Bellze Tandoc (They/Xey)

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Bellze (they/xey) is a Developmental Editor and copy editor at OutWrite. They are a second year transfer student and English major. They are absolutely enamored with video games, their dog named Puddles, and their frog tattoos.

A photograph of Kabalikat Kore members against a blue wall. From left to right, top to bottom: a femme person with brown skin and long black hair wearing round glasses, a masc person with brown skin and blonde and black hair wearing a dark blue shirt, a masc person with brown skin and short black hair wearing a dark gray shirt, and a femme person with brown skin and dyed brown hair wearing glasses and a light flannel.

Campus

Interview with Kabalikat Kore – Honoring Queer Filipinos During Filipino American History Month

Filipino American History Month is celebrated in October. UCLA has a vibrant Filipino community on campus, with fifteen Filipino-focused student organizations that focus on the academic and personal development of Filipino Americans at UCLA. Kabalikat Kore (KK) is one such organization at UCLA that celebrates and uplifts queer Filipino Americans, giving them a space to meet and socialize with one another. I spoke with Miko Dinulos (he/him), the External Vice President of KK. Miko is a second-year psychology major from Ventura County. We chatted about the importance of Filipino American History Month and the queer Filipino experience.

The "Bottoms" poster which includes PJ, a white girl in green making a muscle, and Josie, a black woman in teal making a muscle. Clinging to each of them is a young white woman and a young Wasian woman both wearing pink clothing items. Two football players lounge beneath them, another white woman and a Black man.

Film

Gay Wrongs, and Why I Support Them — On “Bottoms” and Queer Irreverence

Lesbians have never looked as hot as when they are covered in the blood of football jocks like the characters of “Bottoms,” the instant classic lesbian rom-com movie of the year. “Bottoms” — directed by Emma Seligman — follows Josie (Ayo Edebiri) and PJ’s (Rachel Sennott) attempt to woo their respective love interests, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber), with a faux all-women’s self-defense fight club. The film screams of a dark humor and irreverence rarely seen in LGBTQ+ media — a refreshing new take that presents audiences with queer, gray morality, or what I lovingly call ‘Gay Wrongs’.

illustration of Ellie and Riley from The Last Of Us

Video Games

Apocalyptic Queer Rage: “The Last of Us” Redefines Queerness in Video Games

The gaming community ten years ago was a toxic space for marginalized people, including the LGBTQ+ community. Video games in the early 2010s had minimal LGBTQ+ representation, and the scant representation that did exist portrayed LGBTQ+ people in an unpleasant light. The video games that were sympathetic to LGBTQ+ were few and far between and usually not considered triple-A games (a term for video games made by major video game publishers who have access to higher quality development and a larger budget).