The Silent Heroes: the courage to be yourself

Her mantra is to be true to herself and to be open and honest about being a married lesbian with children. Her goal is to provide a safe environment for her students to learn.

Anna Villeneuve, 39, professor of English, was born and raised in a traditional household in the San Fernando Valley where she attended James Monroe High School in North Hills.

"My focus has always been on academics, and social life has always been on the sideline," Villeneuve said. "I was a book-smart person."

After high school she did not go directly to a four-year college because she did not feel like taking the SATs, although she knew she could do well.

Instead, she enrolled at Feather River College in Quincy, Calif., specifically for equine studies and rodeo. She got her first horse in fourth grade.

Villeneuve transferred to Humboldt State University and completed her bachelor's degree in journalism in 1994. She took a year off and completed her master's in English in 1998.

In between, she spent time trying to figure out where she fit in. In high school, she hung out with the academic group. In community college, she felt she didn't fit in with the rodeo cowboys.

Her epiphany came the year between her pursuit of her bachelor's degree and her master's degree.

"I would say that when I realized I was lesbian, I finally found that there was a group that felt like home to me," Villeneuve said.

After getting into a relationship, she decided that she wasn't going to hide her gender preference.

As a professor, she wants her students to feel safe and freely express their viewpoints towards literature without judgment.

"Being a teacher is the best job ever because everybody has different ideas," Villeneuve said. "They all bring different experiences, and if I can unlock that in students, I learn something new, at least every semester."

Villeneuve strives to teach her students how to relate to the literature that needs to be covered in class, whether fiction or nonfiction.

Villeneuve joined Citrus as a full-time professor in 2000.

She can recall trying to decide whether  to be "out" in class before she achieved tenure because she didn't know how the Citrus community would respond.

"Every time I've tested the waters here at Citrus, I've only gotten a positive response," Villeneuve said. "It became obvious after three or four semesters that [my sexual orientation] plays a role on how I conduct a class."

She met her wife, Louisa Villeneuve, when her Citrus colleague, Teresa Villeneuve, invited her to a Christmas gathering in 2003.

Teresa's husband, Pierre Villeneuve, is Louisa Villeneuve's brother.

Louisa and Anna got together in 2004. In 2008, they got married during the 10-month window of opportunity when gay marriage was legal in California.

The couple have three children: Luc, 4, and 18-month-old twins, Jacob and Madeleine. They wanted to have a family together, she said.

"I cannot talk about my kids without talking about our family being different than other people's family," she said.

The Villeneuves strive to protect their children from criticism by people who don't support their lifestyle.

They are under much more scrutiny than children who are raised by heterosexual parents.

"I don't ever want for Luc to say, ‘You guys were just using me,'" Villeneuve said. "I don't even want to give him the opportunity to think that I made an agenda out of my kid because my kid is not an agenda, my kid is my kid."

Villeneuve said she has achieved balance with her professional and personal lives. She has learned she doesn't have to multitask, although as a professor she has to grade papers at home. She is comfortable with being a professional at school and a mom at home.

"Luc is a great reminder that we need to stop as a society and just enjoy each other, and I enjoy my kids," Villeneuve said.

"There's a fuel to teaching," Villeneuve said. "All this input of ideas from the students can be very uplifting and exciting. Kids are just fun, that's what keeps me inspired at home."

An important decision that Villeneuve made was to change her name when she got married.

Villeneuve said that Louisa had a stronger attachment to her family name. Villeneuve took Louisa's last name because she wants people to recognize them as a united family.