Cara Grasso

LGBTQ student finds place on UNM campus

For most students, college is a time for experimenting with new identities and figuring out which ones fit best. For at least one student, arriving at UNM was the first time she felt she could truly be herself. Liviana Rodriguez, a freshman fine arts major, said she remembers being seven years old, throwing pennies into wishing fountains, wishing she could be the gender she felt she was on the inside. She began her transition from male to female during high school, and said she faced discrimination. “I heard slurs all the time,” she said. “I heard ‘tranny’ and was referred to as my old name, and people purposefully used ‘he,’ and that felt really bad. I always felt really alone, especially in my high school.”