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Teaching an Old Dog New TricksPicture this: a junior in college; chair of his school’s undergraduate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender organization; out to his family and friends for over three years; appeared several time in his school’s newspaper in the context of his homosexuality; and an employee of his school’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender resource center. Sounds like someone who is very out and extremely comfortable with himself, right? Not necessarily. This man is me. I came out to my family during September of my senior year of high school. I have been involved in PENN’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance (LGBA) since my freshman year. I have been a work study student at the LGBT Center since January of this year. Since coming out, I have been in three significant relationships. Until the end of this summer, I thought I was as out and comfortable with myself as possible. Something happened, however, that made me realize otherwise. As most people who have had any contact with me at all over the past few months know, I am currently involved with a freshman at Penn State named Ryan. I met him only days before he left for college. He seemed very comfortable with his sexuality as we came to know each other, which led to my surprise when I learned that he had come out only a few months prior to our meeting. At that point, his father didn’t even know — only his mother. He had come out to several of his friends just that summer, and, as is usually the case, word spread like wildfire among others from his high school. 
A week after returning to PENN for the beginning of the fall semester, I took the bus to State College to visit him. As we walked around Penn State that weekend, Ryan wanted to hold my hand. One might think that a trivial act as holding hands in public would indeed be trivial for one of the most out people at PENN. However, holding Ryan’s hand in public did not come as easily to me as I would have hoped. Despite my unexpected apprehension, I held his hand. After all, I had been out and active in the queer community for three years; surely I should be comfortable with it. Ryan and I held hands all over campus, including down a long strip of shops and diners on College Avenue affectionately known as “Downtown.” Friends of his were surprised that we did this. They expressed their concern for our safety, especially on College Avenue where a student had recently been beaten up outside of Chumley’s, a gay bar. Nevertheless, we continued to hold hands no matter where we ventured on campus. We were heading downtown, holding hands as usual, one Friday night in November when we came across a group of students walking in the opposite direction. It was obvious that some of them had been drinking in preparation for the football game against Michigan the next day. As he approached, one guy in this group described what should be done to Michigan using a very colorful expletive. At that point, he looked down, noticed our joined hands, and said, “Whoa… you guys aren’t gay, are you?” By the time he had finished his question, Ryan and I had let go of one another’s hand in order to allow the man to pass between us; then we rejoined. We laughed as the group continued on behind us, and amused several of our friends when we recounted the story later on. I have caught myself scanning the area and people around me when Ryan and I hold hands. I notice that I consciously avoid eye contact with people who pass by. The bottom line is that I am not as out and comfortable with it as I had thought. This realization came to me as quite a surprise. 
I realize now that, while I am perfectly comfortable with my name appearing in a queer article in the Daily Pennsylvanian, I still have some progress to make in becoming comfortable with person-to-person encounters. Being out in words and being out in actions are, for me, two very different things. In the beginning of my relationship with Ryan, I thought he would be learning from me and my experience being out for the past three years. While that is indeed true and I am helping him become more and more comfortable with himself every day, I am also pleasantly surprised to be learning from him. I guess I had forgotten what it was like to really be out. There is an element of being out and visible that can only be achieved when one is in a relationship. A man walking down the street waving a rainbow flag around will turn a few heads, but two men holding hands will turn many more. The man with the rainbow flag is merely announcing his sexual orientation, whereas the couple holding hands is acting it out and celebrating it. So it looks like I will be relearning what it means to really be out, and from a rather unexpected teacher. I am perfectly happy to learn. ~Kurt Klinger, junior Computer Science major from Pennsylvania Schoenberg Elected National ChairIn November, LGBT Center Director Bob Schoenberg assumed the position of Chair of the National Consortium of Directors of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resources in Higher Education, after having served for a year as Chair-Elect. His term of office continues until November 2001.
