UCLA has a long and storied history of LGBTQIA+ advocacy and research. From UCLA urologist Elmer Belt performing some of the earliest gender-affirming surgeries in the 1950s to UCLA psychologist Evelyn Hooker presenting research that was widely considered to be foundational to homosexuality being removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973 to the founding of the LGBT Faculty and Staff Network in 1989 and the establishment of domestic partner benefits for employees throughout the University of California system – and everything in between and that has followed since, UCLA has been at the forefront of progress.
In addition to being one of the nation’s leading colleges when it comes to providing a friendly, safe and inclusive environment for LGBTQIA+ communities, the campus is home to UCLA's Gender Implementation Committee, which is co-chaired by Kelly Schmader, assistant vice chancellor for Facilities Management, and includes Anne De La Cruz, director of human resources and payroll operations center, Campus Human Resources, and Michael Van Norman, chief technology officer, IT Services, among its representatives. Team members across UCLA Administration have been integral to the execution and implementation of the group’s work.
For example, UCLA now has roughly 300 gender-inclusive restrooms (GIRRs). See map. Over the past 18 months, the number of multi-stall GIRRs increased from 1 to 11 in locations ranging from the Law School, Powell Library and Boelter Hall to the Broad Art Center, the Student Activities Center and Macgowan Hall, to name a few. Accessibility to all-gender facilities in UCLA’s on-campus residential community was also recently improved.
In addition, the campus data systems have been aligned with the Lived Name and Recognition Policy to ensure that all individuals are identified by their accurate gender and lived name — that is, the name by which they’re recognized in daily life, not the name that appears on their birth certificate — on university-issued documents and in UC’s information systems. Students and employees can use this UCLA Data Systems document to learn how to update various data systems and services to reflect their gender identity, pronouns and lived name.
Committee members have prepared a Principles for UCLA Lived Name, Legal Name, Pronoun, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation Data for campus departments and programs to support internal data system conversion efforts with campus partners and external vendors. Per UC policy, these changes apply to all individuals in the UCLA community.
Forms and more information for those administrators' departments who need to submit requests for GRLN policy compliance exceptions and extensions and updates to UCPath are available and must be completed by June 30, 2024.
Availability of forms include:
The committee also collaborated with several campus groups, including the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, to develop the UCLA EDI Education Series module on Understanding Gender and Sexual Orientation: Best Practices for Fostering Inclusion and Preventing Discrimination. Please take a moment to complete the hour-long module if you haven’t already done so and encourage other employees to do the same. It provides opportunities to engage with real-world scenarios to learn actionable skills around using pronouns and lived names, alongside resources around concepts and language related to gender and sexual orientation, and new laws and university policies that protect workplace and classroom gender and sexual orientation inclusion. It is one of two modules produced in late 2022. The Understanding and Preventing Discrimination module also touches on some elements germane to understanding discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender/identity/expression, as well as other identity intersections and topics.
