Among rainbow balloons and flags, Penn students gathered on College Green Wednesday for a rally in order to celebrate the beginning of QPenn.
A number of students spoke to visitors and passersby about the lesbian gay bisexual transgender community from varying perspectives -- inter- national, religious and mainstream. Yet all advocated for the same things: continued questioning and increased awareness.
"Our hope for QPenn is to help everyone at Penn to keep questioning, and never be satisfied with what you have," College senior Paul Farber said in his speech.
Farber is also co-Chair of the group Penn Athletes and Their Allies Tackling Homophobia and Heterosexism and a QPenn organizer.
In addition to decorations, organizers set up a table and handed out flyers, buttons and T-shirts to passersby. QPenn speakers lectured from a podium near Locust Walk.
College junior and QPenn co-Chair Phil Cochetti told the audience to realize "this fight doesn't end."
Cochetti, among others, spoke of the need for the LGBT community to be heard and seen.
"The LGBT Community at Penn is active, though not widely heard around campus," he said. "Reaching a diverse crowd- straight and LGBT alike is mutually beneficial."
One possible solution to Cochetti's concerns was offered by College sophomore and QSA Board member Alexis Howe.
"I think it is important for students to take courses that address and teach queer content and question other professors about doing the same thing or expanding the topics they cover to include LGBT issues," she said from the podium.
Awareness may only be achieved if students can "bridge the gap between the mainstream and the LGBT community," said Howe in her speech.
College senior and QPenn co-Chairman Eric Boschetti read University President Amy Gutmann's statement for the rally, in which Gutmann echoed the same sentiments: "No, we have not yet dispatched ignorance and prejudice toward sexual and gender minorities to history's dustbin. But this year's QPenn celebration is an encouraging sign that we are well on our way."
