History

Key Moments in LGBTQ+ History at CSULB

All information from 1970s to 2022 were collected from the LGBTQIA+ CCC website, and the original development of this timeline was started by Dr. Lauren Jensen, Licensed Psychologist within Counseling and Psychological Services. Any information from 2023 onward was added by Ash Preston, Assistant Director for the LGBTQ+ Resource Center.

2025

Intimacy Spectrums: Exploring Asexual and Aromantic Identities Workshop – Spring 2025

  • In collaboration with Student Health Services’ Sex Positive Week
  • Workshop description: Delve into diverse experiences of sexuality and romanticism by learning about ace and aro identities and embracing that sex positivity includes those who do not desire sex.

Embodied and Empowered: A Celebration of Trans Wellness

  • Embodied & Empowered is a one-day conference hosted by the CSULB Trans Wellness Network in celebration of trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students. The day will be focused on resource sharing, community building, and making space for radical hope and trans joy. There will be guest speakers, breakout discussions, zine making, a community mural, resource fair, and book exchange. Breakout discussions will cover topics like: how to get a letter for surgery, intro to hormone therapy, intro to voice training, intro to T-camp, and the intersection of being trans & disabled.
  • Collaboration with LGBTQ+ RC, CAPS, WGEC, SHS, Rainbow Café, and Beach Wellness
  • Artwork and Conference Mascot created by local artist and alumni MLOU the Artist
  • Founding coordinators:
    • Ash Preston, Assistant Director of LGBTQ+ Resource Center
    • Dr. Lauren Jensen, CAPS Counselor and Rainbow Café facilitator
    • Emily Noah, CAPS Doctoral Intern

Trans Week of Joy – Spring 2025

Lavender Graduation Celebration – Spring 2025

LB Current (formerly the Daily 49er) coverage of LGBTQIA+ topics:

  • TBP

2024

LGBTQ+ Resource Center New Assistant Director

  • Ash Preston (they/them), M.S. Ed.
    • Started January 2024

Trans Week of Joy – Spring 2024

Lavender Graduation Celebration – Spring 2024

Queer and Trans Welcome – Cultural Welcome – Fall 2024

Drag Loteria

  • New OUTober & Latine Heritage Month Collaboration between the LGBTQ+ Resource Center and the Latine Resource Center
  • Hired local Latine drag queens, both alumni of CSULB, to host the event and celebrate unique intersection and culture of the LGBTQ+ Latine community

Associated Students Inc. raises the LGBTQIA+ flag on the CSULB campus for the first time in 75 times

OUTober – Fall 2024

QTFSA changes name to TQFSA (Trans and Queer Faculty and Staff Association)

LB Current (formerly the Daily 49er) coverage of LGBTQIA+ topics:

2023

First meeting of Color Me Queer – Spring 2023

  • A supportive group space for those in the intersections of BIPOC and LGBTQ+. Community-led environment to come and learn, share, and uplift each other.
  • Founding leader: Chanda Moore
    • Collaborative space hosted by the Black Resource Center and the LGBTQ+ Resource Center
  • Archive event info (Events & Orgs)

Trans Week of Joy – Spring 2023

Queer and Trans Welcome – Cultural Welcome – Fall 2023

  • Annual kickoff event to begin the new year by learning about on and off campus resources, building connections and a sense of belonging, and having fun with the LGBTQ+ community.

OUTober – Fall 2023

Daily 49er coverage of LGBTQIA+ topics:

2022

CLGBTIQ+CC becomes LGBTQIA+ CCC

  • Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer + Campus Climate (CLGBTIQ+CC), a subcommittee of the general Campus Climate Committee within Academic Senate, is retitled to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Aromantic + Campus Climate Committee (LGBTQIA+ CCC).
  • LGBTQIA+CCC website

Cruising the capacious: A trans studies symposium

Girls Like Us: Exploring Trans Feminist Herstory

First in-person LGBTQIA+ Cultural Welcome event

Queers and Allies change their name to Queer Students’ Alliance

  • The rationale for the new name was to shift the language toward students who are queer rather than being labeled as “queers” and centering queer experiences.

