Here are five things worth paying attention to this month. I recommend selecting one or two and jumping in over the next week.

1. God has not ignored black trans women, so neither should we.

2. Turns out there is an explanation for the connection between pups and their “hoomans.”

3. You may have been wondering why you saw so many “Juneteenth” posts on social media last week. Wonder no more.

4. At this point, no one should even debate the health and environmental benefits of eating less meat.

5. I haven’t followed this as closely as I want to, but I encourage everyone to take note of the pain our brothers and sisters in Sudan are experiencing.

Ben Tapper has a master’s degree in public affairs and an M.Div. He is a chaplain at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, co-founder of the Hear Me Project and blogs at Invisible Truths.