UCLA Law’s welcome packet for admitted students lists contact information for all of our student organizations, including OUTLaw, the Black Law Students Association, the Asian/Pacific Islander Law Students Association, the La Raza Law Students Association, the Native American Law Students Association, the South Asian Law Students Association and the Womyn of Color Collective, among many others.
UCLA Law does not have a specific question requesting LGBTQ+ affiliation but if applicants self-identify and agree to have their information passed along to OUTLaw or other student organizations, UCLA Law will provide that information to the organization and/or other out faculty and staff assisting admissions recruiting.
UCLA Law offers students the option to have their name of choice on their admission application. After enrollment, the main campus allows students to make legal name changes, as well as designate a preferred name on all of our computer systems. The following website outlines the procedures for both: https://www.registrar.ucla.edu/Student-Records/Personal-Information
Yes, UCLA Law offers an annual scholarship specifically for an LGBTQ+ student or recent graduate who is interested in a career in research, teaching or advocacy focused on sexual orientation law and policy issues. In addition, UCLA Law assists students in locating LGBTQ-friendly scholarships from law firms, organizations and bar associations.
UCLA Law provides funding, including travel support, for LGBTQ+ students to participate in LGBTQ+-focused learning and career services opportunities. These opportunities include individual student funding for the annual Lavender Law conference, up to $500 for reimbursements related to certain job interviews, a Career and Conference Fund for LGBTQ and other students to get reimbursed up to $100 each year for professional conferences, and collaboration with UCLA’s OUTLaw on events and career panels. Our UCLA Law Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy also provides our students with free and reduced admission to career net-working events and provides research assistant positions to 2L, 3L and LL.M. students.
UCLA Law school actively seeks to employ a diverse staff and faculty including visible, out LGBTQ+ individuals. As for staff positions, we recruit on national job boards and reach out to staff and faculty on a monthly basis to let them know of job opportunities available. We recruit faculty through the AALS Faculty Recruitment process and adjunct or part-time lecturers through UCLA job postings.
Yes, UCLA Law provides the option of comprehensive medical coverage to all employees and their partners in the same manner, regardless of LGBTQ+ status. This includes couples who are married or in registered domestic partnerships.
Yes, UCLA Law provides the option of comprehensive medical coverage to all students and their partners in the same manner, regardless of LGBTQ+ status. This includes couples who are married or in registered domestic partnerships.
Yes, UCLA Law provides the option of transition-related health benefits to transgender and/or transitioning employees. Our benefits information is here.
Yes, UCLA Law provides the option of transition-related health benefits to transgender and/or transitioning students and their partners/spouses. Our benefits information is HERE.
Yes, all UCLA Law students have access to counseling and/or psychological services (CAPS) at the main campus office on campus or within the law school building (CAPS satellite office in the law library). The law school offers nine drop-in counseling hours per week in addition to set appointments, provides mindfulness meditation each Tuesday and yoga sessions three times per week.
UCLA Law staff, faculty and administrators are required to complete a Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Prevention training each year, which includes discussion of LGBTQ+ issues, but this is the only mandatory training. UCLA Law does offer several faculty trainings each year through the Learning Environment and Diversity faculty/student committee and these have discussed LGBTQ+-related issues in addition to general issues relating to students of color, differently-abled students and other identities.
Yes, UCLA Law has four gender-inclusive restrooms in the building. Currently under construction within the law building is the first multi-stall gender-inclusive restroom on the UCLA campus, scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. In addition, we have signage on the hallway walls directing people to the nearest gender-inclusive restroom and signage within all restrooms (non-binary and binary restrooms) that state “Our Restrooms Are For Everyone – Anyone, of any gender identity/expression, can use the restroom of their preference. Everyone should feel safe when using the restroom, so please be respectful and help us make this a welcoming, inclusive space. It’s the law! Including California Civil Code Section 51 (b) and California Government Code Section 12940 et. seq.”
Yes, UCLA Law has the following courses available for all students and also offers an LL.M. degree with a specialization in Law and Sexuality : Law and Sexuality (offered every year)
-Women and the Law
-Intersectionalities
-Human Rights and Sexual Politics
-Sexual Orientation Workshop
-Feminist Legal Theory
-LGBT Law and Public Policy Research
-Comparative Sexual Orientation Law
-HIV/AIDS Law and Public Policy
Yes, UCLA Law supports the OUTLaw student organization and provides funding for events, meetings and conferences.
Yes, UCLA Law has a hate/bias incident policy and process that students may follow either to report or respond to an incident. It specifically lists “sexual orientation” and “gender identity and expression” as two categories of possible bias.
UCLA School of Law is home to a nationally recognized policy “think tank” for issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community. The Williams Institute provides students, staff and faculty the opportunity to attend LGBTQ+-focused lectures and events and engage in dialogue about these important issues. UCLA Law also provides financing and space for an LGBTQ Working Group, made up of LGBTQ student leaders at UCLA Law who are working to improve the law school climate for the LGBTQ community. This working group has led to improvements in our gender-inclusive restrooms, pronoun usage in official documents and within the classroom and education of faculty and staff relating to terminology. For more information about support for LGBTQ+ students, please contact UCLA Law Office for Student Affairs at studentaffairs@law.ucl
General Eligibility Rules for UC Health and Welfare Benefits
UCLA Law actively recruits LGBTQ students by partnering with our faculty, staff and OUTLaw student organization to contact prospective students who have identified as LGBTQ and are interested in information from law schools. Our OUTLaw organization also calls admitted LGBTQ students offering to serve as a resource and answer any questions, and OUTLaw hosts a pre-orientation gathering to assist in the transition to law school.