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Laura Coryton is a British campaigner,
feminist activist and author. She is the founder of
Stop Taxing Periods, a campaign to abolish the
Tampon Tax in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and make
menstrual products exempt from
VAT
A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...
, and runs the Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) social enterprise Sex Ed Matters. Coryton published her first book 'Speak Up!', a campaign guide for rebel girls, in 2019.
Coryton was named one of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
s and
Nesta
Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is an innovation foundation based in the UK.
The organisation acts through a combination of programmes, investment, policy and research, and the formation of part ...
's 2016 New Radicals.
In December 2016, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
included her in their list of ''Five women who aren’t on Wikipedia but should be''.
Education and career
She was born on 28 May 1993 in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
. Coryton graduated from
Goldsmiths, University of London
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...
in 2015 and worked for the
Labour Party before completing her
MSt
The Master of Studies or Master in Studies (M.St. or MSt; ) is a postgraduate degree at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of St Andrews, the Australian National University, University of Dublin and the University of Ne ...
in Women's Studies at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, for which she gained a distinction. She is also an ambassador for The Eve Appeal, a British charity that raises awareness of and funds research into
gynaecological cancer
Gynecologic oncology is a specialized field of medicine that focuses on cancers of the female reproductive system, including ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, vaginal cancer, cervical cancer, and vulvar cancer. As specialists, they have extensive t ...
s, and founded the Homeless Period Project, a campaign to support
homeless
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
women's access to menstrual products.
Stop Taxing Periods campaign
Coryton started the Stop Taxing Periods campaign in May 2014 while a student at Goldsmiths. The campaign was centred around an online
petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication.
In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...
on campaign hosting website
Change.org
Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...
. By early 2016 the petition had gained more than 320,000 signatures and global recognition.
Stop Taxing Periods also used protests, demonstration and viral social media.
In 2015 the campaign gained the support of the then
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, who said "I wish we could get rid of this…
utthere's a problem with getting rid of VAT on certain individual issues because of the way this tax is regulated and set in Europe."
Change.org's UK director
Brie Rogers cited Coryton as a successful example of
clicktivism and the influence of online political activism on national politics.
In March 2016
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
accepted a
Tampon Tax amendment proposed by
Paula Sherriff MP, the then
Chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...
pledged in his budget to make menstrual products exempt from sales tax.
VAT on sanitary products was abolished on 1 January 2021 in the UK.
Sex Ed Matters
Coryton co-founded 'Sex Ed Matters', a
Relationship and Sex Education social enterprise, in 2019. The organisation, which she runs with her twin sister Julia, is designed to help schools deliver the political aspects of the new RSE curriculum, including period education, consent and LGBT rights, through the means of workshops and resources.
References
External links
periodwatch.orgofficial website
#TheHomelessPeriodofficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coryton, Laura
Feminism in the United Kingdom
Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
Living people
British feminists
British women activists
1993 births
People from Devon
Tax reform
Value-added tax (United Kingdom)
Activism related to reproductive rights
Women's health in the United Kingdom