This year, Halloween came upon me rather suddenly, like a wisp of smoke blown over from a DTLA factory across the wind. Or something. Back home, the decaying smell of leaves as they gradually lost their livelihood and faded into…
In Defense of Valentine’s Day
Image by Dave Gunn/Creative Commons I love Valentine’s Day. There. I said it, and I’m not even slightly ashamed. I’m not ashamed of my torrid love affair with chocolate, or the fact that while I prefer daisies, I find a…
Janet Mock’s Outrage for her Trans* Identity
On February 5, Janet Mock, a 29-year-old trans activist of color and author of Redefining Realness was interviewed on Piers Morgan Live. Throughout the interview, he continually referred to her past identity “as a man,” claiming that she “was a…
Chinese Expressions of Queer Identities
Photo by API Equality-LA “May God have mercy on this falling land!” proclaimed Chinese actress Lu Li Ping in 2011, “We have to prevent this from happening in China.” Ping was reacting to New York state’s passing of legislation that…
My Struggle for Identification
Photo by ToastyKen/Creative Commons I’ve identified as queer for about five years. After a process of reckoning much the same as many other coming out stories of the kind—though in my own fortunate case, my own terror was a far…
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…
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.