The Consortium is comprised of about sixty people who direct programs, offices, or centers which offer LGBT resources at colleges across the country. The organization’s mission is “to transform higher education environments so that LGBT students, faculty, administrators, staff, and alumni/ae have equity in every respect.” Three main goals shape the organization’s projects. These are support and mentoring to colleagues doing LGBT-related work, consultation to higher education administrators aimed at improving campus climate and services, and advocacy for institutional policy changes and program development which recognize the needs of LGBT people. The organization meets twice a year, most recently in conjunction with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference in Oakland, CA. The Spring meeting will take place in early April in Washington, DC at the conference of the American College Personal Association. Bob indicates that he welcomes the opportunity to serve as Consortium Chair because he supports their mission and believes he can contribute to its advancement and also because his service will bring greater visibility to PENN’s LGBT Center, one of the most advanced programs of its kind in the country. Recently Bob said: “In its choice, the Consortium is not only expressing its confidence in me, it is also recognizing the services and programs of PENN’s LGBT Center and the significant achievements of its professional and student staff.” Taking Stock, Planning for the FutureChange is coming. No, not Y2K or anything that dramatic. Like all growing organizations, the LGBT Center has to keep up with the times in order to meet the changing needs of our consumers. With this in mind, the Center staff and advisory board are looking at what we have done, how we have grown, and what our dreams are for the future. In light of this change, the Center is undertaking a major market research and strategic planning process supported by a grant from a pair of PENN alumni. The research and planning is being led by Laura Otten, Ph.D., a senior consultant with the LaSalle Nonprofit Management Development Center. Jason Klugman is working part-time at the Center as a research assistant and the project is being overseen by Center Director Bob Schoenberg. The market research effort includes a series of focus groups that are designed to get both a sense of what the Center is doing well, and what efforts it needs to improve upon. It is envisioned that the focus groups will reveal new ideas for programming and services that the Center may work to develop over the coming years. Another way we are gathering data is through on-line surveys. Next semester, we will have a link from the Center’s website that will take users to a survey geared toward gaining baseline knowledge on how well the Center is meeting the needs of its consumers. In the Spring, the research information will be reported to the advisory board and will be used as the foundation for decisions in the Center’s strategic planning process. Ideally, we will have a strategic plan that outlines the Center’s programmatic goals and service initiatives, both new and revised, that will guide the activity of the Center for the next five years. If you would like to be in a focus group or give feedback on your experiences with the Center, and expectations for its future, contact Jason at ~Jason Klugman, doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education from California On the Surface: Was I to be the Only One, Black and Female?How does one enjoy the qualities that embody her/him that are so distinctly different from others? How does one understand the importance of being different, yet being open to identify similarities among those whom are different than him/herself? I have continued to ponder these questions since the beginning to my social work internship at PENN’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center. If one looks on the surface of the center, one would see a place that looks mostly white and male. Where were the women and the people of color? I must admit, in my first analysis, I was not pleased about the prospect of being around mostly white males. I need diversity in my life and that need has always allowed me to create the kind of “family” that embraced me for who I am. 
However, my experience at the LGBT Center has allowed me to think about a few of my concerns. I realize that it is first important to reflect, learn about yourself and most importantly to love yourself, regardless of the negative stereotypes people may hold. Upon such a reminder to myself, I was able to remain open to learning from those who seemed to be so different than myself. I have since learned more about the people who work at the Center and the people who use the Center. They are wonderful, friendly, energetic, political, and conscientious people. They embraced my presence and I believe that there has been reciprocal learning about the differences and similarities that make up who we are. I, by no means, am saying that diversity of race, class, and gender are not important. As a matter of fact, the inclusion of these groups, I would suggest, is pivotal to the growing success of the Center. I know in my reality, I often like and need to see people who look similar to me. It helps me in my process of feeling safe, safe to expose myself and be who I am without fear of persecution. In a place such as the LGBT Center, it is necessary to work to include these differences. I would like to leave you with two questions: What can the Center do to be more inclusive of difference? What can be done to transform the LGBT Center to reflect the differences that exist in our community and the differences that exist in the LGBT community? I am sure the inclusion of these differences will bring new life to the Center and make it a more inviting place for all. ~Karlene Burrell-McRae, social work intern at the LGBT Center and Associate Director of the Greenfield Intercultural Center OUT & In-Focus: Shelly Alpern '87When I hear the terms “investment management”, ‘financing” and “merger,” the image that comes to my mind is of money hungry moguls and cutthroat corporations looking for more “money, power and respect” by any means necessary. Yet, all of humanity is not lost in the trenches of capitalist corporate America. Shelly Alpern is a testament to the higher evolution of social consciousness that has infiltrated the business world. Alpern, a Pittsburgh native, was drawn to PENN by the allure of Wharton. She states, “I knew my intellectual interest but I didn’t know what I wanted to do.” She had always desired to go into business but Wharton just seemed dry – “[Wharton] didn’t turn me off; it just didn’t turn me on.” Instead of staying at Wharton, Alpern matriculated into the School of Arts and Sciences and majored in International Relations. While at PENN, Alpern was “selectively out.” She found the student population to be hostile toward sexual minority students so she stayed within her own network of friends for support. Despite the animosity she may have felt from the undergraduate community, many of whom she said, “still acted as if they were in junior high,” she did feel that the University as a whole offered a good support system. Outside of the classroom, Alpern also had time to develop and refine her interests. Aside from her place in PENN’s orchestra and her involvement with a women’s group on campus, she was active around many political issues. During her undergraduate years, she did a lot of work surrounding the political dissension in South Africa. Eventually, however, her attraction to Russian culture, sparked by a class she took in high school, led her toward Russian politics. She wanted to be a part of the Soviet Peace Movement. Though financially unable to study or travel abroad, during her junior year she found an internship that allowed her to work in a think-tank finding resolutions to political strife in the Soviet Union.
