*This story appeared in the 2011 Joke Issue.
The gayborhood has competition — The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The DP’s most recent content analysis report, released March 31, revealed that 59 percent of the stories covered relate to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
LGBT Center director Bob Schoenberg has been “pleased with the amount of coverage the DP has provided,” and added that the DP “is practically the new Philadelphia Gay News.”
Given that Penn ranked first in Newsweek’s September ranking of the most LGBT-friendly institutions, “the DP is playing to Penn’s strengths,” College junior and DP Executive Editor Lauren Plotnick said.
For other rankings like “best Ivy League,” Plotnick said, the DP always has to report less impressive statistics. “It gets depressing to see Penn always fall behind Harvard and Princeton,” she explained. “This is something we can be really proud of.”
However, some students aren’t so pleased about the prevalence of the rainbow. “Where’s all the frat stuff?” said College junior Terd Ferguson, a brother in Gamma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. “We do cool stuff too.”
“It’s kind of … gay,” added Wharton sophomore Dan Connors, who added that he now only reads the sports section.
But others were more enthusiastic. “I love the LGBT stories,” College and Wharton junior Ursula Spinelli said. “Tyler Ernst is really cute.”
“I’d rather read about LGBT issues than admissions,” Engineering freshman Jessica Klein said. “I already got into college.”
More importantly, the DP’s coverage of the LGBT community is “a reminder that we have a lot farther to go in terms of equality on college campuses,” said College junior Corinne Rich, the chair of the Lambda Alliance — Penn’s umbrella organization for LGBT groups.
“We appreciate everything the DP’s done for the LGBT Center and Lambda,” she added.
Several students remarked that they like the extra attention the LGBT community has been receiving.
People who identify as LGBT have been “sitting in the back seat for way too long,” College senior Jordan Bloom said. “We want to kick it in the front seat.”
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