After leaving her “Introduction to LGBT Studies”
class Thursday, Celisse Romero, a third-year political science and
anthropology student, said she was learning a lot about herself and
her history.
“I’m a lesbian woman. I’m interested in
studying the oppression that we’ve gone through and the
accomplishments we’ve made,” Romero said.
UCLA’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies
program is less than 10 years old, and professors and students say
the discipline makes the university attractive to the LGBT
community.
James Schultz, the program’s director, said he only agreed
to come to UCLA on terms that he was allowed to spend half of his
time teaching LGBT classes.
The first LGBT studies course taught at UCLA was in 1976 when
English Professor Peter Thorslev offered “Gay and Lesbian
Literature.” Sixteen years later in 1992, the women’s
studies program also sponsored courses with LGBT subject matter
including an introductory course.
Roger Bourland, a music professor, who came to UCLA in 1983,
said he spent two years helping to shape the new program before it
came to fruition.
Which curricula would be taught, whether the discipline would be
a major or a minor, and which department the study would be
attached to were all questions Bourland said he and his colleagues
had to determine before the program could be possible.
The official lesbian, gay and bisexual studies program began in
1997. Its name changed in 1998 to include transgender studies.
Bourland said the new program helped contribute to a culture
where LGBT faculty felt safe and comfortable at the university, and
made the institution attractive for LGBT faculty.
“If they’re (professors) in a conservative place,
this would be a thrilling place for them to come,” Bourland
said.
Bourland and Schultz, who are both gay, said they haven’t
encountered stumbling blocks at the university because of their
sexuality.
“As far as I know it has never had a negative effect on my
profession at all,” Schultz said.
Schultz added that he and his partner of 16 years receive many
of the same benefits from the university as those of married
couples, including health benefits.
Bourland said health benefits from the university may have even
saved his partner’s life.
“My partner had meningitis two years ago,” Bourland
said. “If I hadn’t been covered, who knew if he
would’ve lived.”
Schultz said the program, now only offered as a minor, is
getting bigger and better each year.
Romero said she would be thrilled if the discipline was offered
as a major, but she is still happy to be at UCLA and is learning a
lot about herself.
“When you’re learning about homosexuals and
everything that they’ve gone through, it helps you to see
that other people have the same struggles,” she said.