As an openly gay man who came out more than 40 years ago, Michael Losquadro clearly remembers the days when same-sex couples wouldn’t dare hold hands in public because “you were likely to get bashed.”
Losquadro, who graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration management, has spent decades on the front lines of the fight for equal rights and has been an active supporter of LGBTQ causes, including Orange County’s first Gay Pride event in 1989, the fight against AIDS in the 1980s and the national march on Washington for gay rights in 1993.
Motivated by a desire to ease the burden and provide more resources for current and future CSUF students, Losquadro and his husband, Brian Keller, pledged a $1.5 million gift to the university to benefit the LGBT Queer Resource Center and student scholarships in the College of Business and Economics.
In a March 25 naming and ribbon-cutting ceremony, the center was renamed the Losquadro Keller LGBTQ Resource Center.
With CSUF President Sylvia Alva and other university leaders present, along with the couple’s family and friends, Losquadro said the university “has stepped up to meet the important social needs of its rainbow students.”
“From the leadership training and opportunities to the simple, safe place for Titans, this center is vital to vulnerable students as they pursue their degrees and their dreams,” said Losquadro, who spent his career in university fundraising. “Brian and I have each served our community for decades in the ongoing fight for LGBT equality, and we’re humbled by this great honor that my alma mater is bestowing on us both.”
The naming ceremony, and the center’s presence, publicly affirms the importance of inclusivity and affirmation, which is so much a “part of the Cal State Fullerton identity and way,” Alva said.
“To me, that concept, as simple as it is, is so meaningful to ensuring that people feel included, that they feel a part of something bigger than themselves, but that they also matter, that their voice, their identity has a place here at Cal State Fullerton,” the president said. “This new center, the Losquadro Keller LGBTQ Resource Center, I know that for centuries and years, our students will be feeling the love and the support that you have given all of us today.”
Of their planned gift, $1.2 million will go to the center for programming and $300,000 for student scholarships in the College of Business and Economics.
The funds will also be used to support the general operations of the center along with potential initiatives to continue to create LGBTQ-affirming resources.
Starting out in a small room in the Student Union in October 2012, the center now occupies a much larger space in the Pollak Library and is one of six resource centers that make up the Diversity Initiatives & Resource Centers on campus.
The collaborative also includes the African American, Asian Pacific American, Latinx Community, Titan Dreams and Women’s resource centers.
“The work that we do at the Losquadro Keller LGBTQ Center is really impactful,” said Lauryn Jarvis, a program and activities lead at the center and a CSUF student. “It’s hard to put it in words, the things that we do and the impact that it has. It’s hard to quantify … laughs, smiles, tears, but the work that we do really makes a difference.”
Losquadro said it’s vital for the current generation of LGBTQ students, most who probably “don’t think twice about same sex couples holding hands and walking across campus,” know the past struggles of the movement.
“I think it’s really important because things were so vastly different back then and so much has occurred in the last 40 years that if they don’t know the history, they’ll be disadvantaged,” he said. “It’s important to know our history so that we know how far we’ve come and where we still need to go and that we do not turn the clock back. In some circles, that’s beginning to happen. They have so much more support, which I think is fantastic, and we need to continue to support them.”
Student Jack Matthews, who comes to the center regularly, said the space is a safe haven where he feels love and support.
Matthews said he is grateful for the efforts of LGBTQ movement’s predecessors such as Losquadro.
“I think it’s a great thing because when I came here, in a lot of my major classes, I didn’t really see a lot of people like me right in those classes,” Matthews said. “So, the fact that I’m able to go to a center like this, where I’m constantly supported, and I’m reassured that there are other people like me, it just feels very validating. I don’t think I could have had the confidence that I have today, without that kind of support.”
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