As an undergraduate at Penn in the early 1980s, Susan Miller used to stroll down Locust Walk nearly every day, trekking over the bridge and passing the row of historic fraternity houses. Miller was well known across campus for her role in the Undergraduate Assembly and her frequent mentions in the Daily Pennsylvanian for her activism in the gay and lesbian community. But Miller's morning routine down Locust was a bit different than what students might imagine today; there were no environmentally friendly snowflakes dangling above and no sea of brightly colored flyers below. But there were frat brothers.
Perched on top of one flat-roofed fraternity along Locust, brothers would entertain the lulls in the day by holding up signs that rated the attractiveness of females on a scale of 1 to 10. But Miller did not receive a numerical rating. "They had a special sign for me," she said. It read "dyke."
During the 1981-82 academic year, a wave of similarly homophobic incidents flooded the campus. Students were spit and hollered at. In Van Pelt Gregory College House, one male student was walking down a hallway when he was pummeled to the wall and slapped across the face by a second student, for no other reason that can be determined besides his sexuality.
Ironically, Penn's Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Center stands mere footsteps from the site of that incident.
Penn's LGBT Center is one of the oldest and most active hubs of its kind on college campuses across the U.S. This year, it is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a support network for university students, staff and affiliates by honoring the progress that has been made since the Center's inception in 1982. The diverse community that now congregates at the center has an ambitious agenda for the upcoming school year. While they acknowledge that progress has been made over the past quarter century, many students worry that activists will stop pushing the boundaries for people who identify as LGBT.
After a series of unprovoked violence and harassment in the early '80s, the University hired Bob Schoenberg, then a Ph.D. student at the School of Social Work, as a two-days-a-week resource for gay and lesbian students. On Sept. 12, 1982, the LGBT Center, a small hub in the Student Activities office, was established. It primarily focused on the needs of gay and lesbian students.
Schoenberg's job quickly expanded from two to three days a week, from three days to five and then from nine months to twelve. And as the Center grew, it moved from Houston Hall to Locust Walk to the Carriage House where it resides today.
In October 2000, two 1985 Penn alums, David Goodhand and Vincent Griski, donated a gift to gut the interior of the historic Carriage House and transform the Center into a state-of-the art facility. With the $2.4 million renovation completed in 2002, the Center is now equipped with meetings spaces, a library, flat-screen televisions, a kitchen, three full-time staff members - and yes, free printing.
"It's a different world from 1980 to 2008," said Miller, now Penn's undergraduate advisor of the History Department. "[In the 1980s] it was a brutal time to be here at Penn. There are times when I walk into the Center now when it still makes me choke up the fact that it even exists."
Schoenberg, who is still heading the center after 25 years, is also proud of the progress. "It has been a very long time, probably 15 years since I've heard of a student being allegedly assaulted because of sexual orientation or gender identity," he said.
"The world has changed too, not just the campus," said Schoenberg. "What role did the AIDS crisis have in raising people's conscience about gay men while we were losing them by the hundreds? What has been the role of the popular media with Will and Grace starting the fall after Ellen DeGeneres came out on her show?"
Students at Penn today acknowledge their improved situation, but coming out in a college community is still no easy task.
College sophomore Matt Feczko was raised in a traditional Orthodox Jewish family. He applied to Penn early decision, but then deferred for a year to travel around Israel. While abroad, he revealed his sexuality and came out to his family and friends.
"I went though the transition process - dyed my hair blond, came out to my parents and friends - [and] in a matter of three months, I was completely out," he said.
When Feczko arrived at Penn, he joined JBagel, a Jewish LGBT group that is part of the LAMBDA Alliance, the umbrella organization that advocates for LGBT groups on campus. But despite his family's support, his father had some reservations. "When I first came out, my father said, 'I don't want you being one of those people holding a sign being a super activist, but I realize there are a number of things that need to change and being an activist doesn't mean you're crazy. It's just being passionate about what you believe in,'" Feczko said.
Penn faculty members also benefit from the Center's support. There are close to 200 LGBT faculty members on campus and even a few new LGBT hires this year, including one professor who came here specifically for Penn's domestic partnership benefits, according to Schoenberg. Many of these faculty members teach LGBT related courses, such as Miller's The Science of Sex and Sexuality and Communications professor Katherine Sender's LGBT Representation in Popular Media.
In order to continue moving forward, the LGBT Center enlists the help of PennGALA, its strong alumni network, and Allies, a group of students who advocate for the LGBT community. College junior Sheyla Medina served as a leader of the Penn Allies community and is helping publicize issues such as marriage equality. "My role as an Allies leader is to advocate to others that LGBT issues are not strictly issues for that community, they are issues for everyone," she said.
While such activism among queer and straight students alike is reason to celebrate, there remains a drive among community members to not be complacent, especially regarding issues in the greater Philadelphia area.
