A crowd of UCLA students and community members gather in a circle around the base of Kuruvungna Steps. Many wear keffiyehs and some raise cardboard signs with pro-Palestine slogans. Community members' faces have been blurred for privacy.
Community
Why Palestine?: Interviews with Pro-Palestine Students at UCLA

Over the last nine months, UCLA students have mobilized en masse to protest the Israeli apartheid, occupation, and genocide in Palestine. Pro-Palestine protestors have organized rallies, teach-ins, and three Palestine Solidarity Encampments as of this article’s publication date.

During this critical moment in the fight for Palestinian liberation, I hope to record pro-Palestine UCLA students’ experiences and motivations. I compiled statements from five pro-Palestine students, including myself, who have attended pro-Palestine political actions over the past school year.

A photograph of the police lined up in front of the encampment on May 1 in Royce Quad.
Campus
OutWrite Statement: Ceasing Regular Operations in Solidarity with Palestine

In solidarity with the pro-Palestine movement, OutWrite Newsmagazine will solely platform Palestine for the remainder of the quarter. We refuse to continue business as usual in the face of the ongoing Israeli genocide and occupation in Palestine. Over the past couple weeks, the university has suppressed, silenced, endangered, and by proxy of UCPD and other fascist law enforcement, attacked and arrested students, faculty, staff, and community members calling for Palestinian liberation. The university has proven itself to be hostile to the demands of its people; it actively limits our free speech. OutWrite unequivocally condemns the Israeli genocide in Palestine and uplifts the movement for a Free Palestine.

A photograph of a pro-Palestine walkout. The protestors hold various signs and walk down the Tongva steps. One protestor holds their fist in the air in the center.
Campus
OutWrite’s Statement on the Zionist Attacks and Police Brutality Against UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment

OutWrite Newsmagazine calls for an end to the occupation and genocide in Palestine. Israel has brutally murdered at least 34,000 Palestinians and counting. Since its establishment in 1948, Israel’s existence as a settler colonial state necessitates the extermination and erasure of the indigenous Palestinian people. Israel razes Palestinian hospitals, massacres Palestinians seeking food and aid, and casts 2 million Palestinians out of their ancestral homes to induce conditions of famine, terror, and death. This past week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to invade Rafah, a city in Gaza harboring an estimated 1.5 million refugees.

A yellow paper sign hung from a tent at UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment. Handwritten black text reads “No one is free until we are all free” between a Palestinian flag on the left and a Progress Pride flag on the right.
Politics & News
“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.

A digital illustration of a capybara with an astronaut hat on. Blue and yellow stars surround the capybara. At the top of the image is the text "paw."
Campus
Pride Admit Weekend: What It Is and What It Gives

From informative presentations to a self-defense workshop to a Drag King performance, this year’s annual Pride Admit Weekend (PAW) left its impact on new admits! 

A photograph of Gwen, an Asian woman with red hair, glasses, and light skin. She's wearing a shirt with fur lining and multiple necklaces. Gwen stands in front of an informational poster entitled "Reducing the Risk of COVID-19."
Campus
How a Queer Disabled Student is Fighting for Health, Safety, and Education

How many people do you notice in your lectures wearing masks? How many coughs do you hear? Even though federal and state government policies treat COVID-19 risk with little concern, health science research continues to demonstrate the necessity of masking to prevent its contraction. COVID is a multi-systemic, vascular disease that damages every system in your body. Each COVID-19 infection that you contract results in cumulative damage, weakening the immune system. Weakened immune systems aren’t able to fight off infection as readily, meaning that any sickness can potentially be life-threatening and disabling. Unchecked immune system damage forces constant sickness to be many people’s new reality.

A photograph of three people's legs and black heels. From left to right, the people are wearing a short black skirt, a long white skirt, and black slacks respectively. The lighting is a blue to pink gradient.
Campus
Queer Prom: Fantasy Is a Radical Reality

UCLA’s Gender, Sexuality, and Society Living-Learning Community (GSS LLC) held its annual Queer Prom on March 1, 2024. The event was decorated around a “fantasy” theme — colored-paper windows resembled the stained glass of a chapel, long vines entangled every chair, and a projection of a firefly-lit forest flashed the words “Queer Prom 2024” in bold letters.

