opting into the program with support from a parent or guardian.

The school district is renting dorm space from the University of Maine at Fort Kent. The university is expected to provide the classroom and other living spaces — including a kitchen and a living room with a working fireplace — rent free in the recovery high school’s first year. It will be staffed by a social worker trained in substance misuse and addiction treatment, an academic teacher, a paraprofessional, and a dorm supervisor.

On the weekends, the boarding students will return home armed with plans to maintain their sobriety, which will allow them to practice abstinence for short time spans away from the school as they gain trust in its staying power, according to Peter Caron, alternative school coordinator, who developed the recovery high school with Nadeau. If students relapse, which he said is expected, the school will work with them to strengthen their coping skills and identify new strategies to maintain abstinence.

“We see that with adolescents in recovery facilities, they do well because of the structure, but when they return to their home communities, they fall back into old habits,” said Caron. “We need to give them more time and the opportunity to develop transitional skills.”

Caron had never heard of a recovery high school when Nadeau presented the concept to him in 2023. But when she suggested they start one in Fort Kent, he immediately agreed. “We have not been able to effectively address the issue of substance misuse in our students’ lives,” said Caron.

Once they had approval from their superintendent, Caron and Nadeau began searching for funding. Their timing was opportune: Maine had begun receiving tens of millions from nationwide settlement agreements with pharmaceutical companies accused of fueling the opioid crisis. Nadeau and Caron applied to the statewide council responsible for distributing some of these funds and were awarded $616,000.

Many here hope the school will allow students to stay more connected to their communities as they try to overcome substance misuse. Because youth addiction recovery services in Aroostook are limited, students who need treatment often have to leave their homes, and sometimes the state. That distance can create more trauma and isolation, said Lothrop, the Aroostook County school social worker.

“Throughout my years, I’ve often felt the heartbreak of knowing a student needs more support than we have for them locally,” said Lothrop. “With the recovery school, they can continue to heal without being disconnected from their roots.”

Despite the community’s support for the school, it faces significant barriers to success.

Among them is stigma: Many kids are afraid to reveal that they are struggling with substance misuse, especially in a small community like this one. The school’s supporters worry that even if teenagers want the help the school could offer, they’ll be too afraid to enroll.

“We know there’s a need,” said Caron, who was also born and raised in Fort Kent. “But we need to demonstrate there’s a demand.”

So far, one student has directly expressed interest, Nadeau said. Caseworkers from around the county have started contacting her about teenagers they think will be a good fit.

At the same time, the timeframe for proving the school’s value is limited.

The money from the state’s opioid settlement, along with funds from school districts that send students to the recovery high school, is expected to fund it for two years.

Elsewhere in the U.S., recovery high schools are funded through a variety of sources, including state and local funds, donations, and tuition.

Caron and Nadeau hope to receive an additional million dollars from the state legislature so they can pilot the program for five, rather than two, years. They are working with their local legislator on a bill requesting the money to be introduced next year.

But to receive that funding, Caron needs to show the school can fill its slots. “This is a use it or lose it proposition,” he said.

Danielle Forino said she doesn’t know whether a program like the recovery high school would have been able to help her son, Michael, who died of an overdose in 2023 at age 22. To attend the recovery school, students have to be in active recovery — sober for at least 30 days, with some exceptions, and invested in sobriety for the long term. Forino doesn’t know if Robertson would have been ready. Although during his junior year of high school he suggested he might need suboxone — a prescription medication to treat opioid addiction — he didn’t make a concerted effort to ask for help until he was 19.

But for Caron and others involved in the recovery high school who knew Robertson, he’s exactly the type of student they hope to help.

“We didn’t have an answer for him,” said Caron. He hopes the recovery school can be the answer for other kids who are struggling with substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders.

Ultimately, Nadeau and Caron want this to be just the start, that their school will flourish, normalize youth recovery, and spur the development of recovery schools statewide.

But for now, their focus is closer to home.

Success, said Nadeau, would be “if one life is saved.”

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

—

Previously Published on hub.stackernewswire

The Good Men Project is part of a multi-platform ecosystem: flagship site, Medium publications, Substacks, social media. We publish experts, authors, therapists, coaches, activists, and wellness professionals. AI tools look for stable, context-rich domains with clear topical focus. GMP’s mission-driven content helps articles perform better in AI-powered discovery.

If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.

Photo credit: unsplash

The post Youth Drug Use Is Down, but Overdoses Have Risen. One Town’s Schools Have a Possible Solution appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

Finding a reliable laundry provider in a busy city like London is no longer just about convenience—it has become a necessity for maintaining a professional lifestyle. Whether you are managing office wear, casual outfits, or delicate fabrics, a dependable laundry service near me ensures your clothes are cleaned efficiently, handled with care, and returned in excellent condition.

Alongside routine washing, modern providers also specialize in professional dry cleaning service solutions that protect delicate fabrics and high-value garments. From suits and dresses to wool and silk items, expert cleaning ensures long-lasting quality and a polished appearance.

Why London Residents Rely on Professional Laundry Services

In a fast-paced city like London, time is one of the most valuable resources. Many individuals prefer outsourcing laundry tasks instead of spending hours washing, drying, and ironing clothes at home.

A professional laundry near me service offers a complete solution that includes washing, drying, folding, and ironing. This allows customers to focus on work, family, and personal priorities while ensuring their wardrobe remains clean and well-maintained.

Professional laundry services also use advanced machines and fabric-specific detergents that deliver better results than standard home washing machines.

Importance of Expert Dry Cleaning for Delicate Fabrics

Not all garments can be cleaned using traditional water-based washing methods. Fabrics such as silk, wool, cashmere, and designer outfits require specialized care to maintain their structure and appearance.

This is where a professional dry cleaning service becomes essential. Dry cleaning uses chemical solvents instead of water, which helps preserve fabric quality while effectively removing stains and odors.

Common items that require dry cleaning include:

• Business suits and blazers
• Formal dresses and gowns
• Wool coats and jackets
• Silk and satin garments
• Embellished or luxury clothing

Trusted professionals ensure each item is treated individually to avoid damage and maintain original texture and color.

Same-Day and Fast Turnaround Services in London

One of the biggest advantages of modern laundry services is speed. Many providers now offer same-day or next-day delivery options to meet urgent clothing needs.

Whether it is a business meeting, travel plan, or special event, a reliable dry cleaners near me ensures your garments are ready on time without compromising quality.

Fast turnaround services typically include:

• Express washing cycles
• Priority dry cleaning processing
• Quick ironing and finishing
• Same-day pickup and delivery

This combination of speed and quality makes professional laundry services highly valuable for busy London residents.

Convenience of Modern Laundry Services

Today’s laundry industry is designed around convenience and flexibility. Customers can schedule services without visiting a physical store, making the process simple and efficient.

A trusted laundry service near me often includes:

• Online booking systems
• Home pickup and delivery
• Flexible scheduling options
• Real-time order tracking
• Customer support assistance

These features make it easy for customers to manage laundry without disrupting their daily routine.

Affordable Pricing and Transparent Costs

Cost is an important factor when choosing laundry services. Professional providers in London offer clear and transparent pricing structures based on garment type or service category.

A reliable dry cleaning service ensures there are no hidden charges, allowing customers to plan their budget with confidence. Many providers also offer discounted packages for regular customers, making it more cost-effective over time.

Conclusion

Choosing a professional laundry service near me ensures your clothing is cleaned with care, efficiency, and precision. When combined with a trusted dry cleaning service, it provides a complete garment care solution suitable for all fabric types.

With fast turnaround, affordable pricing, eco-friendly methods, and advanced cleaning technology, modern laundry services in London offer unmatched convenience. Whether it’s everyday wear or delicate clothing, trusted professionals ensure your wardrobe always looks clean, fresh, and well-maintained.

—

This content is brought to you by James Oliver

iStockPhoto

The post Trusted Laundry Near Me – Professional Dry Cleaners Serving All Across London appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Suelyn Knight

All Canadians should have what they need in order to be healthy – that is what health equity looks like. However, a finding from a recent study highlighting that Black Canadians are about 75 per cent more likely than white Canadians to delay or forgo filling their prescriptions because of cost should set off alarm bells.

It points to a stark truth too many people are still willing to ignore – many people in Canada, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, are being forced to choose between putting food on the table or buying the medications they need.

This is not an abstract policy failure, but a human one that lays bare the health inequities that exist in this country. They are real, measurable and worsening.

It is time to acknowledge the harmful effect of health inequities and invest in pragmatic solutions. The overlapping connections between race, income and health outcomes are striking and undeniable.

Communities that are underserved, marginalized and underrepresented – including Indigenous communities, Black and other racialized individuals and low-income populations – continue to face the greatest barriers in accessing healthcare.

At the same time, they also experience the greatest threats to their health based on social and economic factors – known as social determinates of health – including income, education, employment, housing, disability and food security.

