A digital illustration of a side profile of various characters. Crowley, a white masculine person with red hair and black round sunglasses, is in side profile in the top left corner. To his side, is a small Aziraphale, a white white-haired person with a haloe in a cream coat. Beneath him, is a rainbow flag. On the right side, there are two white masculine people. One has white hair, andone has dark hair. Various question marks and hearts surround them.
Arts & Entertainment

Queerbaiting to Queer Couples: The Evolution of Queerness in 21st Century Media

A black and white still where a white blonde woman sits on a couch while a masculine-presenting white individual sits next to her. Her legs are draped over their legs, and they smile at each other. Above them, the devil is a stereotypical caricature with horns and a goatee smiling gleefully.
Arts & Entertainment

“Glen or Glenda”: Feeling Seen Through Art

A photograph of a smiling Alex, a Latino man with light brown skin and black hair wearing a gray suit and American flag socks, sitting on a couch with a smiling Henry, a white man with blonde hair, wearing a black suit, blue slash, and Union Jack socks. The photograph reads, "Love who you want. It's good foreign policy."
Arts & Entertainment

What “Red, White & Royal Blue” Gets Right About Being Queer in Politics — And What It Doesn’t

A digital illustration of a young masc person with tan skin and dark hair wearing a white shirt and blue jeans. They stand in front of a weapon rocket that has a rainbow ribbon tied around it. Behind them, a city is burning. They ask, "This makes it ok, right?"
Politics & News

Rainbow-washing Genocide

The cover of "Little One," an EP by Amelia Day. It is divided into eight sections with each section being in a different color of the rainbow, colored in with crayon and watercolor paint. It reads "Little One. Amelia Day" in various crayon colors; there is a smiley face in the "O". All around the centered text are black and white images of Amelia, a white girl, as a young child.
Music

Childhood, Silliness, and Photo Albums: An Interview With Amelia Day on “Little One”

An edited photograph of Jericho, a person with brown skin and short black hair smiling with their hands tucked behind their head. They are emerging from a pink lotus flower. Behind them is a gradient of color ranging from brown to white to blue to purple.
Community

Why I Hesitate to Introduce Myself With Pronouns

Featured

A digital illustration of a side profile of various characters. Crowley, a white masculine person with red hair and black round sunglasses, is in side profile in the top left corner. To his side, is a small Aziraphale, a white white-haired person with a haloe in a cream coat. Beneath him, is a rainbow flag. On the right side, there are two white masculine people. One has white hair, andone has dark hair. Various question marks and hearts surround them.
Queerbaiting to Queer Couples: The Evolution of Queerness in 21st Century Media

2023 has truly been a great year for LGBTQ+ representation in media. From movies like “Bottoms” to TV shows like “Heartstopper” and “Good Omens,” we are living in the very recent development of what Them calls “a golden era for LGBTQ+ representation.”

Arts & Entertainment

A digital illustration of a side profile of various characters. Crowley, a white masculine person with red hair and black round sunglasses, is in side profile in the top left corner. To his side, is a small Aziraphale, a white white-haired person with a haloe in a cream coat. Beneath him, is a rainbow flag. On the right side, there are two white masculine people. One has white hair, andone has dark hair. Various question marks and hearts surround them.
Queerbaiting to Queer Couples: The Evolution of Queerness in 21st Century Media

2023 has truly been a great year for LGBTQ+ representation in media. From movies like “Bottoms” to TV shows like “Heartstopper” and “Good Omens,” we are living in the very recent development of what Them calls “a golden era for LGBTQ+ representation.”

Opinion

An edited photograph of Jericho, a person with brown skin and short black hair smiling with their hands tucked behind their head. They are emerging from a pink lotus flower. Behind them is a gradient of color ranging from brown to white to blue to purple.
Why I Hesitate to Introduce Myself With Pronouns

I know who I am. I know what inspires me, what ticks me off, and what I love. I know why I believe the things I do, who I want to be, and how I navigate the world. My ears are pierced (twice), I wear cool shoes, and I have never felt more myself than I do now.

Welcome to OutWrite!

Established in 1979 at the University of California, Los Angeles, OutWrite Newsmagazine is the oldest queer college publication in the United States. OutWrite strives to build a growing educational platform through a multi-media approach that uplifts and empowers the often silenced voices of the incredibly diverse queer community. We aim to challenge dominant cisheteronormative narratives through an unapologetically anti-queerphobic, anti-racist, and progressive lens.

A photograph of a smiling Alex, a Latino man with light brown skin and black hair wearing a gray suit and American flag socks, sitting on a couch with a smiling Henry, a white man with blonde hair, wearing a black suit, blue slash, and Union Jack socks. The photograph reads, "Love who you want. It's good foreign policy."
Arts & Entertainment
What “Red, White & Royal Blue” Gets Right About Being Queer in Politics — And What It Doesn’t

“I am the First Son of the United States, and I’m bisexual. History will remember us.”

