A black-and-white Victorian-era photograph of two white AMAB people dressed as women.
Misgendering the Misgendered

I first witnessed a transgender character misgendered by her own author in “The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman,” a short story published anonymously in 1857. The text was assigned for a queer short stories course at UCLA, and while I wasn’t surprised that a transgender character was misgendered by a writer in 1857, I was surprised that a professor of queer studies in 2023 would as well.

Two women almost kissing on a TV screen with a large superimposed question mark.
Can Queerbaiting Exist In A World Where Sexuality Is Fluid?

Since a heterosexual-presenting couple got a sex scene on screen while Caitlyn and Vi didn’t even kiss by the end of the first season, many people felt as if their relationship was a part of a phenomenon known as queerbaiting.

A black-and-white Victorian-era photograph of two white AMAB people dressed as women.
Misgendering the Misgendered

I first witnessed a transgender character misgendered by her own author in “The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman,” a short story published anonymously in 1857. The text was assigned for a queer short stories course at UCLA, and while I wasn’t surprised that a transgender character was misgendered by a writer in 1857, I was surprised that a professor of queer studies in 2023 would as well.

Stop Dan Savage: Your LGBT “Activist” is Actually a Bigot

Image by Josh Rodriguez/Creative Commons Asexual people should stay at home. Bisexual people are not worth trying to settle down with. Sh*male. Tr*nny. These are all things said by renown activist Dan Savage. Dan Savage is a well-known gay man…

Racism and Sexism: Not the Tale of Generations Past

Photo by Fred Murphy/Creative Commons Though election season this year, as ever, focused largely on the question of the presidency, it was in the matter of Congress that America bore witness to several surprising and heartening changes. Among these are…

UCLA Spotlight: Women’s Bodies, Women’s Votes, With Gloria Steinem

Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr On October 7, 2012, Gloria Steinem came to UCLA to offer a lecture called “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Votes,” and, amidst the crowded hall in Broad (one which she would comment later as disliking—as she does many…

Viral on Twitter, But Are the Polls Immune?: A Response to Obama’s Endorsement of Same-Sex Marriage

On May 9th, 2012, President Obama made history. Or at the very least–he made Twitter history. In the first few hours after his statement of personal support for same-sex marriage, Obama’s official same-sex marriage endorsement tweet, which read “Same-sex couples should be able to get married” was retweeted a whopping 50,000 times! To get some perspective on this number, it is approximately half as many tweets as the number banked by the most retweeted post of all time: a promotional tweet by the esteemed Wendy’s restaurant in June of last year.

Obama and the Great Gay Marriage Flip-Flop

Photo via Pixabay Ahh, the Republican Primary – what a thrill it has been to watch that hot, sticky mess play out. And while Mitt Romney has emerged as the likely nominee, he hasn’t exactly come out clean. Observers across…

Ally Week Update

The second annual Ally Week began this year with a presentation on athlete allyship by Hudson Taylor, a wrestling coach at Columbia University.  Though raised in a staunchly religious household, Taylor’s experiences in college shifted his perspectives on the LGBT…

Acting White: What’s Feminism and Queer Theory Got to Do with It?

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…