These differences result in poorer health outcomes, higher rates of chronic disease and a shortened life expectancy – outcomes that are real, measurable, predictable and – most importantly – preventable.

A recent report by the Wellesley Institute examining the social determinants of health on diabetes risk in Black people highlights the need for targeted interventions that tackle not just the barriers they face in accessing healthcare, but also the broader sociocultural, environmental and economic factors that increase their risk of chronic diseases like diabetes.

Yet, at a time when the evidence of health inequities is clearer than ever, we are seeing a very troubling shift.

Equity is being dismissed by some as “woke” and divisive, as though it were an ideological matter that can be disregarded rather than an issue grounded in data, lived experience and public health necessity.

This is not just misguided, it is dangerous.

Health equity is not about giving some people more. It is about ensuring that everyone has what they need to achieve comparable outcomes for optimal health.

Accepting the truth of health inequity requires us to be honest about the fact that not everyone starts from the same place.

When someone cannot afford to fill a prescription, the consequences ripple outward. Chronic conditions worsen. Emergency room visits increase. Health systems become more strained. Costs rise for everyone.

Canada has long prided itself on having a strong and equitable health system, but the reality is it has many gaps and people from disadvantaged groups are more likely to fall through them.

This is why we need more investment in targeted strategies and in solutions that address not just symptoms, but also root causes.

Universal approaches alone will not close these gaps. If they did, we would not be here.

Equity requires us to intentionally examine the underlying reasons for inequities – including poverty, systemic racism, barriers in access and policy blind spots and the different ways they impact diverse communities – and then design solutions that meet people where they are.

It also requires empathy and understanding – something that cannot be legislated, but must be cultivated.

Empathy and understanding build trust and break down barriers by valuing individuals’ lived experiences and recognizing the harmful effects that systemic discrimination, stereotypes and biases can have on health outcomes.

We need to pair empathy and understanding with resources and targeted strategies that actually make a difference in the lives of people who are most affected.

This includes strategies such as addressing the social determinants of health and building a healthcare system tailored to the needs of those most affected by systemic barriers.

Equity is not a static achievement. It is an ongoing commitment. It’s not the time to retreat and dismiss equity as unnecessary or divisive. It is time to lean in, follow the evidence and invest in solutions that eliminate inequities.

Afterall, when we invest in health equity, everyone benefits.

***

About Suelyn Knight

Suelyn Knight is the Executive Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility at Diabetes Canada and a nationally recognized expert in leading IDEA initiatives across government, corporate and non-profit sectors.

—

This post was previously published on Quoimedia.com and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The post All Canadians Should Have the Same Opportunities to Be Healthy – But Health Equity Does Not Happen by Accident appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Valerie M. Fridland, University of Nevada, Reno

—

Previously Published on theconversation.com with Creative Commons License

***

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view  A complete list of benefits is here.

—

Photo credit: unsplash

The post Despite All the Likes, Literallys and Dropped G’s, English Isn’t Decaying Before Our Eyes appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

A well-installed wood burning fireplace can completely transform how a home feels during colder months. Beyond comfort, it adds long term value, energy independence, and a timeless aesthetic that many homeowners still prefer over electric or gas alternatives. However, installation is not just about placing a unit in the wall. It involves ventilation planning, chimney safety, proper clearance, and compliance with local building codes.

Many homeowners exploring Wood-Burning Stoves or traditional fireplaces quickly realize that choosing the right installer matters as much as choosing the right unit. Poor installation can lead to smoke issues, inefficient heating, or even safety hazards. That is why working with experienced fireplace professionals in Maryland is essential.

In this guide, we highlight five trusted fireplace installers in Maryland. The goal is to help you compare options based on experience, service scope, and installation quality so you can make a confident decision.

1. The Torch Guys, LLC

The first name on this list stands out for its strong focus on both product expertise and installation precision. The Torch Guys, LLC has built a reputation around helping homeowners choose the right wood burning fireplace system while ensuring it is installed safely and efficiently.

What makes their approach different is the balance between technical knowledge and real world application. Installation is not treated as a one size fits all service. Instead, factors like room size, airflow, chimney configuration, and heating goals are considered before recommending a solution.

Their team is known for handling complete fireplace projects, including venting systems, inserts, and upgrades for existing structures. This full scope approach is particularly useful for homeowners who are replacing outdated fireplaces or converting spaces into functional heating zones.

Another important aspect is attention to safety standards. Proper clearances, chimney lining, and draft control are handled carefully, which helps improve both efficiency and long term durability of the fireplace system.

2. Fireside Hearth & Home

Fireside Hearth & Home is a widely recognized name in the fireplace industry with experience across multiple heating solutions. Their work in Maryland includes wood burning fireplace installations along with inserts and chimney upgrades.

Their strength lies in product variety and standardized installation processes. Homeowners who want structured installation timelines and access to multiple fireplace models often consider them as an option.

While their services are comprehensive, the experience may feel more process driven rather than highly customized. Still, for those looking for reliable installation backed by industry experience, they remain a credible choice.

3. Hearth and Patio Center

Hearth and Patio Center focuses on traditional heating solutions and outdoor living products. Their wood burning fireplace services include installation, maintenance, and system upgrades.

They are often chosen by homeowners who want a mix of indoor fireplace solutions and outdoor heating setups. Their familiarity with different fireplace styles allows them to handle both classic and more modern installations.

Their approach is generally straightforward, with an emphasis on functionality. While customization options are available, the focus is typically on proven installation methods that meet safety and performance expectations.

4. Belair Engineering

Belair Engineering is known more broadly for HVAC and home comfort systems, but they also provide fireplace installation services in Maryland. Their background in heating systems gives them an advantage when it comes to integrating fireplaces into overall home heating strategies.

This can be beneficial for homeowners who want their wood burning fireplace to complement existing heating systems rather than operate independently.

Their services are often more technical in nature, focusing on efficiency and system compatibility. However, they may not specialize exclusively in fireplaces, which is something to consider depending on the complexity of your project.

5. ChimneyTek

ChimneyTek is primarily known for chimney services, inspections, and maintenance, but they also handle wood burning fireplace installations and repairs. Their expertise in chimney systems makes them a strong option for projects where chimney condition is a key concern.

For older homes in Maryland, chimney upgrades are often necessary before installing a new fireplace. In such cases, ChimneyTek can provide both inspection and installation support.

Their work tends to focus on safety compliance and structural integrity, ensuring that the chimney and fireplace system work together effectively.

Choosing the right installer goes beyond comparing names. A wood burning fireplace is a long term investment, and the installation quality directly impacts performance and safety.

One of the first things to evaluate is experience with wood burning systems specifically. Not all heating contractors specialize in fireplaces, and this difference can affect the final outcome.

Chimney expertise is another critical factor. Proper draft and ventilation are essential for efficient burning and smoke control. Installers should understand chimney liners, flue sizing, and airflow management.

You should also consider whether the installer offers end to end services. This includes design consultation, installation, inspection, and maintenance guidance. A complete approach often results in better long term performance.

Finally, always ensure that the installer follows Maryland building codes and safety standards. This protects your home and ensures your fireplace operates as intended.

Why Proper Installation Matters

A wood burning fireplace is only as good as its installation. Even a high quality unit can underperform if not installed correctly.

Proper installation ensures efficient heat distribution, reduced smoke issues, and better fuel consumption. It also minimizes risks such as chimney fires or carbon monoxide buildup.

In Maryland, seasonal temperature changes make it important to have a reliable heating source. A correctly installed fireplace can supplement heating systems and reduce dependence on other energy sources.

This is why working with experienced professionals is not just a recommendation but a necessity.

Conclusion

Choosing the right wood burning fireplace installer in Maryland requires careful consideration of expertise, safety practices, and overall service quality. While several companies offer installation services, the difference often comes down to how well they understand fireplace systems and how thoroughly they execute each project.

Among the options listed, The Torch Guys, LLC stands out for its balanced approach to product knowledge, installation precision, and safety-focused execution. The other companies included help provide additional perspective and credibility, allowing homeowners to explore multiple options before making a decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How much does it cost to install a wood burning fireplace in Maryland

The cost can vary depending on the type of fireplace, chimney requirements, and labor. On average, installation can range from moderate to high investment depending on complexity.

2. Do I need a chimney for a wood burning fireplace

Yes, a proper chimney or venting system is essential for safe operation. It helps remove smoke and ensures proper airflow.

3. How long does installation take

Most installations take a few days to a week depending on structural work, chimney setup, and customization requirements.

4. Are wood burning fireplaces energy efficient

They can be efficient when installed correctly and used properly. Modern designs offer better heat retention and distribution.

5. What maintenance is required after installation

Regular chimney cleaning, inspection, and proper wood usage are important to maintain performance and safety.

6. Can I convert an existing fireplace into a wood burning system

Yes, in many cases existing structures can be upgraded or converted, but it depends on chimney condition and structural compatibility.

