"We hope the center becomes a welcoming and safe environment for LGBT people at Penn," they wrote. "We also hope that it will be an information resource for them offering guidance on everything from safe sex to job searches."

Schoenberg said Penn has long maintained a reputation of progressiveness and acceptance with regard to the treatment of gay students on its campus. He calls the center "groundbreaking--there's nothing like this in the country."

In 1979 Penn implemented its policies against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, four years before Harvard organized the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus.

Schoenberg, who is also chair of the National Consortium of LGBT Resources, said Penn is also one of about 60 institutions of higher learning in the United States that has a professional staff dedicated exclusively to working on LGBT issues.

Harvard does not have a professional staff that works exclusively on gay and lesbian issues, according to Ria Gautreau-Tabacco '03, a Bisexual Gay Lesbian Tansgender Student Alliance (BGLTSA) board member.

Gautreau-Tabacco said she wished Harvard would begin to offer resources like Penn's.

"There is a general current of homophobia that just doesn't often come to fruition [at Harvard]," Gautreau-Tabacco said. "The homophobic Winthrop and Mather incidents exhibit that. The gay community is often isolated. It will be a long time before Harvard provides that type of resource."

The LGBT center at Penn also boasts plans for a reading room, space for all of the gay and lesbian related programs on Penn's campus, a kitchen and a terrace and garden.