"We are Penn State!" Or so goes the familiar rallying cry.

But who, exactly, is included in this "we?"

If the members are figured by financial contribution to the university, then I am solidly among them -- having acquired the equivalent of $70,000 in degrees from Penn State, an institution that I once thought was venerable. If the university administrators' tacit acceptance of hate speech on the steps of a college building is used as a criterion for membership, however, then the message from the top is clear: LGBTA individuals are not a part of the Penn State community.

And if they aren't, Mr. Spanier, then neither am I -- advanced degrees be damned.

If this is what Penn State is, then I am not Penn State.