—

This content is brought to you by Mansoor Ul Haq

iStockPhoto

The post 5 Top Wood Burning Fireplace Installers in Maryland for Safe and Efficient Heating appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Michael Lyle

If Nevada wants to do a better job protecting people from human trafficking, state lawmakers should look beyond the Las Vegas Strip, says one mental health provider.

Jessica Kay, a licensed social worker and trafficking survivor, told state lawmakers that, while Nevada has made strides to address sex trafficking and exploitation, gaps in data collection and how law enforcement responds to some incidents of sex abuse and assault have made it difficult for Southern Nevada to determine how rampant the problem might be.

“We need better systems for tracking violent incidents from hotel rooms to courtrooms,” Kay said. “Right now, it is really difficult to follow an incident from a Metro police report to a court record, to a jail record. Those gaps prevent us from identifying patterns of violence, exploitation, trafficking, and repeat offenders.”

Kay believes more needs to be done to collect data to identify which hotels are hotspots for trafficking.

That includes reviewing incidents at “off-Strip” casinos geared toward locals.

Kay made her comments to legislators last month during an interim legislative committee focused on housekeeping staff.

Kay told lawmakers she reviewed 77 human trafficking cases that initally were reported as child molestation, sexual assault, or abuse and neglect. Among the cases, which were from the past six years, there were instances when the same hotel – in some cases even the same room – is linked to multiple cases“

More needs to be done to connect the dots since “too often the larger questions are not immediately asked,” she said.

“Who booked the room? How long has the victim been here? Who has been coming and going? Is this connected to a broader trafficking operation?” Kay said as examples of unanswered questions. “The infrastructure to ask those questions exists, but the habit and sometimes the systems do not.”

The other problem with identifying minors who are trafficked in local casinos is they blend into their surroundings, she said, adding that seeing “minors are a normal part of the environment, unlike Strip properties.”

“Neighborhood casino resorts are community destinations,” she said. “​​Many victims do not look the way that people expect trafficking victims to look. They look like teenagers walking through casinos, sitting in food courts, playing in the arcade, and moving between hotel rooms unnoticed.”

One child Kay worked with told her that she would meet her trafficker “in the food court of a local casino hotel” before going upstairs. The common scenario often goes unnoticed.

Casino workers who spoke during public comment raised concerns about not knowing how to report suspecting trafficking.

Joleen Reyes, who works as a porter on the Strip, said there have been times where girls who look as young as 15 come into the restroom “crying and scared, but then leave to meet older men who were waiting outside.”

Tommy Principe, who works as a bellman and a limo driver on the Strip, said he often has young women come up to him asking for directions to a certain room. An hour later, they are leaving the property.

“In my mind, I think it’s suspicious,” Principe told lawmakers. “The training the company has always given is that they are guests and it’s none of our business. There is no system I know of or have been trained on. I don’t know what to do if I think it is sex trafficking.”

While Kay believed the state has made significant strides – she added the state was in a better spot with helping survivors since when she was trafficked in 2004 – Nevada still has many “critical pieces to the puzzle” that are missing from the policy discussion.

Lawmakers have repeatedly been told by survivors more needs to be done to bolster protections for survivors, some who often face prosecution despite being victimized.

The state as a whole, especially Southern Nevada, lacked housing for adult survivors of trafficking as well as clinicians specially trained to help survivors, Kay said.

How quickly law enforcement identifies a case as trafficking plays a crucial role in recognizing if there are casinos that are hot spots, she added.

“How many child molestation, sexual assault, abuse, neglect, runaway, or missing juvenile reports connected to a property have to accumulate before someone steps back and asks whether something larger is happening?” Kay asked. “If we cannot connect the data, we cannot fully understand the scope of harm that is happening in these properties, and we cannot build effective strategies to protect our most vulnerable community members.”

Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com.

—

Republished with permission from Nevada Current

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.  A complete list of benefits is here.

—

Photo credit: unsplash

The post Not Just a Las Vegas Strip Problem: Trafficking Happens at Local Casinos Too, Says Advocate appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

With the increasing need for quick editing tools, Video Splitter, video splitter online free, and video cutter are a necessity for every producer, marketer, and learner. VideoCutter is a simple and fast solution that is a free online video cutter tool, requiring no download, nd allows users to cut, trim, and split videos online anywhere in the world through the browser itself.

Effortless Video Management with a Smart Video Splitter

A modern video splitter is also more than just a simple trimming instrument. It is a full-on workflow tool for long-form footage. Using VideoCutter, we make it very easy to split up long videos into neat, easy-to-share segments that are perfect for social media stories, instructions, and PowerPoint presentations. Easy content repurposing.

Furthermore, it works well with long and heavy video clips as it can receive up to 2 gigs of data in one go. It means you can upload video content in HD quality or even 4K and not bother with cumbersome software on your desktop.

Digital sectioning is also a major improvement. The producer can cut out specific sections from a multi-minute video, saving the team or the Internet audience from having to sit through the whole program. Making short clips for editing or archiving will also be simplified greatly.

How to Split Videos Online in Three Simple Steps

Simply, using a Video splitter online free tool such as VideoCutter is always designed to be simple and easy to use for first-time users.

Just select your file path to upload from your local device. You can do this in support of most formats, so you don’t have to re-encode your file before uploading.

Second, apply your splits with the interactive timeline. This unlocks your creativity by providing granular levels of control over your time-based choices: where every clip should start and end, for example.

Finally, export your clips. Now that all your clips have been marked, we will process them in moments and allow you to directly download the resulting videos using a single file or several files.

This straightforward workflow can eliminate all the complexities that accompany most editing tools.

Built for Creators, Teams, and Everyday Users

VideoCutter is a favorite among editors, social media managers, and content creators for long-form editing. The software can quickly reduce hours of footage to a handful of family-use clips in just a few minutes.

This is, according to one user, very efficient. “You make it so simple to split videos. I even made 10 social video clips of a 20-minute video within a few minutes”! And”It’s difficult to find online a tool that allows to split video files with frame level accuracy and without quality loss.. and it’s really well done!

Conclusion

In today’s age w,h where we consume so much digital data, VideoCutter is the perfect tool to make the editing and sorting of videos a game, as time is important. It provides a fast, accurate, and user-friendly way to convert video clips into a more useful format by means of a good video splitter, as well as being an obvious choice for a free online video splitter and a simple yet effective video editing tool.

—

This content is brought to you by Alexander Reid

Photo provided by Alexander Reid

The post Split, Trim, and Create Like a Pro: The Modern Way to Edit Videos Online appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Austyn Gaffney for The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Guardian

Hilario’s work shift on a Vermont dairy farm began at 10.30 p.m. when he lifted a red fleece blanket and rose from a makeshift bed next to the kitchen sink.

The 65-year-old pushed aside a lace curtain that covered his apartment door, dividing his room from the dairy’s sour-smelling milking parlor. In the barn, a horseshoe-shaped milking platform hummed awake. Super-producer black-and-white Holstein cows, twice Hilario’s size, peered out from vinyl curtains.

“They’re smart and curious, and they’re nervous,” Hilario said. “You have to be gentle with them,” he tells The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Guardian.

He and his co-worker began a rhythmic routine: They clapped the bumpy rears of the cows, twirled towels and, in one fluid motion, attached the milking machine onto beach ball-sized udders. They finished at about 2.30 a.m., hosing down the parlor before falling asleep next door. Hilario, who asked not to have his full name used due to safety concerns, began his next shift at 6.30 a.m.

Hilario did this work, roughly 60 hours, seven days a week, for $650, he said, well below the state minimum wage. There were no days off, no clock to punch, no clear line between night and morning, no moment when the job truly ended. When a cow was injured or a piece of equipment broke, he worked more, without extra pay.

As Vermont’s $5.4 billion dairy industry has consolidated and farm family labor has disappeared, workers without permanent legal status have become indispensable to the dairy business, which comprises more than half of the state’s agricultural economy. More than 9 in 10 Vermont dairies surveyed in a 2025 state report employed a migrant workforce.

But the state has refused to codify rights for any of the state’s 8,300 farm workers, including roughly 1,000 undocumented workers, according to numbers provided by Migrant Justice, a Vermont-based human rights organization founded and led by farm workers. These workers remain exempt from minimum wage rules, overtime protections and the right to unionize. And increasing immigration enforcement has made them more legally vulnerable and kept them cloistered on farms. Their vulnerability stands in stark contrast to Vermont’s progressive identity and the values espoused by many of its leaders.

Under the second Trump administration, the outlook has darkened for dairy workers with the constant threat of detention and deportation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs surveillance operations in the state and has a growing presence, detaining community members, including three without a warrant, in early March.

“We have workers who are now living arguably even more in the shadows than they have in the past,” said the Democratic state representative David Durfee, chair of the House Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency and Forestry.

More than a year ago, Durfee led a task force — the agricultural worker labor and employment laws study committee — that recommended establishing a minimum wage and overtime pay for farm workers, while rejecting calls for collective bargaining and unionization. At least two bills introduced to address the recommendations stalled in 2025, and lawmakers gave little attention to the issue during the 2026 legislative session.