A digital illustration of Claude, a masc Korean person with glasses and a septum ring. He has dark hair and light skin and is visibly anxious. Cracks in the colors of the trans flag spread out from around him. They are surrounded by faceless gray people.
Campus
The Growing Future of Queer Bruins in STEM

I’m near the end of the room, tracing each student with my eyes. It’s my first day of discussion at UCLA, and my biology TA has us going around the room saying our name, year, major, and a fun fact about ourselves. My heart thuds in my chest and my instincts tell me to run. My name is Claude now — I no longer have the comfort of living in a cisgender girl’s skin. 

A photograph taken from an aerial view of blurry people walking in various directions. The ground is composed of gray stones.
Community
Homelessness and Familiar Faces

“As a queer person specifically, there was never a moment of rest — whether living in my car or on the streets — I always had to be on high alert. I was always filled with adrenaline. Trying to sleep on the streets, all you can think about is: ‘Is anyone coming?’”

A digital illustration of a capybara with an astronaut hat on. Blue and yellow stars surround the capybara. At the top of the image is the text "paw."
Campus
Pride Admit Weekend Needs More Volunteers: Here’s Everything You Need to Know

I had the pleasure of interviewing Outwrite’s own Ava Rosenberg (they/she) as they prepare for Pride Admit Weekend (PAW) on April 12–14, 2024. PAW at UCLA is the only queer yield program in the country, running for eleven years and counting. In order to keep this awesome tradition alive, PAW needs more volunteers to help run the event. Ava gave me a rundown of what PAW is like and what kind of people are needed to make it happen.

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A crowd of UCLA students and community members gather in a circle around the base of Kuruvungna Steps. Many wear keffiyehs and some raise cardboard signs with pro-Palestine slogans. Community members' faces have been blurred for privacy.
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Why Palestine?: Interviews with Pro-Palestine Students at UCLA
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Happy Pride! Our Commitment to Palestine
A photograph of Daniela Maldonado Salamanca, a Brown woman with wavy blonde hair, wearing a matching two-piece black-and-white striped tank top and skirt set. She smiles as she holds a cardboard sign with a painted Palestinian flag. Behind her is Dickson Court and a Bruins sign hanging on a lamppost.
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A photograph of the police lined up in front of the encampment on May 1 in Royce Quad.
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OutWrite Statement: Ceasing Regular Operations in Solidarity with Palestine
A photograph of a pro-Palestine walkout. The protestors hold various signs and walk down the Tongva steps. One protestor holds their fist in the air in the center.
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OutWrite’s Statement on the Zionist Attacks and Police Brutality Against UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment
A yellow paper sign hung from a tent at UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment. Handwritten black text reads “No one is free until we are all free” between a Palestinian flag on the left and a Progress Pride flag on the right.
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“This Is a Space of Love”: UCLA’s Palestinian Solidarity Encampment
A digital illustration of a capybara with an astronaut hat on. Blue and yellow stars surround the capybara. At the top of the image is the text "paw."
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Pride Admit Weekend: What It Is and What It Gives
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A photograph of three people's legs and black heels. From left to right, the people are wearing a short black skirt, a long white skirt, and black slacks respectively. The lighting is a blue to pink gradient.
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Queer Prom: Fantasy Is a Radical Reality
A digital illustration of Claude, a masc Korean person with glasses and a septum ring. He has dark hair and light skin and is visibly anxious. Cracks in the colors of the trans flag spread out from around him. They are surrounded by faceless gray people.
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The Growing Future of Queer Bruins in STEM
A photograph taken from an aerial view of blurry people walking in various directions. The ground is composed of gray stones.
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A digital illustration of a capybara with an astronaut hat on. Blue and yellow stars surround the capybara. At the top of the image is the text "paw."
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Pride Admit Weekend Needs More Volunteers: Here’s Everything You Need to Know
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for tomorrow's article! A digital illustration of a fem person and a masc person looking at each other from the ends of two separate lines. One line is composed of fem people's pink silhouettes, and the other is composed of masc people's blue silhouettes. The fem person has brown skin, black hair in a ponytail, a purple shirt, and a tan bag. The masc person has white skin, short brown hair, a blue shirt, and a black backpack. He looks worried. They are in a school setting approaching a bulletin board with various flyers on it.
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