When Kian Boloori was first admitted to UCLA, he saw rainbow
flags outside Kinsey Hall, the former location of the Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center, and went in to visit.
The now fourth-year world arts and cultures student and former
chair of Queer Alliance ““ a coalition of LGBT groups on
campus ““ joined La Familia, the Hispanic Queer group, as a
first-year student.
“(La Familia is) where I found my sense of self, and my
base for empowerment,” he said.
Boloori said the vibrant LGBT community and the services it
offers were definitely a consideration in his decision to study at
UCLA, and added that not everybody is aware of those resources.
“I feel that there are enough services (offered). However,
a lot of students don’t know where to find those
services,” he said.
Resources on campus vary from a mentoring program operated
through Student Psychological Services to a listing of unisex
bathrooms for transgender students.
Ronni Sanlo, director of UCLA’s LGBT Resource Center, said
the tremendous number of resources the center and other groups on
campus provide can help students make the personal decision of
whether to come out.
“Coming out is a very personal journey, and regardless of
the number of resources (available), each person who comes out will
make that decision for themselves and probably by
themselves,” she said.
“The good news is, at UCLA, there are lots of places they
can go and lots of very informed people with whom they can speak if
they choose to begin that journey,” Sanlo added.
The LGBT center keeps students connected with the various
resources available, both on and off-campus.
This includes providing facilitators for discussion groups,
hosting events and advising over a dozen student groups in the
Queer Alliance and graduate programs.
The center keeps a large, up-to-date Web site detailing events
and resources because the site is the most common way students find
out about services available, said Steven Leider, the
center’s student affairs officer.
“We receive far more hits on our Web site than visits (to
the center),” he said, adding that the center usually
receives 50 to 75 visits a day.
Students who check out the LGBT center will find a lending
library of about 3,000 books that Leider said will be searchable on
the Web site at the end of this month.
Students could also visit the first ever LGBT cyber-center on a
college campus. The center boasts a high-speed printer, a flatbed
scanner and a meeting space that was donated over the summer by the
David Bohnett Foundation ““ founded by the creator of
Geocities.
The primary reason for the computer lab is to provide students
with a private place to open e-mail and research, Leider explained,
adding that most students in the process of coming out, feel very
uncomfortable opening e-mail in a computer lab or dorm room if
there is content that that might have something to do with coming
out.
“We’ve had people kicked out of the library when
security people saw them open an e-mail that contained a picture
they weren’t expecting to be in the e-mail. … They were
physically kicked out of the library,” Leider said.
“That’s a pretty devastating thing to have happen in
your coming out process.”
Leider said the LGBT center is the the largest of its kind on a
college campus in southern California, and people drive from as far
as Orange County or the San Gabriel Valley to attend many of its
programs.
Even students from other countries have heard of UCLA’s
community and resources.
“A number of grad students, especially international
students, tell me, “˜I came to UCLA to come out because it
wasn’t possible to do that in my home country,'”
Leider said, referring to students from countries where
homosexuality is illegal.
While Leider said he thought services available to LGBT students
were adequate, he said funding was not. The center had its funding
cut 100 percent, Leider said.
“We’re living off funding that came from fundraising
in the last three years. It wasn’t meant to make up for the
shortfall in salaries,” he said.
Leider said various student resources on campus stay informed on
LGBT issues and refer students to LGBT resources when necessary,
such as Student Health and Student Psychological services,
For example, a student who is considering coming out often
experiences depression and stress in the form of headaches, Leider
said.
“Student health services may be the first place they
go,” he said.
Another service on campus that works together with the LGBT
center is Office of Residential Life’s Safe Zones
program.
Safe Zones trains ORL staff on becoming an “ally,”
someone that students can go to to discuss LGBT issues or possibly
come out to. These individuals identify themselves with stickers on
their doors.
John Vu, external vice president for the Undergraduate Students
Association Council, expressed his support for the Safe Zones
program, believing all RA’s should have a sticker and
training should be expanded.
“A lot of my friends came out as soon as they came to
college, because (in college) you have a safe space,” he
said.
Vu agreed with Boloori that many students are not informed about
resources and suggested emphasizing resources more in the
dorms.
Vu said he hoped to inspire other students to be empowered, as
he has been inspired by people in leadership positions who were
out.