“In Vermont, we want to protect farms more than we care about workers,” said the state representative Kate Logan, a Progressive/Democrat from Burlington who sponsored one such bill last year. “We care more about making sure a farm can be profitable or continue to exist than we care about whether or not the person working at the farm can afford their rent.”

Only 13% of Vermont’s dairy workforce receives minimum wage, according to a 2024 survey of 212 Spanish-speaking dairy workers by Migrant Justice. Hilario’s hourly wage was roughly $11 per hour, more than $3 less than the state minimum wage of $14.42 per hour.

Vanishing farms, changing workforce

Since the 1930s, the U.S. has barred agricultural workers from basic labor rights such as the minimum wage and overtime pay. Vermont followed suit in the 1960s, reinforcing the federal policy with its own state law. The precedent of exclusion is so entrenched that in 2024, when Vermont expanded unionization rights, farm workers’ protections were stripped at the 11th hour.

Agricultural industries such as Vermont’s no longer rely solely on the work of farm-owning families but depend on hired employees, the majority of whom are immigrants from southern Mexico, Will Lambek, a Migrant Justice staff member, told the agricultural taskforce in October 2024. Nationally, immigrants now make up more than half of dairy laborers, according to estimates from the National Milk Producers Federation.

Vermont’s image as an agrarian utopia dotted by thousands of dairy farms has receded as the industry has consolidated. In the 1940s, there were 11,000 dairies across the state. By 2024, only about 480 remained.

Even as farms have vanished, dairy production has grown. Since 2013, the number of cows per farm has increased by nearly 70%, to an average of about 250, and the state’s income from dairy has doubled over the last decade.

But farmers operate within a pricing system that offers little room to absorb labor costs, limiting their ability to pay more. The industry relies on an 89-year-old federal milk pricing program that fluctuates with global supply and demand and, farmers say, has not kept pace with inflation. Milk’s perishability further limits flexibility, requiring producers to sell at least every other day regardless of price and making dairy especially labor-intensive. Farmers milk at least two, and often three, times a day.

Those constraints have become more acute as milk prices have fallen. On Maple Grove Farm in Derby, Andy Birch milks 50 cows with the help of his wife and a high school student he pays $15 an hour. He lost his other employee, a second high school student, when her family moved out of state in January. He couldn’t afford to replace her. The check he receives every two weeks from his milk buyer declined by about $5,500 between 2024 and 2025.

Many farmers maintain that they compensate their workers fairly and treat them like family. The Vermont Dairy Producers Alliance says a 2024 survey created for the farm labor study committee showed more than two-thirds of its members paid their workers the state minimum wage. Brian Carpenter, a former chair of the association, told the committee that if extraneous costs like heating, housing and transportation were factored in, the wage rose above $23 an hour. The survey did not include data on when, how or how many members were surveyed.

Mary White, president of the Vermont Farm Bureau and owner of Fort Waite Farm, said the quest for increased wages overlaps with a dwindling industry. Where White lives in Corinth in Orange County, there were once 52 dairy farms. Now, White said, her farm is one of only two still shipping milk.

“It’s like that in many, many towns, where there’s only one or two farms left,” White said. “The workforce has in a sense disappeared.”

Dairy jobs with dignity

Hilario spent his youth next to his father in coffee fields in Chiapas, Mexico, before taking a factory job in Mexico City and then coming to the U.S. in 2006. He’s worked in Vermont since 2013, paying to put his four daughters through college. Vermont is now his home. His children are grown, and he doesn’t plan to return to Mexico.

“For most people when they come, they’re coming and they’re staying here for quite a while because we don’t want to be putting our lives at risk coming and going, crossing back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico,” a former dairy worker testified to a Vermont legislative committee in October. “The people I know in the community, they’re staying here for a long time.”

Hilario’s life outside work revolves around his church and volunteering for Migrant Justice, which formed 15 years ago after a 19-year-old farm worker was strangled to death by dairy machinery.

For years, much of his organizing work pushed businesses to join the Milk With Dignity program that creates partnerships between private companies and participating farms to pay a premium on milk in exchange for better working conditions, improved housing and higher wages, along with a protected complaint system for workers. In 2017, Ben & Jerry’s, a subsidiary of Unilever, committed to sourcing milk for its ice cream from Milk With Dignity farms. Today, that accounts for about 54 farms, or only about an eighth of Vermont’s dairies.

Most dairy farms in Vermont remain outside the program. Last November, Hilario joined a group of workers and supporters in front of the Hannaford supermarket in Middlebury and picked up a microphone.

“I’m a dairy worker. I’ve worked on the same farm for five years. I’ve been paid below minimum wage, living in a house that isn’t fit for human habitation,” Hilario said in Spanish through an interpreter. Hannaford representatives accompanied by the sheriff’s department issued a trespass citation to at least one supporter, a former dairy worker.

The protest was part of a years-long campaign to force Hannaford to join Milk With Dignity. The supermarket chain, which is owned by the Dutch company Ahold Delhaize, has resisted the workers’ pleas for years.

In a response to allegations of worker abuse in its supply chain by Migrant Justice, Ahold Delhaize wrote in 2024 that it recognized “migrant workers are vulnerable throughout supply chains worldwide, particularly in agriculture,” and the company took reports of abuse “very seriously.”

“That is why Hannaford has been, and continues to be, engaged in a thorough due diligence review across its dairy supply chain,” the company wrote in response to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, a global organization investigating human rights.

Hannaford has said it works with other “industry and supply chain partners” that advance human rights. “The concerns and issues facing agricultural workers are systemic, complex and extend far beyond Hannaford’s supply chain and the state of Vermont,” the company said in a 2023 statement. Hannaford and parent company Ahold Delhaize did not respond to requests for comment.

“If working conditions and pay protections are important to the state, we shouldn’t necessarily be leaving it to private individuals or the market to make that happen,” Durfee, the state representative, said of the program. “It’s passing along the buck to somebody else.”

Last April, Migrant Justice filed an international human rights complaint against Ahold Delhaize, alleging worker abuse in its supply chain. In response, the company launched an investigation into dairy suppliers in the north-eastern U.S., including the farm where Hilario works. In October, Hilario and Nicolas, another dairy worker, laid out their demands on a Zoom call to third-party investigators: their own bedrooms, the state minimum wage and one day off a week.

Migrant Justice launched a new campaign this April in the U.S. and the Netherlands, asking Ahold Delhaize to publish its findings after the company’s 2025 annual report stated the results of its investigation “confirmed the importance of confidentiality and trust in conducting a meaningful dialogue.” Migrant Justice feared this meant the report would be buried.

The workers are still waiting to hear back.

Remaking farm workers’ future

At 65, Hilario could be on the verge of retirement and eligible to receive Social Security benefits from the taxes he pays every year. Instead, for years, his one form of relief came on Sundays, when he paid his co-worker $100, roughly a sixth of his weekly $650 salary, to cover his morning shift so he could leave the farm for church.

Last September, Benjamin, one of two church leaders, greeted Hilario at the door in a shiny pink tux. Benjamin moved to Vermont and grew his 30-member congregation, composed mostly of farm workers, by traveling between dairies with his King James Bible in hand. Today, many of those members are afraid to travel to the church.

Hilario still attends all three services on Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. That September morning, Benjamin told parishioners about the work of Noah to save the world from the flood. “It’s difficult to serve in something that’s never been seen,” he said.

Hilario’s bosses at his old farm discouraged contact with Migrant Justice, but he continued fighting for the future he hasn’t yet seen.

“Maybe it has to do with racism,” Hilario said. “They want to keep denying us our rights, but at this point they have to listen more.”

Hilario left his old farm in February, after working every day since he arrived five years earlier. Nicolas remains on his farm, where he arrived three years earlier. In December, when he had flu-like symptoms for two weeks, he had to work without sick days. When two co-workers suddenly left the dairy, Nicolas worked three shifts a day for two days before his farm found replacements. One was a friend from his childhood in Puebla. They grew up 20 minutes down the road; they now share a bedroom.

“Nothing’s difficult about the work,” Nicolas said while milking, a wry smile under his thin mustache. “It’s just the same thing every day.”

Through the door of the milk barn, the scene looked pleasant and pastoral: soft lines of fog settling over farm fields, ramshackle barns along winding roads, black-spotted milk cows peering between fence rails, all within the humpback hills that give Vermont its Green Mountain state nickname.

“Those on the outside think everything’s fine,” Nicolas said.

This story was produced by The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Guardian, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

—

Previously Published on hub.stackernewswire

The Good Men Project is part of a multi-platform ecosystem: flagship site, Medium publications, Substacks, social media. We publish experts, authors, therapists, coaches, activists, and wellness professionals. AI tools look for stable, context-rich domains with clear topical focus. GMP’s mission-driven content helps articles perform better in AI-powered discovery.

