Diversity Digest

I was the first member of my family to attend a university. As a "blended" student growing up in the 1960s, I was told to indicate just one ethnicity on school forms. Mom told me to check both Hispanic and Caucasian and let them figure it out.

Now the University of California not only allows multiracial/multiethnic delineation on its application, for the past five years students may self-identify as LGBT. As a member of the UCLA Alumni Association’s Diversity Committee in the 1990s, I worked for these changes. Decades later, the university has evolved to acknowledge and welcome LGBTQ+ Bruins!

I expected UCLA would have a big impact on me. I met my husband, Glenn, here at the weekly Gay Men’s Support Group in the 1980s. Since graduating, we participated at UCLA in gay marriage rallies and spoke on panels about being gay parents to three sons. I’m still active at UCLA as the Student Support Chair of Lambda LGBTQ+ Alumni, which was one of the first university-recognized alumni groups to present scholarships to LGBTQ+ students.

I earned my degree in psychology at UCLA and am now a classroom teacher. My education at UCLA prepared me to be the first openly gay school board member elected in Claremont. I am now the president of the school board.

Bruin Regards,

As always, we thank you for your love and support. Feel free to forward this to a friend and visit our social media companion to the Diversity Digest on Instagram at @ucladiversealum. Share your successes and stories with us at diversity@alumni.ucla.edu.

Stay active,

UCLA Alumni Diversity Programs & Initiatives team

Patricia Châu Nguyễn — Senior Director
David Sun — Associate Director
David Morgan — Director, Community Engagement
Cory Rosas '16 — Program Coordinator

Activating the Activist