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Finding Aid for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center. Administrative files. 1974-2011.
University Archives record Series 789  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Processing History
  • Preferred Citation
  • Historical Note
  • Scope and Content

  • Title: Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center. Administrative files.
    Identifier/Call Number: University Archives record Series 789
    Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Language of Material: English
    Physical Description: 5 linear ft. (4 cartons, 1 oversized box)
    Date: 1974-2011
    Abstract: Record Series 789 contains UCLA-generated materials on UCLA LGBTQ issues, events, and organizations, including those generated by students, staff, faculty and alumni. Materials include: photographs, memorabilia and other materials compiled by the Center; an LGBTQ periodicals collection; and correspondence, curricular documents, and other materials related to the development of the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies Program (LGBTS).
    Physical location: UCLA University Archives Office, 21560 YRL.
    Creator: Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center.

    Access

    Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright of portions of this collection is held by The Regents of the University of California. The UCLA University Archives can grant permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. All requests for permission to publish or quote must be submitted in writing to the UCLA University Archivist.

    Processing History

    Processed by Marita B. Klements; Roderic Crooks, Moon Joo Cindy Kim, Katharine Lawrie, Albert A. Lowe., 2009 May 9; 2011 Nov 30.
    The Record Series arrived unorganized from the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center. LGBTQ reference materials, not generated by UCLA, were removed. UCLA-generated materials not germane to LGBTQ issues were also removed. The archival organization of this Record Series was determined after review by archival processer, Albert A. Lowe, in 2011.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center. Administrative files (University Archives Record Series 789). UCLA Library Special Collections, University Archives.

    Historical Note

    The 1995 establishment of the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center represents the culmination of several concurrent, decades-long developments within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community on campus: research agendas by faculty aimed to understand sexual orientation through reliable social sciences techniques; political activism by faculty and staff sought to end discriminatory practices and institutionalized homophobia; and student interest in LGBT issues and culture grew as an appropriate focus of academic activity. In 1990, the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Lesbian and Gay Community was established. In 1991, Curt Shepard developed the proposal to establish a student resource center for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, which opened its doors in 1995 under the direction of doctoral student Charles Outcalt.
    In 1997, after a move from a small closet in Haines Hall to 440 square feet in Kinsey Hall, Dr. Ronni Sanlo took over stewardship of the UCLA LGBT Resource Center. In 1998, Sanlo inaugurated the first UCLA Lavender Graduation, an annual observation for LGBTQ students. In 2003, the UCLA LGBT Resource Center moved into a 1,600 square-foot space in the Student Activities Center, formerly the Men's Gym. The Center includes the Rae Lee Siporin Collection, a student-run library of 4,000 volumes cataloged through a grant from the Hill Foundation by Candace Lewis. The UCLA LGBT Resource Center also includes the David Bohnett CyberCenter, established in 2004 as a facility to support the information technology needs of students.
    In 1974, the first Gay Awareness Week hosted speakers — including Rita Mae Brown, Harry Hay, and Charlotte Bunch — to discuss issues of importance to the community. In 1976, UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young directed departments and programs not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, one of the first such administrative orders by the head of an American university.
    Academics and researchers based at UCLA systematically addressed areas of interest to the emergent LGBTQ community as far back as the 1950s. UCLA professor Evelyn Hooker, whose research from 1954 onward disputed the presumed psychological abnormality of homosexual men, was one of the first academics to address sexual orientation through established scholarly methods. Gender reassignment surgeries were performed at UCLA by the urologist Elmer Belt, who, incidentally, also played a major role in the campaign to establish a medical school at the university. In 1962 doctors in the Department of Psychiatry established the first gender identity clinic in the United States, primarily a discussion group for those studying minority genders and sexualities.
    Problematically, some gender researchers at UCLA Gender Identity Clinic developed questionable practices in attempts to instill traditional gender roles in non-conforming children. Nevertheless, through its novel research and interest in cross-gender behaviors and identifications, it became both a center for the study of gender identity, transsexuality, and homosexuality, and a model for other such clinics.
    In 1976, Peter Thorslev, a professor of English offered the first course at UCLA dedicated specifically to sexual minorities and their culture in a class called "Gay and Lesbian Literature." Later, the Women's Studies Program sponsored courses with lesbian, gay, and bisexual content, among them "Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Studies," first taught in 1992 by Daniel Calder, professor of English, and Linda Garnets, lecturer in Psychology and Women's Studies. Other departments also offered a steadily increasing number of related topical courses. In 1997, after several years of discussion and planning, the administration approved an undergraduate minor offered through a newly instituted Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Studies Program. In 1998, the Program was renamed Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies.
    In 1979 UCLA students published the first edition of "Ten Percent," which predated "Frontiers" as a Los Angeles gay newspaper. Also in 1979, a gay film festival was held at UCLA, organized by John Ramirez and Stuart Timmons, and grew to become OutFest.
    In 1989, both the UCLA Lesbian and Gay Faculty/Staff Network and the Lambda Alumni Association were founded. Faculty and staff were particularly active in addressing disparities concerning pay and health benefits for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender university employees and their families. The Lambda Alumni Association also founded a scholarship, awarded to students on the basis of service to the community and academic accomplishment.
    The UCLA LGBT Resource Center supports more than 20 different LGBTQ student groups. Membership in these groups is based on race or ethnicity (BlaQue, La Familia, Mishpacha, Pan Asian Queers); gender (Delta Lambda Phi Fraternity, Gamma Rho Lambda Sorority, Queer X Girl); specific sexual orientation (Fluid); area of study (Section G, OUTlaw, MedGlo, Queers for Public Health, OUTreach); or political issue (Student Coalition for Marriage Equality, Won Together, Social Welfare LGBTQA Caucus). Not all groups are active in a given year, but all have been official, sanctioned student groups at one time.
    The UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center is documented with many variant names, including three different names on a self-published document found from 2000. Due to the lack of documentation of any official names, for the purposes of this collection, the aforementioned name, or the LGBT Resource Center, will be the official name for this collection. Among the variant names are: UCLA Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center; UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Campus Resource Center; UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Resource Center; UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center ; and UCLA LGBT Center.

    Scope and Content

    Record Series 789 contains UCLA-generated materials on UCLA LGBTQ issues, events, and organizations, including those generated by students, staff, faculty and alumni. Materials include: photographs, memorabilia and other materials compiled by the Center; an LGBTQ periodicals collection; and correspondence, curricular documents, and other materials related to the development of the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies Program (LGBTS).
    This is an active record series; additional University records are expected to be added.
    The collection is organized into the following series:
    1. Series 1. Publications, Flyers, Events, 1974-2011
    2. Series 2. Photographs, 1990-2011
    3. Series 3. Subject Files, 1991-2008
    4. Series 4. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies (LGBTS), 1990-2005
    5. Series 5. Memorabilia, c.1990s