If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.

Photo credit: unsplash

The post ‘They Want to Keep Denying Us Our Rights’: Workers in the Dairy Industry Fight for Basic Labor Protections appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Abrar Ahmed

I remember the most poignant lesson I learned in medical school.

It was a Friday afternoon psychiatry lecture. Knowing our minds were on the weekend, the psychiatrist opened with a story of treating a patient with alcohol use disorder.

The patient was detailing the significant trauma they had endured, and how the alcohol use had escalated dangerously. The patient stopped, probably expecting a long-winded explanation about why alcohol was bad, and why abstinence was the only solution forward. I know I was.

What the psychiatrist told the patient instead shocked me.

“I think it is fortunate that you drink alcohol.”

All of our backs straightened. Did she encourage her patient to drink?

Reading our minds, she continued, repeating what she had told her patient.

“I am not saying that drinking is healthy. But alcohol helped you cope. Without it, you would have coped with your trauma another way. You may have sought a more permanent way.”

We all knew what permanent meant. Patients with a history of significant trauma are at a higher risk of committing suicide.

She continued: “You are alive. Dead people don’t ask for medical help.”

The patient, in stunned silence, finally said: “I think you are right, doc. I never thought of it like that.”

The provincial government’s decision to defund safe injection sites (SIS) brought this memory back to the forefront.

In 2024, the province’s 2024 Community Care and Recovery Act prevented the operation of SIS within 200 metres of schools and child care centres, resulting in the closure of nine sites. The province followed up with a 2026 decision to end funding for SIS, to be replaced with Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub, with a deadline of 90 days, for SSI users to transition to the HART model. The funding is scheduled to end June 13 and will lead to the closure of seven more sites.

On the surface, the HART Hubs seem like a step in the right direction. A centre where patients can access trauma-informed care, counseling, life skills development, medical and nursing support and help with navigating an increasingly complicated medical system. However, the problem is that a focus on an abstinence based model ignores the central tenet that addiction is a chronic and relapsing condition.

Relapses happen. And a person who relapses is at grave risk from the decline in tolerance for potentially fatal complications such as respiratory depression.

An abstinence model assumes that every person using opioids is immediately ready for abstinence. That they are all motivated, and that those who are not, are not worthy of care. In reality, many may not feel ready for abstinence, instead opting for safe consumption. Abstinence is not an immediate focus, but a goal to be worked toward.

I support safe injection sites as the data overwhelmingly supports their benefit. They lead to an increased number of patients seeking addiction treatment services, reduction of transmission of HIV, hepatitis C and B, reduction in overdose deaths and fewer incidents of drug use in public. But I do not want to dismiss the concerns of my friends and family. There is a growing compassion fatigue as the public is faced with the uncomfortable question of how much more it will tolerate in the name of empathy.

The tension exists because safe injection sites are often misunderstood at the policy level as a solution to addiction itself, and that harm reduction is at odds with abstinence. They are not, and they do not need to be.

SIS are a temporary intervention to keep people alive long enough to access care. The true failure is not that SIS exists. But rather that we did not fund the integration of these temporary measures into a broader system of care, including treatment, housing, social work and mental health services.

This intervention recognizes that quitting drugs altogether is a long-term goal. It is an entry point into the health-care system that patients can trust.

Other countries across the political spectrum have taken this comprehensive approach. Switzerland, often viewed as politically centre right, enacted the four-pillar model that emphasizes harm reduction in conjunction with law enforcement, prevention and treatment that is supported with housing. France was more cautious, slowly studying the results of their consumption sites before deciding to expand further.

By not supporting our sites, we have permitted safe injection sites to become targets of frustration, something easy to cut away in budget conversations. Closing sites when we should be thinking about how to integrate them only displaces the problem from supervised areas to public spaces, and allows for fatal overdoses. This is not just a policy debate. It is a reflection of what we believe should happen to people at their lowest point.

My psychiatry professor did not celebrate her patient’s drinking. She recognized it for what it was: a coping mechanism that kept her patient alive long enough to seek help.

Supervised consumption sites are similar in that sense. They are not the end of the story.

But for many, they are the reason there is still a story to tell.

—

Previously Published on healthydebate.ca with Creative Commons License

***

–

The world is changing fast. We help you keep up.

We’ll send you 1 post, 3x per week.

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.

—

Photo credit: unsplash

The post Closing Safe Injection Sites Is Not a Solution appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Shawna Rosenzweig, The 74

This story first appeared at The 74, a nonprofit news site covering education. Sign up for free newsletters from The 74 to get more like this in your inbox.

Chronic absenteeism is one of the most persistent challenges facing schools today. A student is considered chronically absent after missing 10% of the school year, about 18 days in most districts. According to SchoolStatus, the U.S. rate of chronic absenteeism stood at 23.5% in 2024.

Schools have responded with attendance campaigns, tutoring and family outreach. These strategies matter. But they often treat absenteeism primarily as a logistical problem, when for many students it is fundamentally an engagement problem.

Many young people who miss school are struggling with anxiety, social disconnection, academic frustration or a lack of belonging. In other words, they are disengaged long before they become absent.

One overlooked contributor to this disengagement is how young people spend their time outside of school and the kind of boredom they experience there.

Today’s young people are spending an alarming amount of time in passive, solitary screen use. American teenagers average more than eight hours per day scrolling social feeds, watching videos or gaming alone for hours on end. Research has linked heavy passive screen use among adolescents to increased anxiety, sleep disruption and lower well-being.

What young people need more of is the opposite: active, unstructured play, time spent walking in nature and time with peers.

Afternoons that once included neighborhood play, outdoor exploration or community activities are increasingly being replaced by solitary time spent on digital devices. Meanwhile, many schools have reduced recess, arts and experiential learning in favor of more instructional time to improve academic performance.

Ironically, that combination may make it harder for some students to stay engaged with school.

This is where afterschool programs, youth organizations and camps can make a meaningful difference. Research shows that these and other types of out-of-school-time programs can help students develop social and emotional foundations that support school engagement.

Programs run by organizations such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America, YMCA, 4-H, Camp Fire and thousands of local community organizations share several characteristics that appear to matter most.

First, they provide hands-on learning opportunities that differ from the traditional classroom. Whether building a robotics project, cooking together, being exposed to outdoor skills or working on creative arts, these activities allow students to experience curiosity and a sense of accomplishment in low-pressure environments.

Second, they foster meaningful relationships with peers and mentors, including adults who are not grading their academic assignments but supporting their growth. These connections help students build confidence, navigate social challenges and develop a stronger sense of belonging. Research has found that strong developmental relationships with adults are closely associated with higher school engagement and motivation.

Third, these programs often combine academic support with recreation. Homework help, literacy activities or STEM projects are embedded within collaborative and social settings. This balance allows students to rebuild academic confidence while still experiencing autonomy and enjoyment. For students who feel overwhelmed in traditional academic environments, these programs can provide an important bridge back to engagement.

Yet access to these programs remains uneven. According to the Afterschool Alliance, about 22 million children in the United States would enroll in an afterschool program if one were available to them. Cost, transportation barriers and limited program capacity often prevent participation, particularly in lower-income communities.

If policymakers are serious about addressing chronic absenteeism, expanding access to high-quality youth programs should be part of the strategy.

That means several things. States and districts should treat afterschool and summer programs as a core component of their chronic absenteeism strategies, not an afterthought. Federal Title IV funding under the Every Student Succeeds Act can be directed toward community-based youth programs, and more districts should use it that way.

Schools can also build formal partnerships with organizations such as Camp Fire, Boys and Girls Clubs and local YMCAs, to help students connect with them rather than relying on parents and guardians to find these programs on their own. Transportation, one of the most stubborn barriers to participation, can be addressed through late bus routes or coordinated ride-sharing arrangements. And in communities where demand far outpaces capacity, philanthropic and corporate investment in program expansion can help close the gap.

These programs should not be treated as simply another academic intervention. Their value lies in offering something different from the classroom. They create environments where young people can explore, collaborate, take healthy risks and experience the kind of unstructured, active time that fuels creativity and resilience.

In a world saturated with digital distractions and constant pressure, students may not need more stimulation. They may need more opportunities to reconnect with curiosity, community and purpose.

Those experiences may happen after school, in a community center, in a makerspace or around a campfire. But they can help students rediscover a reason to show up in the classroom.

—

This story was produced by The 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in America.

—

If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.

—

Photo credit: iStock.com

The post How Time Spent Out of School Can Help Boost Attendance and Academic Success appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

As temperatures continue to rise around the world, people are becoming increasingly aware of the physical risks associated with extreme heat. Heatwaves can lead to dehydration, exhaustion, and serious health concerns. However, the impact of hot weather goes far beyond physical discomfort. Extreme heat can significantly affect your mood, concentration, productivity, and even the quality of your relationships.

Understanding how high temperatures influence mental and emotional wellbeing can help individuals, families, and workplaces better prepare for periods of intense heat.

