All of my friends turned out to be queer
Kaden / OutWrite I plead guilty to perpetually falling in love With the ritual of her hands weaving Watercolor sunsets into the shapes of women; With their voice, always the loudest in…
Between the lines: utilizing music to shape mood in fiction
Music is woven into our everyday lives. It starts our mornings, softens our nights and sustains us through the difficult moments between. A single song can brighten a day. A familiar melody can feel like coming home. It is no surprise, then, that music plays an equally vital role in the stories we tell. Music doesn’t merely sit in the background of our favourite movies and television shows; it shapes how we feel, what we notice, and what we understand about the characters before they even utter a word. Sometimes, music whispers secrets to the audience that even the story itself is too timid to reveal. This rings especially true in queer stories, where music expresses desire and intimacy and evokes emotion that the narrative might otherwise leave unspoken.
What Trump’s gender manifesto says about trans power
As you read this article, the Trump administration is attempting to rewrite history by erasing evidence of transgender Americans’ existence over time. At the start of 2025, the Trump administration released an executive order defining the parameters of sex and gender titled “DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT,” also called Executive Order 14168. This order aims to limit the government’s ability to advance the goals of what Trump terms “gender ideology” (or the belief in the fact that sex and gender are two separate identities) by requiring government agencies to acknowledge sex and not gender, defunding gender affirming healthcare and excluding transgender resources from mental health agencies, prisons, schools and more.
Cancel RIMPAC! Student Perspectives on Resisting the U.S. War Machine
This is an interview with two student activists regarding their experience at Cancel RIMPAC 2024. The International Cancel RIMPAC Campaign is dedicated to organizing and mobilizing in opposition to the Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC), an imperialist joint military exercise led by the United States.
The Human Cost of RIMPAC and Calls to Resistance
The Rim of the Pacific exercise (RIMPAC) is the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, hosted by the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet Command in conjunction with 28 partner nations and the U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force, Army, and Coast Guard. The 2024 exercise marked the 29th year since 1971 that the event, held biennially because of its large scale, took place in American-occupied Hawaiʻi.
“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.
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.
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.
Seeking Safety: LGBTQ+ Migrants Fight for Asylum
Whether through proposed restrictions, new waves of immigration, or the continued unjust vilification of migrants, stories of U.S. immigration are constantly circulating in many different forms of media. However, a topic that frequently remains unnoticed by a majority of the public is that of the immigration of LGBTQ+ people and the specific struggles that LGBTQ+ migrants face.
Oklahoma School Bans Gender Change
In 2023, there were at least 32 hate crimes that led to the deaths of transgender individuals. Many trans people may choose not to disclose their trans identity in situations where they feel it is unsafe or unnecessary to do so. Transgender children increasingly face an onslaught of demeaning and even life-threatening pressure to disclose from peers, parents, and, now, educators.