9 Feature Stories You Can't Miss This Week: Victories, Valuables, And Veterans

This week for BuzzFeed News, Mac McClelland spends an uplifting afternoon with the women of New Orleans' transgender support group. Read that and these other great stories from BuzzFeed News and around the web.

1. "We Learned Together": An Afternoon With The Women Of New Orleans’ Trans Veterans Support Group — BuzzFeed News

Photograph by Edmund D. Fountain for BuzzFeed News

Transgender people are still barred from openly serving in the military. Yet, a small but increasingly visible population of veterans are demanding health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs — and getting it. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

2. A Father's Initiative — The Washington Post

Photograph by Jahi Chikwendiu for The Washington Post

A heartbreaking profile by Eli Saslow of a 19-year-old single dad attending one of the hundreds of fatherhood classes the Obama administration has spent more than $500 million to fund. "Paul had written down his goals as part of an exercise on the first day of class: 'Brush Sapphire’s teeth every night.' 'Stay calm.' 'Find a stable apartment.' 'Get a job — any.'" Read it at The Washington Post.

3. To Have and To Hold — The New Yorker

Illustration by Cristiana Couceiro for the New Yorker; Clockwise from top right: Lee Lockwood / The Life Images Collection / Getty (Griswold); Paul Morigi / Getty Images For HRC And Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call / Getty (Flags); Barbara Alper / Getty (Sign)

Jill Lepore conducts a sweeping survey of the ultimate battleground in the 20th century fight for women's equality: the Supreme Court. After 50 years of litigation that has centered on privacy rights, is it finally time to argue from another angle? Read it at The New Yorker.

4. How an American Tourist Lost His Passport in Istanbul and Was Sucked Into Syria’s War — BuzzFeed News

When a Michigan student was pickpocketed in Istanbul, little could he have known his passport would soon be peddled to spies and journalists as that of an ISIS fighter. Mike Giglio traced its journey through an underworld of smugglers, thieves, and refugees. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

5. Can China Take a Joke? — The New York Times Magazine

Photograph by Sim Chi Yin/VII for The New York Times

In a country where comedy has historically been confined by a strict, state-run media, Christopher Beam discovers how a few burgeoning talents are changing, and challenging, the way people laugh. "Every comedian in China knows that there is a line, but no one knows exactly where it is." Read it at The New York Times Magazine.

6. After Sanctions, Cisco Altered Sales Records in Russia — BuzzFeed News

Sasha Mordovets / Getty Images | AP

An explosive investigation by Aram Roston and Max Seddon into business between US technology giant Cisco Systems Inc. and Vladimir Putin's military and security services. In the wake of Western sanctions that shut down sales of high tech internet equipment to Russia, employees at Cisco altered sales records and booked deals with the Kremlin under a false customer name. Read it at BuzzFeed News.

7. Unclimbable — SB Nation

Photo: Gary Bremner/gbpcreative.ca

While battling a recent knee injury, Eva Holland treks deep into the Canadian wilderness to chronicle the climbs of three young women in one of the most remote, and difficult, mountains ranges in the world. "It’s a place that forces me to reach for comparisons from fiction: It’s 'Lord of the Rings,' I tell people. It’s Mordor crossed with the Shire." Read it at SB Nation.

8. The Inheritance Issue — BuzzFeed Ideas

Illustration by Boyoun Kim for BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed Ideas presents its first essay collection, a series by eight writers on inheritance: from DNA sales to gap teeth to poetry to remittance and more. Read the introduction by editor Kat Stoeffel, as well as all of the essays, at BuzzFeed Ideas.

9. DJ Screw: A Fast Life in Slow Motion — Red Bull Music Academy Daily

DJ Chill. Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries

Lance Scott Walker chronicles the life and career of Robert Earl Davis Jr., AKA "DJ Screw," the prolific Houston disc jockey who pioneered the "screwed and chopped" technique of mixing music. "Screw towed a whole swarm of analog sound with him into a new dimension: where you could hear the music being torn apart as it rushed by, where you could count the letters of every word being spoken like they were being spoken to you." Read it at Red Bull Music Academy Daily.

Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for our Sunday features newsletter, and we'll send you a curated list of great things to read every week!