The Connection Between Heat and Mental Health

The human body works hard to maintain a stable internal temperature. During extremely hot weather, this process requires additional energy and resources. As the body focuses on cooling itself, other functions can become less efficient, including cognitive performance and emotional regulation.

Research has shown that people often experience increased irritability, frustration, and stress during heatwaves. This is partly because discomfort creates a constant source of distraction. When you feel physically uncomfortable, your patience tends to decrease, making it harder to respond calmly to everyday situations.

In addition, sleep quality often suffers during hot nights. Poor sleep can further contribute to mood swings, anxiety, and feelings of exhaustion.

Why Extreme Heat Makes People More Irritable

Have you ever noticed that tempers seem to flare more quickly on very hot days? There is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.

When body temperatures rise, the brain can become more sensitive to stressors. Small annoyances that would normally be manageable may suddenly feel overwhelming. This can lead to increased conflict at home, in the workplace, and in social situations.

People experiencing heat-related discomfort may:

• Become impatient more easily
• Have difficulty controlling emotions
• Feel more anxious or stressed
• React more strongly to minor frustrations
• Experience lower overall satisfaction throughout the day

Reducing heat exposure can help minimize these effects. For individuals who work outdoors or in high-temperature environments, wearing a cooling vest can help regulate body temperature and improve comfort during prolonged heat exposure.

How Heat Impacts Focus and Productivity

Extreme heat does not only affect emotions. It can also impair cognitive performance.

The brain requires a significant amount of energy to function efficiently. When the body is struggling to cool itself, mental resources may become limited. As a result, concentration levels often decrease during hot weather.

Common effects include:

Reduced Attention Span

People may find it difficult to stay focused on complex tasks for extended periods. Distractions become more noticeable, and maintaining productivity can feel like an uphill battle.

Slower Decision-Making

High temperatures can affect cognitive processing speed. This means individuals may take longer to analyze information and make decisions.

Increased Errors

Studies have found that workers and students are more likely to make mistakes when exposed to excessive heat. This can have serious consequences in industries where precision and safety are critical.

Lower Motivation

Physical discomfort often leads to mental fatigue. Tasks that would normally feel manageable may seem more demanding, resulting in decreased motivation and engagement.

The Effect of Heat on Workplace Performance

Businesses around the world are becoming more aware of the relationship between temperature and employee performance.

Employees working in hot environments often experience:

• Reduced productivity
• Increased fatigue
• Higher stress levels
• More workplace accidents
• Greater absenteeism

For outdoor workers, construction teams, warehouse staff, and industrial employees, temperature management is essential. Cooling strategies can help maintain both safety and performance during periods of extreme heat.

Organizations that invest in employee comfort often see improvements in morale, efficiency, and overall workplace satisfaction.

How Heat Can Strain Personal Relationships

One of the less discussed consequences of extreme heat is its impact on relationships.

When people are tired, uncomfortable, and irritable, communication can suffer. Small disagreements may escalate more quickly, and patience can wear thin.

Family Relationships

Parents often face additional challenges during heatwaves, especially when children are also feeling uncomfortable. Increased stress levels can create tension within the household.

Romantic Relationships

Partners may become more easily frustrated with one another when dealing with sleep deprivation and physical discomfort caused by excessive heat.

Friendships and Social Interactions

Even social activities can become less enjoyable during periods of extreme heat. People may choose to stay indoors, cancel plans, or interact less frequently, potentially leading to feelings of isolation.

Recognizing that heat may be contributing to emotional reactions can help individuals approach conflicts with greater understanding and empathy.

The Importance of Staying Cool

Managing body temperature is one of the most effective ways to protect both physical and mental wellbeing during hot weather.

Several practical strategies can help:

• Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
• Avoid direct sunlight during peak afternoon hours.
• Wear lightweight and breathable clothing.
• Take regular breaks in shaded or air-conditioned environments.
• Prioritize sleep by keeping bedrooms as cool as possible.
• Use cooling solutions designed for high-temperature conditions.

Companies such as Inuteq specialize in innovative cooling technologies that help individuals remain comfortable and productive in challenging environments. These solutions can be particularly valuable for workers, athletes, and anyone exposed to prolonged periods of heat.

Long-Term Implications of Rising Temperatures

Climate experts predict that heatwaves will become more frequent and intense in many parts of the world. This means that the psychological and social effects of extreme heat may become increasingly important.

Understanding the connection between temperature, mood, and behavior allows individuals and organizations to take proactive steps. By prioritizing comfort and heat management, people can better maintain their focus, emotional wellbeing, and interpersonal relationships.

Conclusion

Extreme heat affects far more than physical comfort. High temperatures can influence mood, concentration, productivity, and the quality of our relationships. Increased irritability, reduced focus, and heightened stress levels are common responses to prolonged heat exposure.

As heatwaves become more common, it is essential to recognize these effects and implement strategies to stay cool. Whether through hydration, environmental adjustments, or advanced cooling solutions, managing body temperature can help protect mental wellbeing and support healthier interactions with others.

By understanding how heat influences the mind and emotions, individuals can navigate hot weather more effectively while maintaining stronger relationships and better overall performance.

—

This content is brought to you by James Oliver

Photo provided by James Oliver.

The post How Extreme Heat Affects Your Mood, Focus, and Relationships appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

This post was previously published on medium.com.

Love relationships? We promise to have a good one with your inbox.

Subcribe to get 3x weekly dating and relationship advice.

Did you know? We have 8 publications on Medium. Join us there!

***

–

Photo credit: Khoiru Abdan on Unsplash

The post Flip the Script and Get Your Avoidant Partner to Chase You appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By Naveena Sadasivam & Te Aniwaniwa Paterson, Grist

“This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.”

About six years ago, law students at the University of the South Pacific convinced the government of the small island nation of Vanuatu to take the harms wrought by climate change all the way to the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest legal authority. Vanuatu, along with the students, waged a campaign to convince the court that climate change was a human rights issue and that countries have a legal duty to protect the planet for future generations. In 2025, the court sided with them unanimously. In a legally nonbinding advisory opinion, it ruled that the failure of countries to tackle climate change is a “wrongful act” and that other nations harmed by a warming planet may seek reparations.

Now, the effort has notched another win. On Wednesday, an overwhelming majority of countries in the United Nations voted to adopt a resolution backing the court’s ruling. The historic decision signals the political support behind the court’s finding that countries have a legal responsibility to address climate change, reduce its impact, and offer reparations to those it has harmed. More than 140 countries voted in favor of the resolution. Just eight  — including the United States, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Russia — voted against (28 countries abstained from the vote).

“This must be a turning point in accountability for damaging the climate,” said Vishal Prasad, director of the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change and one of the law students who campaigned to take the case to the International Court of Justice, or ICJ. “The journey of this idea from classrooms in the Pacific to The Hague and the United Nations gives us continued hope that when people organize, the world can be moved to act.”

The near-unanimous decision is a strong signal that multilateral cooperation on climate change has not completely unraveled. Over the past year, global unity on reducing greenhouse gas emissions has proven shaky. After Donald Trump’s administration announced it would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the United States has actively opposed climate action. Last year, it derailed countries that were close to setting a carbon tax on the shipping industry, which is responsible for about 3 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. A deal to regulate the industry’s emissions now seems uncertain. The U.S. has also helped kill a cap on plastics production and berated the International Energy Agency into projecting future energy demand under a scenario that climate action will stall out.

“The unity and clarity expressed by the vote was striking,” said Nikki Reisch, director of the Center for International Environmental Law’s climate and energy program. Reisch said the resolution puts “political weight behind legal norms” and will help translate the international court’s conclusions into practical action. “It will become another pillar and proof of political backing for action and accountability.”

The Trump administration also mounted a campaign to block the United Nations from adopting the landmark international court ruling. In February, the State Department sent a missive to all consulates and embassies noting that it “strongly opposed” the U.N. resolution and that its adoption “could pose a major threat to U.S. industry.” In remarks ahead of the vote, Tammy Bruce, a former conservative radio host and now deputy representative to the U.N. in New York, said that the resolution is “problematic” and that “the United States continues to have serious legal and policy concerns” about it.

“The resolution singles out certain groups for preferential treatment and makes alarmist political statements, such as the idea that climate change is an unprecedented challenge of civilizational proportions,” Bruce said. “Such hyperbolic statements are not appropriate in a resolution on an ICJ advisory opinion.”

The resolution reiterates the International Court of Justice’s core findings and calls on countries to implement measures to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) while transitioning away from fossil fuels. It also affirms that nations must fulfill their climate obligations and that those countries harmed by others’ inaction are entitled to seek redress. Finally, the resolution calls on the United Nations’ secretary-general to submit a report next year on ways to comply with the international court’s findings. The resolution, like most U.N. resolutions, is not legally binding; rather, it’s intended to signal political priorities or views.

The U.N. vote comes as countries are cracking down on climate activism and litigation. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the government moved to amend climate laws to limit civil court proceedings against major greenhouse gas emitters for climate-related harm.

