Under the aegis of the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program, Queer Cats Journal of LGBT Studies is an open-access e-publication of the QGrads @ UCLA graduate-student organization. We publish peer- and editorial-reviewed interdisciplinary LGBTQ research along with the proceedings of our annual QGrad (queer grad- uate student) conference. Queer Cats provokes discourse that inspires, expands and challenges our understanding of LGBTQ issues, from the local to the global. Queer Cats provides a critical space for queer knowl- edge production, as it unites a multiplicity of scholarly voices in a critical dialogue about the past, present and future of LGBTQ studies.

The name “Queer Cats” commemorates one of the earliest LGBTQ uprisings in the United States (pre-Stonewall) that began on NewYear’s night, 1967, when the patrons of the Black Cat Tavern in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles protested police brutality in the name of queer freedom.