Yiwei Sun: UCLA must continue to create inclusive environment for LGBT students

With UCLA’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Campus Resource Center celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, UCLA has come a long way in terms of creating a supportive environment for LGBT students.

In a 2014 ranking by Campus Pride, UCLA has been recognized as one of the top 50 LGBT-friendly campuses, with a rating of five out of five stars. The LGBT Campus Resource Center, gender-inclusive housing and restrooms and a gender-neutral student information system that allows students to indicate their gender identity and preferred name on MyUCLA have benefited many LGBT students.

However, UCLA should not take these positive indicators as a reason to stop or slow its efforts at creating an inclusive campus for the LGBT community. Among the factors taken into consideration to produce the Campus Pride Index, UCLA scored lowest, with 3.5 points, for LGBT housing and residential life, largely because of the lack of gender-inclusive restrooms on the Hill. In addition, the larger issues of LGBT students not being accepted by family members and peers still exist.

Efforts to build a more inclusive environment for LGBT students at UCLA should be directed in two ways. First, more gender-inclusive restrooms should be built after careful consideration of locations. Second, parent-specific ally trainings by the LGBT Campus Resource Center should be made available as an option for parents who are aiming to become allies.

The issue of gender-inclusive restrooms, which were created in 25 buildings across campus last year, was pointed out by a recent article published in OutWrite, UCLA’s queer newsmagazine. The article says the restrooms are not distributed evenly: More facilities are allocated in South Campus than in North Campus. And in sheer contrast to the presence of binary-gendered restrooms on almost every floor of all buildings, there are only four buildings with gender-inclusive restrooms surrounding the Court of Sciences.

The restrooms provide a safe space for LGBT students, so they do not have to worry about being attacked or discriminated against.

In order to better implement gender-neutral restrooms on campus, the administration should work with USAC’s Facilities commissioner and Student Wellness commissioner and gather feedback about preferred locations from LGBT student organizations at UCLA before installing more gender-neutral facilities on campus.

The administration should conduct panel discussions with LGBT student representatives to assess the best way to implement upcoming gender-inclusive facilities. This will help ensure that enacted policies will achieve the most desirable effect.

Moreover, building a friendly environment should not only rely on efforts from the administration to construct more facilities, but also on the entire UCLA community to actively learn and understand the LGBT community.

The LGBT Campus Resource Center is holding three-hour-long free ally trainings to educate faculty and staff about resources, skills and ways to become an ally.

The ally training is currently only open to faculty and staff, but it should be extended to provide trainings for parents and friends. These trainings could help give parents and families the tools to act as effective allies for their LGBT child. Ally training for parents should be an option during Parents’ Weekend so that they can better support their children.

Similar ally training should also be made an option during freshman orientation for UCLA students to learn to support and respect fellow Bruins’ gender identities and sexual orientations.

With creative means of educating the public about the LGBT community and well-rounded facilities, UCLA has established itself as a role model for other universities in terms of LGBT issues. But UCLA cannot rest on its laurels – it’s important to expand our efforts as a school and as a community to be an inclusive space for people of every gender identity and sexual orientation.