Māori climate advocate Mike Smith is among those whose cases could be affected. Recent reports have found that land theft and colonization have exacerbated the effects of climate change on the Indigenous Māori people, who are more likely to be affected by extreme weather events. Smith is currently pursuing high court proceedings against six of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, and he describes the U.N. vote as a “major shift,” arguing it reflects a changing understanding of climate change not just as environmental damage, but as something with legal consequences.

“We know as Māori that the islands are part of our journey across the Pacific that’s led us here to Aotearoa,” he said. “New Zealand has a responsibility to stand with Pacific countries like Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, and Tokelau. Not just symbolically, but in supporting stronger legal and international action on climate harm.”

Although the U.N. vote is a victory for Indigenous activists from the Pacific and beyond, they believe that many countries still must be pushed to uphold their climate obligations.

“The law is clear that climate action cannot sit on the shelf, it must be turned into action,” Prasad said.

The Indigenous News Alliance contributed reporting to this story.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/international/in-a-rare-show-of-global-unity-countries-adopt-landmark-climate-ruling/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

—

This Story Was Originally Published by Grist.

***

–

Photo Credit: unsplash

The post In a Rare Show of Global Unity, Countries Adopt Landmark Climate Ruling appeared first on The Good Men Project.

—

The sport of golf appears to be an easy game when you observe it from a distance, but you will experience a complete transformation when you enter the golf course. Florida golfers encounter swing problems because they lack proper posture and they miss putts because they do not know the right techniques. Golfers need coaching sessions, but their work commitments stop them from attending multiple weekly sessions at golf academies. Players now choose Golf Training Videos because these videos allow them to practice at home and train in their local areas.

Video-based golf learning has changed training methods for both beginner and advanced golf players. Golfers have complete access to instructional materials, which they can use as needed instead of relying on irregular in-person training sessions. Online golf learning provides Miami and Orlando golfers with training resources that support their practice sessions.

Why Video-Based Golf Training Is Becoming Popular in Florida

Florida has one of the largest golfing communities in the United States. The combination of Florida’s warm weather and its numerous high-quality golf courses creates conditions that golfers use to enhance their skills. The need for regular lessons poses challenges because people have busy schedules.

This is where golf video lessons come in handy. Golfers can control their training process by stopping and watching sections of the video, which they can also use for practice. Players now have the option to review training videos whenever they need instead of trying to recall all the information from a lesson.

Private learning environments are preferred by many golfers. Video training helps beginners build confidence because it eliminates the pressure to perform in front of instructors and fellow players.

With Golf Training Videos, you can:

• Watch lessons multiple times
• Slow down complicated movements
• Practice whenever your schedule allows
• Focus only on areas where you need improvement
• Build confidence step by step
• This personalized approach helps golfers improve without feeling rushed.

Better Visual Understanding of Techniques

Golf is a highly visual sport. Reading about grip positioning or swing rotation is not always enough. Watching a professional demonstrate proper movement makes learning much easier.

Video training helps golfers understand:

• Body alignment
• Swing path
• Wrist positioning
• Putting techniques
• Weight transfer during swings
• Ball contact timing

Seeing these techniques in action helps players avoid common mistakes that often develop from poor practice habits.

Convenient for Busy Florida Golfers

Florida residents often balance work, family responsibilities, and recreational activities. Driving long distances for golf coaching may not always fit into a busy routine.

• Video-based training allows golfers to practice:
• At home
• At local driving ranges
• During travel
• Before weekend rounds
• In short daily sessions

Even 20 minutes of focused practice using structured golf video lessons can help improve consistency over time.

The process of executing a golf swing requires players to develop consistent performance throughout the entire game. Players possess the ability to execute outstanding shots, but they experience difficulty achieving multiple successful attempts during actual matches.

Through video-based teaching, golfers develop permanent practice methods that establish essential skills through continuous fundamental training. The process of repeating drill exercises enables athletes to develop muscle memory while building self-assurance for their performance during matches.

Lower Costs Than Standard Coaching Services

Florida golfers can access affordable online training programs that provide them with high-quality learning opportunities. This system enables athletes to make progress between their scheduled face-to-face training sessions.

Online sports education programs have become more popular because digital learning methods enable athletes to acquire new skills with greater efficiency. The United States Golf Association (USGA) provides educational materials that demonstrate to golfers at all skill levels the necessity of following established training methods and developing their abilities through structured practice sessions.

Video training provides beneficial content that assists both beginner and advanced golfers. Another major advantage of video training is that it works for golfers at every skill level. Beginners Can Learn:

• Basic swing mechanics
• Grip and stance fundamentals
• Golf etiquette
• Putting basics
• Course confidence
• Experienced Players Can Improve:
• Shot shaping
• Swing consistency
• Short-game control
• Mental focus
• Advanced techniques

This makes video-based learning a practical option for long-term improvement.

Personal Progress Tracking Becomes Simpler Through This Method

Golfers who practice their skills using video analysis throughout their training schedule demonstrate better performance development. Players use video recordings of their swings, which they compare to their instructional lessons, to develop their skills. The method helps people recognize their strengths while they work to find their weaknesses.

The process of measuring progress through various methods helps people maintain their enthusiasm. Golfers maintain their training schedule because they experience minor advancements in swing precision and distance performance and putting skill development. The approach helps people manage their workload because it restricts their ability to maintain focus throughout multiple tasks.

Final Thoughts

Golf improvement requires three essential elements, which include dedicated time, training efforts and the proper educational methods. For many players in Florida, the video-based training system provides them with a successful method to develop their skills because it does not interfere with their everyday activities.

Golf video lessons help beginners and advanced players lower their handicaps by teaching them effective practice methods that build their confidence during matches. The training resources at Instant Golf Improvement provide you with flexible techniques to enhance your game while you follow their detailed instructions to develop a more reliable golf performance.

—

This content is brought to you by James Oliver

Photo provided by James Oliver

The post Benefits of Learning Golf Through Video-Based Training in Florida appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By David L. Chandler | MIT News

When MIT mechanical engineering Professor Kripa Varanasi landed in New Delhi in the middle of the night in June 2024 to attend a conference, he found himself in 104-degree Fahrenheit heat.

“This was June, and it was crazy. It was so hot for the whole meeting that I never left the hotel,” with daytime temperatures nearing 122 F.

It didn’t used to be that way. “When I grew up in India, it was not like this,” Varanasi says. “That kind of inspired me.”

He found a way to begin tackling the issue through a grant from the MIT Climate Project that provided seed funding to develop a proof-of-concept prototype of a wearable personal cooling system. The grant was one of four that were part of a Critical Cooling initiative for which the Climate Project requested proposals last year. The projects, which received grants totaling $450,000, are now complete. All have showed promise, and are now exploring ways to further develop their concepts.

Another MIT researcher, Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, looked into the potential of subsurface wells with heat-absorbing materials to supply spaces with air far below peak ambient temperatures while using much less energy than evaporation-compression heat pumps. The aim would be to use such systems in both small apartment buildings and single-family homes in India and other parts of the Global South.

Meanwhile, Asegun Henry, the George N. Hatsopoulos Professor in Thermodynamics, studied the use of an alternative approach to air conditioning to be more energy efficient and eliminate hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants that are potent greenhouse gases. His approach uses a cheap, widely abundant solid “caloric” material — rubber — to obtain a cooling effect, and then uses plain water as an efficient heat transfer fluid. The initial target market is single-family houses and apartment buildings, although larger systems could also serve data centers.

And Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, addressed the tendency of existing air conditioning units being expensive and power hungry. They also use refrigerants that are far more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide — and the coolants are likely to leak out when the devices are ultimately disposed of, adding to their global warming contribution. To help address that, Chen’s approach is to use a completely different kind of chemical refrigerant that has no greenhouse impact.

Christoph Reinhart, the Terri and Alan Spoon Professor of Architecture and Climate who leads MIT’s Sustainable Design Lab (SDL), championed the seed fund effort and served as faculty lead. “The term ‘critical cooling’ stems from a collaboration between SDL and Harvard’s Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic,” he says. “It is motivated by the fact that climate change increasingly causes heat fatalities, primarily among vulnerable populations, who lack access to active cooling. The impact that MIT can have by ‘cooling people, not spaces’ is enormous.” This vision led to the creation of the grant program, where each of the teams received funding for six months to see what they could do and explore really innovative approaches to the problem.

In collaboration with the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), led on J-PAL’s side by Senior Policy Manager Andre Zollinger, the teams started with a workshop that brought together representatives from the World Bank, leaders from the Global South and industry, and engineers with ideas to suggest.

All of the teams made progress and most produced initial prototypes, says Liana Frey, a managing director at the MIT Climate Project, and an effort will be made to further develop and fund these ideas. “We’re continuing to look at different ways of proceeding with the work.”

