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Ronni Sanlo, director of the LGBT Campus Resource Center, speaks at the grand opening celebration

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State Sen. Sheila Kuehl presents a plaque commemorating the new location of the LGBT Resource Cen

The sound of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and Vox Femina Los Angeles Women’s Chorus was heard across Bruin Plaza on Wednesday evening, kicking off the grand opening celebration of the newly located Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender campus resource center.

“This center is a physical acknowledgement of the LGBT community, the value of our students and the scholarship of their academic success,” said Ronni Sanlo, director of the LGBT Resource Center.

After being located in Kinsey Hall since its establishment in 1995, the LGBT Resource Center was relocated to the recently renovated Student Activities Center in Bruin Plaza, formerly known as the Men’s Gym.

“It’s in the heart of campus. This is where it belongs. ... We’re in the light for all to see,” said fifth-year English creative writing student Jarrod Chambers.

The ceremony had several prominent guest speakers, including West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang and California Senator Sheila Kuehl, who was an LGBT pioneer at UCLA, founder of the campus’s feminist newsmagazine and the first openly gay or lesbian person to be elected to the California legislature.

“It’s astounding to see the entire community outside of UCLA that we have today. We knew the students but not the people who were here before us who had supported us, the people who built it to what it is today,” said Paymon Ebrahimzadeh, a general representative for the Queer Alliance.

Kuehl cut the ribbon to the new center and presented a resolution stating that “UCLA has shown its commitment to people of all sexual orientations by providing this new, enlarged facility for the LGBT Campus Resource Center.”

Other speakers from the L.A. community offered their support to the LGBT resource center.

“We want to reach out in partnership; we want to be active and involved, to make our resources available ... to help you achieve your mission in the months and years ahead,” Prang said.

Members within the UCLA community also recognized the achievements of the LGBT Resource Center during its nine years on campus.

“As I look at the aspirations it has, ... I am proud of the work that went before us,” said Janina Montero, who was appointed vice chancellor of student affairs earlier in the year.

“Modeling the future is a tall order, but the center is a promise for all of us here. Let us celebrate and keep our eyes on the prize,” Montero said.

Although many speakers agreed there was still much work to be done to achieve equality, Gail Rolf, Project 10 adviser for the L.A. Unified School District, said she believed that she was already working with what Montero called “the prize.”

“We are seeing our children being more and more open and our schools being more and more accommodating,” Rolf said.

“When I was in college I couldn’t even say the words ‘lesbian’ and ‘gay’,” Rolf said.

To show how student experiences have changed because of the resource center, current students spoke about their lives on campus.

“The fact that the center even existed gave me such strength. I met people who became my friends and are now my family away from home,” said third-year history and psychology student Roy Samaan, social chairman for the Queer Alliance.