Dr. Shae Miller launches Queer and Trans Faculty and Staff Affinity group (QTFSA)

  • An officially recognized Affinity Group at CSULB under the President’s Equity and Change Commission.
  • The mission of the Queer and Trans FSA (QTFSA) is to facilitate community-building, resource development, and advocacy for all faculty and staff members of our (a)gender, (a)sexual, and (a)romantic communities.
  • CSULB Faculty & Staff Affinity Groups

2021

Student gain access to initiating hormone therapy on-campus

  • Fall 2021, CSULB Student Health Services begins to offer the possibility of initiating hormone therapy

Trans Advocacy & Empowerment

  • First trans specific registered student organization
  • Developed over the years through mentorship and support by Drs. Loretta LeMaster, Shae Miller, and Abraham Weil
  • First Co-President: Sky Na; First Secretary: Alfredo Heredia
  • Trans Empowerment & Advocacy Website

First campus housing construction that intentionally included all gender restrooms

Daily 49er coverage of LGBTQIA+ experiences

2020

Daily 49er coverage of LGBTQIA+ experiences

First LGBTQIA+ Cultural Welcome Event

  • A virtual event to welcome LGBTQIA+ students new to campus as part of a week-long cultural welcome series.
  • Now institutionalized and occurs at the start of each semester.
  • Hosted by Student Orientation, Advising and Registration (SOAR) within the Division of Student Affairs in collaboration with campus partners and student leaders.

Trans Advocacy Coalition (TAC)

  • TAC is founded by three faculty members with support from the CSULB President, Dr. Jane Close Conoley.
  • Founding members: Dr. Shae Miller (Sociology), Dr. Abraham Weil (WGSS), and Dr. Kathryn Perkins (Political Science)
  • Trans Advocacy Coalition (TAC) website

First meeting of Trans Empowerment & Advocacy

  • A virtual (bi-weekly) drop-in support space for all trans and gender nonconforming students. Not yet a registered student organization on campus.
  • Developed and hosted by:
    • Caleb Aparicio, Commissioner for LGBTIQ+ Affairs, Associated Students Inc.
    • Jasper Chagolla, Student Assistant for the LGBTQ Resource Center
    • Mlou Aquino, student leader
    • Jackie, student leader

2019

2018

2017

  • AB 1732 was passed
    • Starting March 1, 2017, this bill requires “all single-user toilet facilities in any business establishment, place of public accommodation, or government agency to be identified as all-gender toilet facilities, as specified.”
    • CA Assembly Bill No. 1732
  • Daily49er coverage of LGBTQIA+ experiences and campus events
  • Access to letters of support for surgery
    • Counseling and Psychological Services officially starts to provide letters of support for gender affirming surgeries.

2016

Mid-2010's

2015

2014

2013

2012

  • Queer Studies minor
    • Passed by the Academic Senate on 9/20/12
  • SB-48 passed
    • This bill requires instruction in social sciences to include a study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans to the development of California and the United States.
    • Prohibits the State Board of Education and the governing board of any school district from adopting textbooks or other instructional materials that contain any matter that reflects adversely upon persons because of their gender or sexual orientation.
    • CA Senate Bill No. 48

2011

2010

2009 

  • LGBT Tenured and Tenure-Track faculty focus group
    • Drs. Kirstyn Chun and Neil Hultgren facilitated a Diversity Focus Group for self-identified LGBT Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty for the WASC report that was being written at that time.

Mid-late 2000s

2008

  • Steven Spielberg, CSULB alum, donates money to fight Prop. 8
    • Spielberg helps fund Prop. 8 opposition, by John Canalis, Press-telegram, 2008-09-23
  • Robert Garcia, CSULB alum, organizes rally in Long Beach in opposition to Prop. 8
    • Prop. 8 rallies Long Beach, by John Canalis, Press-telegram, 2008-10-29
  • LGBT Task Force created
    • Ran from 2008 – 2013 with the goal of launching a queer studies minor and establishing a committed on LGBTQ campus climate
  • Associated Students, Inc. creates a position for Secretary for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersexual and Queer Affairs
  • The Daddy Machine, campus-community event, a musical about children with two moms
    • Nancy Martin, Ph.D. worked with Associated Students, Inc. and the CSULB LGBT Faculty and Staff Network to co-sponsor a campus-wide, community-involved presentation of “The Daddy Machine”
    • Book by Patricia Loughrey, Music and Lyrics by Rayme Sciaroni. Based on the book by Johnny Valentine.
  • Daily49er coverage of LGBTQIA+ experiences and campus events