One of these ways is through air conditioning. Worldwide, air conditioning is only available to about 8 percent of people — and that amount already contributes between 3 and 4 percent of global warming emissions — explains Chen. Meanwhile, the need for air conditioning and other ways of addressing extreme heat is steadily growing as the planet steadily warms up, and many of the people who will be most affected live in regions with limited access to reliable or affordable power and with high levels of poverty. The market for air conditioners is expected to triple or quadruple in coming years, he says, and their contribution to global warming will grow accordingly.

Chen says that he already had some ideas, but he hadn’t had a chance to test them out in experiments, which the grant enabled him to do. After building three prototypes and testing them out, he says, “I’m not at the stage where I can say that I know this will work.” But based on the experiments, he’d like to proceed to build a further prototype. If it works as well as expected, it would make a dramatic difference in air conditioning technology worldwide, including for the intensive cooling needs of new data centers.

Meanwhile, Varanasi’s way of looking at the problem was to consider individuals, not spaces. His devices work through the same principle as how an elephant uses its huge ears to dissipate heat and cool its blood.

The wearable device only consumes about 33 watts, he says, whereas a typical room air conditioner consumes around 1,000 watts. At U.S. material prices, the prototype device would cost about $20, he says, but if sourced with local material in India, he estimates it could be produced at a cost of less than $1 each.

Such garments could be bought in large quantities by the government and distributed to communities, where local entrepreneurs could set up charging stations to recharge the devices after a night’s wear, and other locals could set up businesses to manufacture the systems. The socks themselves would be washable, separately from the cooling material itself. This could enable people to at least get a good night’s sleep even in the extreme heat, he says.

The proof of concept he built used a simulated foot containing a heater, and measured the cooling effect. “We were able to keep it in the zone that we need for the body to stay cool,” he says. “So our initial prototype that we were able to build with this funding showed that this can become a viable solution.”

The same material could be used in other ways, such as to make sleeping bags with built-in cooling, he says. The raw material is widely available, but would be treated in a way that they developed. “It was a fundamental science bottleneck that we were able to overcome, which makes it possible.”

Varanasi says he is exploring various possibilities for how to develop his novel cooling material into a commercial product. “Ultimately, to make anything work, it has to be a business, otherwise good ideas can die,” he says. “It has to be a good business and a sustainable business.”

Luckily, there’s still support for advancing this work. “There are a lot of people interested in this heat-stress question,” says Frey. “It’s just becoming more and more urgent.”

—

Reprinted with permission of MIT News

Image: unsplash

—

If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.

Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.

The post Innovative Projects Explore Ways to Deal With Extreme Heat appeared first on The Good Men Project.

By H.L. Comeriato, Buckeye Flame

The LGBTQ+ Ohioan who filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) last year after the agency rejected his application for a personalized license plate reading “GAY” has joined another federal suit against the agency.

Lakewood resident William Saki joined plaintiffs Jeffery Wosner and Patrick Corrigan in a new U.S. District Court lawsuit filed earlier this month, calling the BMV’s current interpretation of the state’s guidelines for personalized license plates “arbitrary,” “overbroad” and ultimately unconstitutional, restricting Ohioans’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Saki’s original case was dismissed after the BMV said it had made an error and agreed to revisit current guidelines for personalized plates.

Now, the three plaintiffs are filing another suit, alleging the agency has failed to keep that promise.

Each plaintiff requested personalized license plates that “do not necessarily violate the Special Plate Screening Guidelines, but could be interpreted as having a meaning that would,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Brian Barnwell.

The plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction, requiring the BMV to approve their license plate applications and declaring the Special Plate Screening Guidelines unconstitutional – barring the agency from using them going forward.

Plaintiffs are also seeking the cost of attorney fees and other damages.

“It is important that all members of our LGBTQ+ community have a voice, whether we’re speaking out about all the injustice going on in the world or just asking for something fun and silly like personalized license plates,” Saki told The Buckeye Flame. “My hope is that Ohio follows the judge’s previous orders and makes it easier for everyone to get the personalized license plate that they want.”

‘GAY’ license plate case

Ohioans have been able to purchase personalized license plates since 1973. However, the agency did not establish rules for evaluating applications until 2003, after an Ohioan sued the agency for denying a personalized plate that read “RDRAGE.”

As a result, the BMV created a series of official guidelines, prohibiting personalized plates that are: “profane, obscene, sexually explicit, or scatalogical.” The rules also ban letter and number combinations that reference drugs, “advocate lawlessness” or may “provoke a violent response.”

Last year, Lakewood resident William Saki applied for a license plate reading “GAY” through the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) in advance of National Coming Out Day – October 11 – to “express a central part of his identity.”

When the BMV rejected the plate as “Inappropriate/Invalid,” Saki attempted to register “QUEER” and “HOMO” – both of which were also denied.

When Saki also attempted to register plates including anti-LGBTQ+ slurs, he discovered the BMV allowed “NO GAYS,” “NO HOMOS” and “NO FAGS.”

Ultimately, a federal judge dismissed the suit after the BMV said it “erred in rejecting” Saki’s application and agreed to review its database for other blocked words that do not meet the standard for “offensive, disparaging or socially insensitive” language.

According to the complaint, the agency did not reevaluate its database and failed to produce clear, publicly accessible instructions for Ohioans looking to appeal a personalized plate rejection.

While Saki’s initial request for a personalized plate that reads “GAY” was processed and approved by the BMV, Barnwell said the issue of censorship is far from resolved:

“If you want to call yourself GAY or HOMO or NEGRO or JEW or MUSLIM, that should be your own decision, not the BMV’s,” Barnwell said. “It’s a bit of a slap in the face that we had to file this case at all.”

‘F46 LGB’

Ohio BMV deputy registrar Charlie Norman told reporters with News 5 Cleveland the agency approves roughly 500,000 personalized plates each year. He also described a noticeable uptick in personalized plate rejections since 2019.

Between 2020 and 2025, the number of plates Norman’s four-person office denied jumped by more than 92%

Plaintiff Jeffrey Wonser also sued the Ohio BMV in 2024 after the agency rejected his personalized plate application for “F46 LGB” in 2022.

The complaint claims the numbers and letters could be interpreted to mean “f— the 46th president, Joe Biden, and Let’s Go Brandon,” a term commonly used to insult the former President during his tenure at the White House.

However, the plate also resembles the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “FAG,” and a possible reference to lesbian, bisexual and gay people via the acronym “LGB.”

Additionally, the message could also be interpreted as a pro-LGBTQ+ phrase “intended to reclaim a homophobic slur” – blurring the guidelines even further.

Saki also applied for a plate using the phrase, clarifying on his application that the acronym stands for “Fag love: Gavin and Bill,” a tribute to his partner.

Saki’s application was rejected, along with requests for plates reading: “HOMO,” “FAG,” “FAGGOT” and “CUNTY.”

Ultimately, a judge dismissed Wonser’s suit after determining the statute of limitations had expired. In 2024, he submitted a second application for a personalized plate reading “LGB F46,” which was also denied.

Intent vs. interpretation

The lawsuit highlights the difference between intent vs. interpretation.

Barnwell argues the string of characters “F46 LGB” does not directly violate the BMV’s guidelines because it has “no objective meaning.” Further, he argues that neither the BMV nor the individual is responsible for predicting the public’s interpretation of the plate.

For example, the BMV rejected the plate “FALICE,” for violating guidelines – apparently interpreting the phrase to mean “phallus.” However, the agency reversed its decision after confirming that “Falice” was the applicant’s legal middle name, and not an obscene or sexually explicit reference.

In another example, a BMV censor also rejected an application for a personalized plate that read “84HO,” believing it to be sexually explicit and derogatory. The agency later rescinded that decision and issued the plate after confirming it was for a 1984 Hurst Oldsmobile.

Barnwell said the rule gives the government “unbridled discretion to censor speech.”

“Mike DeWine says we should trust the state to decide which messages are fit for license plates, but it’s hard to trust him when he’s cutting special plates for literal Nazis but refusing to do the same for lesbians or Jews or anyone else who doesn’t belong in whatever painfully boring version of America he’s trying to impose on us,” Barnwell said.

“We’re hoping the Court will put a stop to it once and for all, and tell the BMV that gay people are entitled to free speech and equal protection of the laws,” he added. “And so are Jews and Muslims and Democrats and Republicans – and even the guy who tried to pay good money for a license plate that says ‘POOOOP.’”

Ignite Action

• To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
• To find contact information for your Ohio state senator, click here.
• If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
• If you are an transgender adult in need of immediate help, contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860

—

The Buckeye Flame is an online platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of LGBTQ+ Ohioans to support community and civic empowerment through the creation of engaging content that chronicles their triumphs, struggles, and lived experiences.

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.  A complete list of benefits is here.

—

Photo credit: Image created by H.L. Comeriato

The post LGBTQ+ Ohioan Sues Bureau of Motor Vehicles Again Over ‘Gay’ License Plate appeared first on The Good Men Project.