Get involved at the LGBT Center!

There is still time to apply to be on the LGBT Center's Advisory Council! We are looking for graduate and undergraduate students specifically.

http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/lgbtc/files/LGBTCCounilApp2012.doc

As a leader of religious life at Penn, Chaplain Howard discusses the open and affirming religious community at Penn.  Get more info at http://www.upenn.edu/chaplain/.

The Queer Ladies at Penn is a new student group devoted to fostering a social community of queer undergraduate and graduate women and allies on campus.  Get more info at www.queerpenn.com.

Check out the line up of events for this years QPenn.

Chestnut Hill College, a Catholic institution is Philadelphia, has fired a dedicated professor upon discovering his sexual orientation. George St James is an openly gay man who diligently taught theology at the local Chestnut Hill College. He enjoyed his position at CHC and is comfortable with his sexuality.  James is out to his parish, a church that allows diversity among its priests, in Blue Bell, PA and is in a committed, 15 year long relationship. His life was tremendously changed after receiving a letter of termination from the institution containing no explanation. As an out man who had been teaching for two years, this situation was very surprising and upsetting for him. His termination has enraged students and locals alike.

Chestnut Hill College, an institution that promotes diversity, released a statement claiming that when St James “decided to make his private life public,”  and that the information that the administrators discovered was “contrary to Roman Catholic teachings”. The school claims not to have known that St James was gay until reading his blog, which contained a post about his 15^th anniversary with a same-sex partner. The school is also claiming that the fact that he is gay is not the reason why he was not offered a new contract with the school, but that his recent public statements (on the blog) “regarding his same-sex partnership are at odds with the beliefs and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church”. The college states later in this statement that “regardless of personal beliefs, all members of the college should respect and uphold our values”, alluding to the idea that they would only accept him if he were to keep himself closeted in order to appease the Church.

Find more information here!

http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/2011/02/25/chestnut-hill-college-fires-openly-gay-priest-professor/

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7984460

http://www.chc.edu/News/2011/February/statement_regarding_jim_st_george/

Sadly, what the college did, though morally wrong, is legal in the state of Pennsylvania.  Check out these articles for information regarding sexual orientation and employment

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20101224_Without_state_law__Pa__towns_take_on_bias_against_gays.html?c=r

http://epgn.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Status+of+employment+and+rights%20&id=9359329

This evening, the LGBT Center hosted and LGBT scholarship event featuring past recipients.  A big thank you to everyone who came to the event, especially the presenters, who all provided both in-depth background on their particular scholarship as well as tools and tips for all those applying this year.  Some of the scholarships featured included the Lax Scholarship Fund, The Point Foundation Scholarship, The Sapphire Fund and Independent Business Alliance Scholarship, and the Leslie Townsend fund.  For more information about these scholarships and other scholarships available to LGBT students, please see below. 

This link will take you to even more scholarships available to LGBT students and allies http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/gay.phtml.  

Leslie Townsend Fund

The Leslie Townsend (“LT”) Fund is administered by the University of Pennsylvania Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (“LGBT”) Center and is intended to benefit transgender individuals making a transition from male to female or female to male. The LT Fund is intended to assist current Philadelphia-area college and university students, with preference given to students at the University of Pennsylvania.  Grants from the LT Fund are to be used for expenses related to making the transition, such as, but not limited to, hormones, therapies, surgeries, legal matters, and school-related costs.  Decisions about who receives grants are made by the full-time staff of the LGBT Center in consultation, as necessary, with the lead donor and relevant others, following receipt of the application and, when indicated, an in-person interview. Application forms will be filed by those requesting grants and will be accepted on a rolling basis.  Forms will provide basic demographics and explain the applicants’ specific needs and why they believe they should be given a grant.  Individual grants will be no greater than $500 (and could be less) with no person receiving more than one grant of any size per fiscal year (July 1-June 30). The amount and number of grants will be determined each fiscal year based on the current total amount of the Fund at the start of the year.  It is anticipated that the Fund will grow, including as a result of efforts by the lead donor and the University to secure additional contributions to the Fund.  It is hoped that the Fund will grow to the point that it can be established as an endowment, with the interest earned covering grants given each year.

Please contact Rebecca Schept at reschept@upenn.edu for an application or pick one up at the event.

The Lax Scholarship Fund

 The Lax Scholarship Fund was established in 1994 by the late entrepreneur and inventor Jonathan R. Lax for the purpose of encouraging out gay men to be active leaders in their communities and to obtain higher education.  The Lax Scholarship for Gay Men is open to out gay men who are from the Philadelphia area or who attend school here.  The deadline is right around the corner, on Tuesday, January 18^th.
www.breadrosesfund.org/go/lax

Point Foundation

 The Point Foundation is the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students of merit. Individuals enrolled in either an undergraduate or graduate program, beginning or continuing in the fall of 2011, are eligible to apply.

Point Foundation (Point) provides financial support through multi-year scholarships, leadership training, mentoring and hope to LGBTQ students who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The organization provides its scholars with the financial ability to attend the nation’s foremost higher educational institutions and its donors and mentors with the rare satisfaction of directly investing their resources and time in future generations of leaders.

Online applications will be accepted up until February 11, 2011. Point’s scholarship application is ONLY available online.

www.pointfoundation.org

 Sapphire Fund & Independence Business Alliance

The Sapphire Fund and the Independence Business Alliance are proud to announce the first annual Business Scholarship Award, presented by Merck.  Sapphire Fund, in continuing its long standing history of championing the multifaceted needs of Philadelphia area LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS organizations, has partnered with the IBA to create a scholarship to benefit a local, undergraduate student currently enrolled in a business related discipline within the Philadelphia region. 

Support for this program comes from Merck and generous individuals in the Philadelphia community.

http://www.independencebusinessalliance.com/scholarship

Wii Wednesdays begin on January 19th!  Join us from 4-6pm for Insomnia Cookies and Wii.