The Student Activities Council General Body will vote Feb. 18 on whether to fund Penn's Athletes and Allies Tackling Homophobia.
The SAC Executive Council voted last week to recommend PATH as a newly recognized syndicate. According to College junior and SAC Chairwoman Natalie Vernon, the General Body agrees with the recommendation "99 percent of the time."
To receive SAC funding, Vernon explained, groups must fulfill three main criteria: sustainability, uniqueness and value, the last of which she admitted was the most subjective.
She added that PATH seems to contain all three of these necessary traits.
The group - originally founded as a task force in 2003 - works to fight homophobia in sports and provides support for athletes and allies looking to do the same.
"Communicating that you support someone and their sexuality is so important," said College junior Anna Aagenes, who is co-chairwoman for both PATH and the Queer Student Alliance. "It needs to be something that is not just left unsaid."
PATH's mission is to support and create a safe environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning people in the athletic community, as well as to educate athletes and coaches and build and maintain ties between athletic and LGBT communities, according to the group's constitution.
In the past, the group has received both support and funding from the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, as well as alumni donors, to help meet these goals.
For example, SAAC sponsored Pride Games, an event spearheaded by Aagenes for QPenn and used to facilitate games between athletes both within and outside the LGBT community.
Recently, however, PATH has found the need for more extensive and consistent funding.
Though this is the group's sixth year on campus, it only recently applied for SAC recognition. College sophomore and PATH co-chairwoman Kelsey Wolfe emphasized that this was because of the group's small size in the past, rather than fear of not getting recognition.
Because of its increasing size and publicity on campus, the group now requires more than the occasional financial support from SAAC and alumni donors, Wolfe said.
Aagenes remarked that the group's growth represents a change in attitude from the traditional disparity between the athletic and LGBT communities.
She added that, not only LGBT athletes, but also allies can become targets of discrimination and prejudice, and that she hopes the group's upcoming "Week of Visibility" will contribute to a display of unified support against these negative sentiments.
PATH Founder, former 34th Street editor and 2005 alumnus Paul Farber expressed pride in the new possibility of SAC recognition and the increasing number of active members in the group.
"This group has really grown and will stay on campus," he said.
