2024 – Page 3 – OutWrite

A crowd of UCLA students and community members gather in a circle around the base of Kuruvungna Steps. Many wear keffiyehs and some raise cardboard signs with pro-Palestine slogans. Community members' faces have been blurred for privacy.

Why Palestine?: Interviews with Pro-Palestine Students at UCLA

Over the last nine months, UCLA students have mobilized en masse to protest the Israeli apartheid, occupation, and genocide in Palestine. Pro-Palestine protestors have organized rallies, teach-ins, and three Palestine Solidarity Encampments as of this article’s publication date.

During this critical moment in the fight for Palestinian liberation, I hope to record pro-Palestine UCLA students’ experiences and motivations. I compiled statements from five pro-Palestine students, including myself, who have attended pro-Palestine political actions over the past school year.

A crowd of police officers wearing face shields and wielding truncheons stand outside Dodd Hall on the night of May 1, 2024.

Community

Happy Pride! Our Commitment to Palestine

Stonewall serves as a reminder of the power of the masses to disrupt an oppressive status quo.

A photograph of Daniela Maldonado Salamanca, a Brown woman with wavy blonde hair, wearing a matching two-piece black-and-white striped tank top and skirt set. She smiles as she holds a cardboard sign with a painted Palestinian flag. Behind her is Dickson Court and a Bruins sign hanging on a lamppost.

Campus

Toloposungo: All Police Are a Gonorrhea

Daniela Maldonado Salamanca, a transgender Colombian sex worker activist and punk singer, spoke about queer resistance at the People’s University for a Liberated Palestine on May 20. Hosted by the UCLA chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the People’s University offers a space “to foster our own learning and mutual support.” SJP established the People’s University following UCLA’s failure to protect and care for its people.

A photograph of the police lined up in front of the encampment on May 1 in Royce Quad.

Campus

OutWrite Statement: Ceasing Regular Operations in Solidarity with Palestine

In solidarity with the pro-Palestine movement, OutWrite Newsmagazine will solely platform Palestine for the remainder of the quarter. We refuse to continue business as usual in the face of the ongoing Israeli genocide and occupation in Palestine. Over the past couple weeks, the university has suppressed, silenced, endangered, and by proxy of UCPD and other fascist law enforcement, attacked and arrested students, faculty, staff, and community members calling for Palestinian liberation. The university has proven itself to be hostile to the demands of its people; it actively limits our free speech. OutWrite unequivocally condemns the Israeli genocide in Palestine and uplifts the movement for a Free Palestine.

A photograph of a pro-Palestine walkout. The protestors hold various signs and walk down the Tongva steps. One protestor holds their fist in the air in the center.

Campus

OutWrite’s Statement on the Zionist Attacks and Police Brutality Against UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment

OutWrite Newsmagazine calls for an end to the occupation and genocide in Palestine. Israel has brutally murdered at least 34,000 Palestinians and counting. Since its establishment in 1948, Israel’s existence as a settler colonial state necessitates the extermination and erasure of the indigenous Palestinian people. Israel razes Palestinian hospitals, massacres Palestinians seeking food and aid, and casts 2 million Palestinians out of their ancestral homes to induce conditions of famine, terror, and death. This past week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to invade Rafah, a city in Gaza harboring an estimated 1.5 million refugees.

A yellow paper sign hung from a tent at UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment. Handwritten black text reads “No one is free until we are all free” between a Palestinian flag on the left and a Progress Pride flag on the right.

Politics & News

“This Is a Space of Love”: UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment

On Thursday, April 25, UCLA activists erected a pro-Palestinian solidarity encampment in Dickson Plaza. The organizers intend to remain in place until UCLA has fulfilled their primary demand for divestment from corporations and institutions complicit in the genocide of Palestinians. Over a hundred students congregated behind makeshift barricades, many with tents for overnight stays.

A digital illustration of a capybara with an astronaut hat on. Blue and yellow stars surround the capybara. At the top of the image is the text "paw."

Campus

Pride Admit Weekend: What It Is and What It Gives

From informative presentations to a self-defense workshop to a Drag King performance, this year’s annual Pride Admit Weekend (PAW) left its impact on new admits!

A digital illustration of a person with wavy short hair wearing a shirt that says, "Voting Is Cunty." Everything is pink.

Politics & News

We Are Entering Our 2024 Election Voting Era: Why Voting Slays

At thirteen, I remember my parents frantically looking through a box in their closet containing important documents. They were searching for their citizenship papers, even though they had been United States citizens long before the election of a candidate whose campaign centered around deporting immigrants. My mother found the documents, held them closely, and sighed, relieved that everything was in order. Such was not the case for many other immigrants in the United States. Extended family and friends we knew were forced out of their homes, and their lives were forever changed. The fear that ensued from the results of the 2016 election was how I was first introduced to voting.

A photograph of yellow, purple, and white flowers in a field of grass.

Politics & News

Fighting for the Queer Youth: In Loving Memory of Nex Benedict

On Feb. 7, 2024, Nex Benedict, a transgender, Two-Spirit teen of Choctaw descent, was assaulted in their high school’s bathroom by three girls who had reportedly been bullying them and their friends for the way they were laughing. Benedict went to bed with head pain following the altercation and their mother rushed them to the hospital after they later collapsed. They were pronounced dead on Feb. 8.

A photograph of Gwen, an Asian woman with red hair, glasses, and light skin. She's wearing a shirt with fur lining and multiple necklaces. Gwen stands in front of an informational poster entitled "Reducing the Risk of COVID-19."

Campus

How a Queer Disabled Student is Fighting for Health, Safety, and Education

How many people do you notice in your lectures wearing masks? How many coughs do you hear? Even though federal and state government policies treat COVID-19 risk with little concern, health science research continues to demonstrate the necessity of masking to prevent its contraction. COVID is a multi-systemic, vascular disease that damages every system in your body. Each COVID-19 infection that you contract results in cumulative damage, weakening the immune system. Weakened immune systems aren’t able to fight off infection as readily, meaning that any sickness can potentially be life-threatening and disabling. Unchecked immune system damage forces constant sickness to be many people’s new reality.