2007

2006

  • Campus celebration of National Coming Out Day
  • First publication of an Outlist in the campus newspapers
  • World AIDS Day campus events (November 28-30)
  • CSULB participated in the national Day of Silence (April 26, 2006)
  • CSULB LGBT Resource Center officially became a part of Student Life and Development

2003

  • First campus Safe Zone Training, created and hosted by CAPS psychologists

1996

  • First Annual Long Beach Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
    • Hosted at CSULB in the USU small auditorium (June 18, 19, 20th 1996)
    • Later referred to as QFilms

1995

  • CSULB LGBT Resource Center funded
    • Dr. Bob Maxson, President, provides limited operational funding for LGBT Resource Center

1994

  • CSULB LGBT Resource Center receives funding for half-time student position
    • Granted by present Dr. Robert Maxson
    • Funding granted for half-time Student Coordinator Program Coordinator position not dependent on work-study program

Mid-1990s

  • Campus connection to Dr. Lester Brown, a gay/two-spirit American Indian
    • In the mid-1990s, American Indian Studies was chaired by Dr. Lester Brown, a gay/two-spirit American Indian.
    • Dr. Brown both held anonymous Native American HIV/AIDS support groups during the mid-1990s and he authored the book Two Spirit People: American Indian Lesbian Women and Gay Men (1999).
    • Through his mentorship, The Red Circle Project of the AIDS Project of Los Angeles formed as the first Native American HIV/AIDS program in Los Angeles formed in 2003.

1990

  • CSULB Rho chapter of Delta Lambda Phi established
  • Queer Nation comes to campus
    • Dr. Michael Johnston, Psychologist at CSULB CAPS, recalls CSULB students being active in Queer Nation, a national activist organization
  • World AIDS Day commemorated (as early as December 1, 1990)
    • Dr. Jonathan O'Brien recalls speaking at a candle-light ceremony for this event

1990's – 2010's

  • Campus connection to two-spirit spokesperson Ben Lucero Wolf
    • Throughout the 1990s-2010s, two-spirit spokesperson Ben Lucero Wolf (Kiowa Nation of Oklahoma) was a male head dancer or dancer at local pow wows including the Puvungna (CSULB) annual Pow Wow. Mr. Wolf was commissioner of The Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission that includes Long Beach.

1987

  • SAFE (Students for AIDS Facts & Education) founded
    • A student organization and peer education group that trained members to conduct class presentations, trainings, and campus tabling on AIDS/HIV and safer sex.
  • ACT UP comes to campus
    • Dr. Michael Johnston, CAPS Psychologist, recalls that CSULB students were active in ACT UP, a national activist organization.

1989

  • Opening of the CSULB LGBT Resource Center
    • Vince Nico was the first Student Program Coordinator (work-study position)
    • The first Faculty Advisors for the LGBT Resource Center were Dr. Michael Johnston (CAPS) & Dr. Patricia Rozee, (Psychology & WGSS)
    • Dr. June Cooper, Acting President of CSULB, establishes Faculty Office Building 4, room 165 as the location for LGBT Resource Center in 1988.

Mid - 1980s

  • Coming Out Day was observed as early as the mid-1980s
    • Jonathan O'Brien recalls that students used to wear Levi’s/jeans on that day and once paid for a surprise newspaper ad in the 49er that communicated something like: “Thank you for wearing jeans today to support LGB community!” in the spirit of the rebellious Queer Nation.
  • GLSU (Gay & Lesbian Student Union)
    • Held weekly meetings, had a dozen active members, and offered a full calendar of social events and community service.
    • A Speaker’s Bureau trained members as panelists to speak at many psychology and other courses at CSULB and local community colleges.
    • Jonathan O'Brien was the editor of the newsletter, Contrarywise.

 

GLSU (Gay & Lesbian Student Union) established

  • Rowland Kerr (Student Affairs staff) was the advisor for many years.

All students, regardless of identity, who are interested in the mission and focus of the LGBTQ+ Resource Center, are welcome to visit and spend time at the resource center and participate in any programs and events.