Gay profs see subtle and blatant prejudice, but mostly progress

When Theodore Burnes, an openly gay professor in the Graduate School of Education, married his partner in Vancouver last month, he wasn't worried about facing discrimination when he returned to campus.

Likewise, Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics professor Robert Carpick married his partner five years ago in Canada. He said his partner has been "welcomed into the fold" at the University and accompanies Carpick to faculty events.

Faculty and staff were also supportive of Mike Felker, a professor of Computer and Information Science, when his partner faced medical problems this year. They even helped out by delivering meals.

But for other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender faculty members, being open about their sexuality doesn't always come so easily. Some simply don't feel comfortable meshing their personal and professional lives, and others report actual discrimination on the job.

Emma Furth, a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, said whether or not she feels comfortable talking about her partner depends on the company she is with.

Although she insisted she would never lie about her sexual orientation, she may not reference it "on a day-to-day basis in the hallways."

"I'm probably a lot more reserved than I would be if it were a different situation," she added, explaining that talking about her partner would be more "acceptable" if she were straight.

Furth also said she was nervous about coming out to her colleagues and waited until after she was granted faculty status to do so.

And she is not alone. Burnes said he has spoken with colleagues who don't feel comfortable bringing their partners to work-related functions for fear that their department head will find out they are gay. Some even fear losing their jobs.

Other faculty and staff, like librarian David Azzolina, say they sometimes feel uncomfortable listening to their straight colleagues describe their more conventional families.

Although he said he doesn't mind hearing about his straight co-workers' spouses and children, and said that he doesn't hesitate to talk about his own sexual orientation, he would like his colleagues to ask more about his personal life.

"Being part of a minority means that in some way, you're always going to feel a bit alienated," he said, but he is glad to have a welcoming and receptive environment at the library.

'Subtle' discrimination "My general sense is that there is homophobia in the world," said English professor Heather Love. "There's no place that's really immune from those kinds of dynamics."

She added that discrimination exists in different forms and can be subtle. Sometimes it's more a "lack of sensitivity" than what is often considered discrimination.

For example, Love referenced a wall of baby photos she has seen in a department office at Penn.

"It's the kind of thing that can create subtle pressures on people, both gay and straight, who don't have children," she said. "Sometimes people aren't aware how some small thing like that can be taken."

Furth said that at the School of Medicine when a woman enters the emergency room with a child, she might be asked, "Where's the father?"

People don't realize that families can have diverse structures, she said, adding that efforts are being made to train students not to make familial assumptions.

But she said patients are also asked about marital status in several ways, including patient-admission forms. Partnership status is not listed as an option on these forms.

Medical School professor Peter Kanetsky said he has heard stories of search committees asking questions about marital status when considering job applicants.

"Someone's marital status should be independent of their ability to do the position," he said. "The reason why you're asking would be to find out, one, if they're married and, two, who they're married to."

Policies and benefits While some discrimination does appear, most agree that Penn is progressive compared with many of its peer institutions.

Penn has a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.

And since July 1, 1994, Penn has offered domestic partner benefits. According to LGBT Center director Bob Schoenberg, Penn was the first major employer in Philadelphia to adopt this policy.

As a result, the same-sex partners of lesbian and gay employees receive the same benefits as heterosexual husbands and wives.

The domestic partner benefits policy has "made us a model for recruiting faculty regardless of sexual orientation," said University President Amy Gutmann.

In fact, Carpick said he left the University of Wisconsin, where he worked before Penn, because they lacked such benefits.

But the largest amount of support for gay faculty and staff - and students, too - comes from the LGBT Center.

"A center that makes visible the issues and the presence of [LGBT] students and faculty at Penn, I think, goes a long way toward challenging heterosexist narratives of the academy or of society in general," said English professor Melissa Sanchez, who is not gay but is on the Center's list of faculty affiliates. "I'm grateful to be at a university that has that."

Gutmann called the Center "the single greatest indication of how welcoming Penn is as a campus."

'Fire the homosexual' The University didn't always have such progressive policies though, and the attitude on campus wasn't always as positive as it is now.

For Azzolina, who has been at Penn since 1986, one incident of discrimination sticks out.

In 1989, Van Pelt Library had a suggestion box which Azzolina was charged with maintaining.

One student - acting anonymously, although Azzolina was able to deduce his identity - left a comment that read, "Fire the homosexual at the Reference Desk. I don't feel like getting AIDS. (Or force him to wear an Apollo space suit.)"

"I was a little nervous about it," Azzolina said. "I mean, anyone who would hate someone they didn't even know that much - that borders on violence."

To Azzolina's chagrin, his boss did nothing about the incident.

"She didn't get how scary that kind of thing can be," he said.

Nearly 20 years later, acts this offensive may be rare, but they still happen.

Kanetsky said he has heard stories of medical students in the operating suite listening to the surgeon say, "Oh, another faggot."

"Maybe there's a pink triangle tattooed on his arm or a biohazard symbol indicating HIV infection," said Kanetsky. "And then the surgeon would make some derogatory comment about the guy or the woman's sexual identification."

This kind of incident contradicts "the professional and academic integrity of the University," he added.

Out of the closet Whether discrimination is subtle and unintentional or blatant and offensive, everyone seems to have a different idea of how to combat it.

Schoenberg thinks the University needs to actively recruit out gay faculty, while Love thinks Penn should increase the presence of LGBT issues in the curriculum.

For Furth, the next step is to change national policy and then urge people to act on a grassroots level.

Sanchez, to some extent, agrees. She said the idea that marriage is the most legitimate relationship structure discriminates against same-sex and opposite-sex couples alike.

She even said that she and her husband "never intended to get married" because "marriage is a discriminatory institution." They only decided to marry after Sanchez ended up in the hospital during her first year at Penn, ensuring that her husband could visit and take care of her.

Kanetsky said he made "a concerted effort" about two years ago to be more open at work, and he encourages his gay colleagues to do the same.

"We need to get out of the closet," he said. "We need to provide an environment for individuals who otherwise might feel unsafe, to feel safe."

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