A rally on College Green on Wednesday afternoon will mark the start of QPenn Week, an annual celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life at Penn.
Students and faculty have arranged speakers, workshops, an art exhibition and parties for the eight-day celebration. However, organizers expect that, for students, the highlight will be appearances by Danny Roberts and Sophia Pasquis, stars of MTV's "Real World" and "Road Rules" respectively.
"They're prominent national figures," LGBT Center Director Robert Schoenberg said.
"The keynote speakers will be a big draw," added LGBT Associate Director Erin Cross.
Organizers have promised hip-hop DJs, singers, dance troupes and a drag show as entertainment, but many of the events have a more serious purpose.
Schoenberg said the week-long series of events are meant "to fuel the LGBT community, to celebrate and feel good... and to educate the general Penn community."
"The biggest problem is people not understanding who we are -- people holding frightening and discriminatory views," he added.
Event organizers seek to address this problem through workshops and lectures.
"A number of events have speakers who will hopefully enlighten people who are not part of the community about who we are," Schoenberg said.
To raise cultural awareness, an art exhibition entitled "Artfully Queer" opens on March 20 and will run throughout the week. It will feature work from both professionals and students.
"We're trying to give people experience with a professional artist who is queer," Engineering senior Michelle White said. "There's a lot of breadth and talent in our own community."
Cross added she feels the aim of the week is to celebrate the LGBT community as a whole. However, the week's former name was B-GLAD, and organizers felt one group was missing from that acronym.
"There's no transgender in that whatsoever," Cross said. "QPenn includes everyone."
"QPenn has a certain ring to it," Schoenberg added.
The name change also signifies a further attempt to erase the derogatory aspects of the word "queer."
"Over the last roughly 10 years, there has been an attempt to reclaim the word," Schoenberg said. "It doesn't put people into a narrower category."
Even some straight students are adopting the word.
"A number of people in the ALLIES group have started to refer to themselves as 'straight queers,'" Schoenberg said.
The ALLIES are "largely a group of heterosexuals who support and are working towards equality," Schoenberg said.
ALLIES is conducting two workshops to promote understanding of LGBT students.
The goal is "to educate members of the community about LGBT," said ALLIES board member Sara Fernandes-Taylo, a College junior.
Organizers said there has always been a high level of student interest in the events. In addition, the week draws a lot of Philadelphia residents to Penn.
"We hold the largest LGBT celebration in the community," Cross said.
