As the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community enters the last month of planning for its March QPenn gay pride and awareness week, a lesser-known group is putting the finishing touches on an event to further dialogue about its mission.
The two-year-old Penn's Athletes and Allies Tackling Homophobia and Heterosexism will sponsor a talk by sociologist Eric Anderson, who has conducted extensive research on the experiences of gay athletes.
For PATH co-Chairman Paul Farber, the event is a way to start a dialogue that he feels is lacking on campus.
"Homophobia is insidious in terms of language and action when dealing with athletics, but perhaps a bigger problem is invisibility and silence," the College senior said. "Homophobic fear affects athletes, whether they are gay or straight."
A former varsity track athlete at Penn, Farber recalls approaching his head coach within the first two weeks of practice and informing the coach that he was gay.
"The coach said enough to show he cared, but he didn't follow up," Farber said. "Organizationally, he didn't have anyone to point me to."
During his first semester on the squad, Farber only revealed his secret to one of his fellow teammates. He found his environment hostile to gay individuals, often hearing the word "faggot" thrown around in practice.
In a "dog-eat-dog" environment in which "everyone was vying for spots and popularity," Farber said he found himself trying to be someone he was not. Later on in the year, he quit the team.
"I knew that I couldn't keep up the double life," Farber said. "It was too much of a burden to bear on my own."
Soon after leaving the team, Farber approached then-College freshman Karrie Moore, a lacrosse team member, about starting a club based on their respective experiences in athletics.
In the spring of 2003, the two formed PATH and met with the Athletics Department to voice their concerns.
Since the meeting, Farber said, the Athletic Department has had a "hands-off" attitude toward the issue, putting its name on flyers announcing a PATH-organized event with gay Olympic swimmer Mark Tewksbury and giving PATH space for a QPenn panel discussion, but not much else. According to Farber, when Penn Athletics did bring in a sports psychologist to discuss issues of diversity in athletics, PATH leaders were not consulted.
Athletics spokeswoman Carla Zighelboim said that PATH members were not contacted because the Athletic Department usually does not "affiliate itself with student groups on campus."
She said that the Athletic Department encourages coaches and administrators to have an "open-door policy" with student athletes and that it sponsors programs, such as the recent one involving the sports psychologist, to "sensitize our coaches and administrators to create an open and welcome environment."
"The Athletic Department should be held accountable to the same standards as every other arm of Penn," Farber said. "If you have a problem with your class schedule, they'll handle it; if you are sick, they will get you the best doctors, but if you are lesbian or gay and you ask someone what you should do about it, unless they have experience in the subject, they won't know where to point you."
College senior Eric Boschetti -- who was a Penn cheerleader up until his junior year -- said that when he first arrived on the squad, before coming out, he was uncomfortable with the male cheerleaders' "hyper-masculinity" and the locker-room banter about girls.
Once Boschetti decided to come out to his team, though, he was surprised with the positive responses. Boschetti's teammates even put LGBT pins on their bags during away games and kept them on despite heckling from opposing fans.
Moore, who was already out in high school, says that her team has been extremely accepting of her sexuality.
"I talk about having a girlfriend in the same way they talk about the guys that they date," she said.
Women's lacrosse head coach Karin Brower said that much of the atmosphere regarding sexuality on a team is dictated by the tone of the coach.
"The coach has a lot to do with how a team acts," she said. "When a coach doesn't say anything, the girls get the feeling that the coach is fine with comments that shouldn't be made."
Brower said that while hearing from a sports psychologist was helpful, she thinks the athletic community would greatly benefit from hearing current and previous lesbian and gay student athletes share their experiences.