Casey McQuiston’s debut romance novel “Red, White & Royal Blue” has recently been adapted into an Amazon Prime movie, bringing the love story between the American First Son and the Prince of England to the big screen. The film is a winding tale of controversy and copulation, but ends happily with Alex Claremont-Diaz (played by Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Henry Windsor (played by Nicholas Galitzine) stepping into Alex’s childhood home to start the next chapter of their lives together.

A digital illustration of a young masc person with tan skin and dark hair wearing a white shirt and blue jeans. They stand in front of a weapon rocket that has a rainbow ribbon tied around it. Behind them, a city is burning. They ask, "This makes it ok, right?"
Politics & News
Rainbow-washing Genocide

Every June, corporations unabashedly participate in rainbow capitalism by putting out rainbow logos and pride product lines without taking any meaningful action to support LGBTQ+ causes. We have grown quick to call out such corporations for their performativity, so why don’t we call out other forms of rainbow-washed oppression — especially when it comes to justifying the mass murder of an entire populace?

Formal group photograph of the Supreme Court as it was been comprised on June 30, 2022 after Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the Court. The Justices are posed in front of red velvet drapes and arranged by seniority, with five seated and four standing. Seated from left are Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito and Elena Kagan. Standing from left are Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Credit: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States
Politics & News
The Supreme Court on Queer Rights: A Checkered Future

In June 2023, six out of nine Supreme Court justices ruled in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis that a Colorado graphic designer could legally discriminate against same-sex couples by refusing to make websites for their weddings. The case expands the narrower precedent of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a 2018 decision which ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission could not compel a bakery to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple. Both rulings used the First Amendment’s provision for religious freedom as a bludgeon against the LGBTQ+ community’s right to access to public life.

A digital illustration of a black-haired, light-skinned femme in white tanktop, jeans, and black boots in a wheelchair, an older black-haired, light-skinned femme in a green vest holding hands with a brown femme with blonde hair and wearing a blue shirt, a lounging brown masc with glasses and an asexual heart t-shirt, a lounging femme in a pink dress and draped in a progress flag, a black femme child in a pink dress holding hands with a bald black person in a green bikini top holding a progress flag, a white masc with white hair wearing a harness, and a white person with a white undercut mullet kissing a brown person with blonde hair. The background is a pastel rainbow gradient.
Community
Why Pride This Year?

Picture this: it’s June 28, 1970, nearly a year after the monumental Stonewall riots, and you’re attending the first Pride Parade in New York City. Except it’s not a parade, and it’s not entirely about Pride: it’s the Christopher Street Liberation Day March. Here, we recognize the familiar names of Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and the lesser known names of the march’s organizers Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Linda Rhodes, Brenda Howard and many more. Unlike today’s Pride Parade, this march in New York was dedicated to Gay Liberation in the forms of political speeches, demonstrations, and gay visibility.

illustration of three women of color wearing face masks and holding violet flames
Opinion
to live, not just to survive: the queer indomitable spirit

Queerness is often about survival. While Torres is alluding to a space free from discrimination and violence, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, queer survival is being threatened even more. As much as we want to create a “safe space,” there is no true safe space as long as people are dying and becoming disabled from COVID-19. COVID-19 is being swept under the rug by our government despite clear evidence that repeat infections can leave lasting damage in almost every organ in the body.7 Currently, there is also a resurgence of anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and anti-free speech rhetoric and legislation. When queer people are denied the chance to exist, we must find a way to live. By critically examining our past, we can shed light on the present.

Sports
FIFA Banned Rainbow Armbands at the World Cup: Here’s How Players Showed Pride Instead

In late June, eight armband designs were revealed that 2023 FIFA World Cup players could choose to wear on the pitch, including “Unite For Indigenous Peoples,” in partnership with United Nations Human Rights, and “Unite For Ending Violence Against Women,” in partnership with UN Women. However, despite the tournament’s theme of “Football Unites the World,” FIFA banned the “OneLove” armband or any armbands including Pride Flag imagery. This is ostensibly without reason; unlike Qatar which hosted the 2022 World Cup, the 2023 host countries Australia and New Zealand don’t criminalize LGBTQ+ people. Players receive a yellow card — a warning that could bar future participation — for wearing rainbow armbands, as was the case at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

A photograph of the Target Pride collection in the Westwood City Target. There are three half circles, each with a third of the Progress Pride Flag colors. Three mannequins stand in front of the Pride Collection products. The first mannequin is wearing a rainbow checkered skirt, black fanny pack, and pink sandals. The second is wearing a blue shirt with a rainbow logo, and blue pants with white heels, and the third is not visible.
Politics & News
Performative Pride, Capitalism and Conservative Hate: The Downfall of the Target Pride Collection

“What do you mean they’re out of stock in all sizes? I’m wearing it,” I grumbled from the confines of a Target fitting room. My girlfriend was trying to find me a different size of the bright green Pride jumpsuit that has circulated TikTok, but, as we looked for more of the Pride collection items in different sizes, it became evident that many weren’t available online for pickup, delivery or shipping, despite being available in very small quantities in Westwood’s City Target.