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I spent Christmas Eve 2023 isolated in the spare room of a borrowed Southern California home, hoping to keep my 3-year-old and her 100-year-old great-grandmother safe from COVID-19, which I had tested positive for that morning.

As I nursed my prescription cough syrup and self-pity, I posted to Instagram, seeking advice for my first encounter with the virus. Friends and acquaintances from across the globe responded with messages of support, medication suggestions, and even the best brand of lozenge to counteract the metallic-tasting side effects of Paxlovid. It was a poignant reminder of the simple but enduring power of connection. But as I welcomed a new year in isolation, watching videos of celebratory fireworks interspersed with real-time footage of bombs exploding in Gaza, I couldn鈥檛 help but grapple with the complexities of our deep connections鈥攁nd divisions.聽

This issue aims to explore that nuance, especially in a world where technology has increased our ability to connect with people around the globe more quickly and easily than ever before. Yet loneliness, polarization, and misinformation are also at historic highs. And as Reina Sultan writes in the lead feature, even digital spaces that were once fertile ground for grassroots organizing are being surveilled, censored, and restricted as governments and corporations tighten their grip over how we connect, communicate, and organize.聽

But we are not powerless. Juliet Kunkel offers practical tips for protecting our biometric data in the post-Roe era, while Sara Youngblood Gregory lifts up ways LGBTQ people are creating faith communities that recognize queerness as a blessing, not a sin. And Gabes Torres explores the rise in folks seeking sex therapy to improve their connection to their partner(s).

Of course, the ingenuity required to maintain connection and culture in the face of oppression is nothing new to countless historically excluded people, including Indigenous folks, who are adapting their own timeless traditions for the digital age, as charlie am谩y谩 scott shares in their beautiful op-ed about Native storytelling online. And Jenn M. Jackson returns to the pages of YES! with a powerful personal exploration of how their connections to their roots were severed by the trans-Atlantic slave trade.聽

Connection is central to our humanity. It helps ground us in community, orient our individual and collective moral compass, and make sense of a world that can often seem senseless in its cruelty. Our hope is that the stories in this issue inspire you to continue seeking the kind of meaningful connections鈥攂oth across and within difference鈥攖hat can help fuel the social change we so desperately need. 

In solidarity,
Sunnivie Brydum
YES! Managing Editor