As someone who often has questions about what it means to be a queer feminist of color surrounded by whiteness, I immediately saw this lecture to be of particular importance. While the very act of having this conversation is more…
Gender Expression in the EDM Community
The lights are pulsating, the bass is turned way up, and everyone around me is wearing arms full of beads and not much else. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ve obviously never been to a rave.
Silence = Death: Lessons in AIDS Activism
Credit to ACT UP Over on Bruinwalk on a cold February day, at least three fundraisers are taking place. Most are for Dance Marathon, an event that enlists thousands of students to raise money to fight pediatric AIDS. They’re wearing…
Seeing With A New Spectrum: A Conversation About UCLA’s Vital LGBTQ Space
Co-written by Dylan Chouinard and Kim Lau “There are three kinds of gays. Party gays like to have fun and get drunk. Political gays are activist-y and fight for rights and stuff. Normal gays fall in the middle.” If that…
A Minute of Your Time: Notes from the Canvassing Trail
The door standing in front of me is worn with age. It may have once been a pleasant shade of blue, but its extended life has stripped it of color. This weary door is my most daunting enemy. All I…
Gay and Pro-Life?
Huxley forecasted the ethical issues of human genetics, almost prophetically, in his 1931 novel Brave New World. In his future world, humans were selected before birth based on certain traits that were more socially ‘desirable’ in the dumbed-down dystopia he…
The “Truancy Ticket Law” and Why It Matters to Queer Youth
If you went to high school in Los Angeles you have heard of LAMC 45.04 a.k.a the “truancy ticket law”. Under this municipal code, any high school student not in class after the first bell is subject to ticketing with fines of at least to $250. Basically, running late is a crime for students. More often than not the kids getting ticketed are on their way to class. Also the vast majority of tickets are given to black and brown youth, in disenfranchised, inner city public schools.
Prop 8 Ruling: Now What?
It’s kind of a strange day for the queer community. Yes, a California federal appeals court ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional this morning. But we all know this isn”t the end of the story. As we speak, the law”s backers, ProtectMarriage, are likely filing yet another appeal – this time, the case will be heard by the US Supreme Court, assuming the high court decides to take up the case.