Through her post undergraduate work with non-profit organizations, Alpern began to see that business and social responsibility did not have to be separate. As a result, she pursued graduate studies at the University of Texas in Public Policy. From there, Alpern moved on to the Trillium Asset Management Corporation, where she works today as a share holder activist. Alpern explains that “Trillium is committed exclusively to socially responsible investing. [It] is the leading innovator in shareholder activism, research, social screening, and community-based investing.” Trillium is the perfect outlet for her to apply her business skills in a way that would complement her drive for social activism. Currently she is representing the shareholders effected in the recent Mobil-Exxon merger. Mobil offered benefits packages for unmarried couples; this included same-sex couples. However, since the merger, Mobil-Exxon has terminated this policy. Alpern is working to make sure that the policy be reinstated. “I am literally paid to be a gay rights activist!” There is no doubt in Alpern’s mind that she will be with Trillium for some time to come. The company is young and small, consisting of about thirty employees, with room for growth. Additionally, Alpern was just recently promoted to the position of Assistant Vice President. Trillium’s workplace provides a comfortable atmosphere for sexual minorities who, percentage wise, are very well represented. However, Alpern did speak of a need for more racial diversity within the company. Her solution to the this dilemma is to make sure that Trillium posts job openings in places more accessible to a larger diversity of people because “we need to be more aggressive in how we recruit.” For those interested in a company that reflects social responsibility and activism, Trillium is the place to be. They have opportunities for both internships and full-time career possibilities. Alpern is also eager to find people interested in working with Mobil-Exxon project. If you are interested in working with Trillium, you can contact her Everyone has a contribution to make to society – Shelly Alpern reflects just that in her work and ambitions. People do not always have to “make money just for the sake of making money.” Our individual pursuits in life can be just as socially significant as financially rewarding. Even in the business of making money, one can find a way to make change. PENN should be proud to claim graduate who lives that philosophy to it’s true potential. ~Ninah Harris, junior sociology major from New York Not Just Another DepartmentIt has come to my attention in the past year that I like to take courses with queer content or themes. It also has come to my attention that considering the size of the University of Pennsylvania there are relatively few of these courses, and even fewer that concentrate entirely on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or trans-gender concepts and issues. The student body, however, is lucky to have a few of these courses taught per semester – enough that the LGBT Center can compile and list them on our web page — but I’m sure that this is not enough. Many individuals are unaware of the exact nature of Queer Studies and its goals. Queer Studies is an inter-disciplinary field whose goal is to analyze anti-normative sexual identities, performances, discourses, and representations in order ultimately to destabilize the notion of normative sexuality and gender. This field of study comes out of a critique of identity politics. It represents a decon-struction of impressions of sexual and gender categories within straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities. In Queer Studies, the interpretation, portrayal, and destabilizing of sexual identities are linked to that of gender categories. Such a description of Queer Studies calls for a far more comprehensive field of study than is already present at PENN. Many of the courses with queer content spend a few lectures primarily discussing queer issues, and the two or three courses based entirely around queer issues are not enough to reach the aforementioned goals. These courses, for the most part, do not expect the students to understand the pur-poses behind Queer Studies or its goals. A slight alteration to include Queer Studies in the curriculum would greatly advance the intellectual community at PENN. If you have read this far, you have must have some form of opinion about Queer Studies, be it for or against. I encourage you to take an identified queer course to see what it is all about — no matter your opinion. My hope is that enough people will take the queer courses already offered at PENN so that the University will recognize the need for a Queer Studies department. ~Michael Hartwyk, junior Sociology major from New Jersey Photography
~Ilana Tannenbaum, junior Psychology and Sociology major from South Carolina Poetry5:35 have i seen every time with you ~Laura Alden, freshman English major at LaSalle University Feet my body moves to this beat ~Laura Alden, freshman English major at LaSalle University The editorial staff of OUTlines seeks submissions from members of the Penn community. Poetry, stories, essays, and articles are all welcome. Inquiries and submissions should be sent to: 3907 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-6031 (215) 898-5044 center@dolphin.upenn.edu http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/lgbtc OUTlines is published by the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center at the University of Pennsylvania. OUTlines is a forum for reporting news and expressing thoughts of interest to the lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual community as well as the general community at Penn. |
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