I've talked to many Penn alumni in my lifetime: I am one of twelve members in my family who has attended Penn. I've heard stories about Greek life, athletics, and academic departments from the turn of the 20th Century. When it comes to LGBT history at Penn, however, my family has no stories. To the best of my knowledge, I am the first gay person in my family to attend Penn. It's strange that the LGBT community has become such a large part of my life, but that I can't share generational stories with my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents when we talk about the red and the blue.

When I was asked to produce a video for the Center's 25th Anniversary, I was excited not only because I love producing, but also because it gave me the chance to talk to past and present Penn students about their experiences in Penn's LGBT community, rather than general Penn experiences. As an undergrad, I spend most of my time discussing the current LGBT community with students my own age; I rarely get to compare my experiences with both experiences of LGBT Penn alums, and of current faculty and staff. Everyone has a unique perspective of the past, present, and future of Penn's LGBT community.

I prepared a set of questions for my interviews that I presumed would be suitable for everyone, only to find the very opposite. I had prepared questions such as, "What is/was the LGBT community at Penn like for you personally? How has the community changed, and where do you see the community going?" I found, however, that these questions were better for current Penn students, and the questions had to be reframed for alumni, faculty, and staff. When I asked one alumnus what it was like for her to be out in college, she informed me that she had been engaged to a man while she was at Penn!

Some seemed to take my question about the future of the LGBT Center and community more seriously than others. A few undergrads, faculty, and staff members discussed the need to continue tackling discrimination both internal and external to the community and the need to increase LGBT awareness in admissions publications and applications; they saw the future of the LGBT community as only becoming larger and generating more acceptance in the Penn community. Some people wondered if there was much more that needed to be done because of how accepting they believe our university already is. One undergrad said he saw "LGBT robots and scooters" in the future of the community. This was quite an eclectic bunch.
The LGBT Center seems to be a different resource to almost everyone I've interviewed thus far. For many of the alumni, the Center was seen as an innovative and daring; advocating for a community that was at the forefront of creating equality during the 20th Century. Present students seem to view the Center more as a welcoming community of resources they are thankful to have for their organizations to promote awareness and acceptance. From many of my interviews I've realized that perhaps the type of use of the LGBT Center and resources by its community is changing for the better: students still love to come to a place where they feel they are welcomed as part of a family, but they don't feel like they can only express themselves at that one location. I think the credit for this change has to go to the Center and the staff, faculty, and students that have fought to make it what it is today.

The video is catering to all members of Penn's community, including current and past students, faculty, and staff. One of the things I continue to think about while I produce this video is what kind of image I am creating for the LGBT Center and community. As an advocate for the LGBT community I have often said the LGBT community transcends all other communities at Penn. Because of this, there is technically no image that can represent the entire community. Because of this, I've tried my hardest to get viewpoints from as eclectic a group of individuals as possible, and seem to be doing well in that respect.

If I can take anything away from my experience with producing a 25th anniversary video for the LGBT Center, it is that everyone has a unique view of past and present events, places, and people. When I ask what memories people have of the LGBT Center, I get a spectrum of answers ranging from social events to panel discussions to small talks shared in the library. As I said in the beginning of this blog, I've heard many stories from my family about life at Penn in the last century, and I've felt connected to these stories because I am family. I also feel connected to the stories being told by people I may have never met or only spoken to several times, because I also feel we are family. I believe like there are two Penn histories I can connect with, and the production of this video has brought me closer to one of the two.