"People look at me and assume I'm gay," said College freshman Clarence Moore, who characterized Philadelphia as a "hostile neighborhood" toward the gay community. Moore has been called a "faggot" by an elderly woman while walking in Center City with his boyfriend and has felt unwelcome in many of the barbershops between 40th and 43rd Streets near campus. "People in Philadelphia are openly not open to gay people," he said.
But occasionally, out of the hostility, progress is made. This past fall, a couple of incidences of homophobic hate crime at Georgetown University caused a stir on the Washington, D.C. campus. Only two weeks into the fall semester, a male Georgetown student was attacked badly enough to be sent to the hospital by an assailant who was yelling homophobic epithets such as "fag" and "faggot." According to the Georgetown Voice, over half of all bias-related incidences from the past two years have been connected to sexual orientation.
After these incidents, Georgetown reversed its practice of turning down LGBT Center proposals and announced that the university will fund an LGBTQ Center, set to open next fall. It will be the first Catholic college or university in the U.S. to have an LGBT Center - no small feat considering the discord between Church doctrine and LGBT acceptance.
continued on pg 12
While Georgetown has had active queer student groups on campus for years, those students have never had a center or hub to call their own. A physical building and staff roots an LGBT group to its campus environment, providing shelter for students looking for an atmosphere where they can feel comfortable with their sexuality. Schoenberg, director of Penn's LGBT Center, has been asked to be a consultant on the project because of his long, progressive history with Penn's facility.
With thousands of universities in the U.S., only 137 have physical LGBT Centers on their campuses, and most only have a one-person staff. "It's quite remarkable from the two or three centers that were around when I started," Schoenberg said. "But this is still a very small number."
Even at Penn, where there is a very active and visible queer community, there are students who remain unaware of the Center's activities. "Surprisingly a lot of people don't know the center exists," College freshman Enmanuel Martinez said. "One girl came in the other day who was a junior. She has been here three years and didn't know it existed." He noted that this can be both beneficial and disheartening, because it makes the community "an intimate and safe space, but at the same time [disappointing] because the resources are here and if people don't know about them they can't have access to them."
But occasionally, even people who know about the Center don't use its resources properly. Just last weekend, while Moore was lounging at the Center, a fraternity pledge walked in and asked about a meeting held in the building. He then checked the item off of a list in his hand, implying he had entered the Center only for pledging purposes. "Many of these fraternity tasks are supposed to be embarrassing or strenuous," Moore said. "Is it really that embarrassing to walk into the LGBT Center? It's annoying that a fraternity would send a pledge into the LGBT Center as a task."
Regardless, the LGBT Center has a full agenda for the upcoming year. Outgoing LAMBDA Alliance chair and College senior Kevin Rurak worked vigorously last year to further establish the foundation of the alliance, formed as recently as Fall 2005 and having board members starting only in Spring 2006. "The problem with any brand new organization as opposed to other groups is figuring out how to stand on your own two feet without overstepping boundaries and be assertive enough to work on both the administrative and student levels," Rurak said.
Rurak wanted to make closeted and questioning students "a big priority." He focused on marketing and improving the confidential questioning events that help confused students by introducing them to faces on campus and sharing resources and coming-out stories. With the help of Schoenberg, Rurak also laid the foundation for proposals in diversity training and awareness of LGBT issues for athletes as well as for university recognition of the discriminatory nature of blood drives against men who have sex with men. "Bob has been here for so long; he's seen change happen at the University," Rurak said. "If Bob wasn't on these committees, we would have to start from scratch every year."
Recently elected LAMBDA chair and College sophomore Dennie Zastrow is continuing these efforts this year, in addition to proposing a change regarding gender identification on the admissions application. The current bifurcated system leaves no fill-in-the-blank spaces or other category for transgender students who may not associate themselves with the male or female gender categories. "Gender identity is more than just male and female," Zastrow said. "The first interaction Penn [prospective students] have is out there in black and white, and it's a huge issue I really want to work on."
And for graduating seniors, to bring these ideas to fruition would be the ultimate reward. College senior KeAndra Dodds who is the outgoing chair of Queer People of Color and the current chair of PATH and QPenn, has witnessed the creation of the LAMBDA alliance and JBagel and the revival of QPOC on campus over the course of her Penn career. "Overall my experience here would have been completely different without the Center," she said. "It wouldn't have been as good." Zastrow agrees. "If I had to pick one thing that defined who I am at Penn it would definitely be the Center," he said. "It's practically my second home."
Others are just beginning their journey at Penn and their future looks bright. "When I first came out at Penn I had a lot of support from Penn community members," said College freshman and Vice Chair of Political Affairs for LAMBDA Alliance Alec Webley. "It's a great time to be gay"
