Emerson College fraternity members raise money for one brother’s gender reassignment surgery

Regardless of your opinion about the subject of this news item, I think we can agree that this is very much NOT the action of a "frat boy" stereotyped fraternity chapter.

Emerson College fraternity members raise money for one brother’s gender reassignment surgery

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Members of an Emerson College fraternity are raising money so one of the fraternity brothers who is transitioning to become a man can get gender reassignment surgery, a college official said.

Donnie Collins, class of 2015, was denied insurance coverage this month to remove breast tissue and restructure his chest, said Jason Meier, director of student activities at Emerson.

Collins is now being helped out by fellow members of Phi Alpha Tau, “guys in the fraternity who care deeply about one of their brothers,” Meier said.

As of this evening, they had raised $11,455, Meier said. That was above the brothers’ goal of $8,100.

“They’re doing whatever they can do to help him out,” Meier said. “One of the things we are always talking about at Emerson is being a caring and just community. And the brothers of Phi Alpha Tau recognized this and, in turn, cared about him and accepted him as who he is.”

Collins was born female, but has presented himself as a male since he began attending Emerson, Meier said. He has been undergoing hormone treatments for 14 months. When he joined the fraternity, the brothers knew he was transgender, Meier said.

Colony of gay and ally sorority founded at Berkeley

New colony of sorority founded by students

By Mary Susman

Each weekend last year, current UC Berkeley sophomore Sydney Lai would go to fraternities with friends, where she would flirt with guys and enjoy her nights - all the while playing a game with her identity.

Lai is a lesbian, and although she said she likes the satisfaction of fooling men at fraternity parties into thinking she is attracted to them, the game bores her after awhile. Yet much of the Greek scene is focused around heterosexual lifestyles, sometimes leaving students who identify as queer feeling disenfranchised.

"Aside from the sisterhood, which is what attracted me, a lot of the socializing is with frats, which is for me I guess just wasting that time," Lai said. "I don't want to spend all my time flirting with guys."

So Lai founded her own lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally sorority colony of Gamma Rho Lambda this semester with a mission to reclaim what it means to be both a sorority sister and a queer woman.

"What binds us together is not so much our sexual orientation, but the fact that we advocate as well as identify with that group," Lai said. "We wanted that sisterhood."

Gamma Rho Lambda was founded in 2003 at Arizona State University. Zina Alam, vice president of communications for Gamma Rho Lambda National Sorority, said after becoming the "only nationally-based, active queer and ally sorority" in 2006, it now has 11 groups nationwide at both liberal and conservative college campuses.

"Some schools, they already have a lot LGBT groups, so they want something more," Alam said. "Some don't have any. They call (the sorority) the safe zone, they call it their second family and it's the only family that understands them and accepts them for who they are in more conservative communities."

Group membership for each chapter ranges from eight to 30 members, according to Alam, who said the sorority has gained about two new colonies a year since 2006. The national sorority also receives two to five inquiry emails a week from students wanting to start their own chapters, she said.

"We just let people come to us," Alam said. "We don't go out and colonize. The people at the universities have to help recruit and be motivated themselves."

The campus Gamma Rho Lambda colony - which will become a chapter after three semesters - was recognized nationally in February with an alpha class of 18 students.

"The sorority has become my life," Lai said. "Honestly, I spend probably more time on this than I do on classes."

Although the sisters live separately, they have weekly meetings and are planning for a service project in the future. As the alpha class, the group has added responsibility. According to Lai, everyone has to go through new member education like any other new sorority, except for one difference. While they learn the Greek alphabet and their sorority drinking song, they also learn about queer issues.

Lai said the group is already becoming close, especially after internal bonding activities, which range from hikes to karaoke nights at a sister's apartment to a screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The sorority is joining an already active queer community at UC Berkeley - there are over 10 student organizations for queer students - yet the founders of Gamma Rho Lambda believe the sorority provides a unique space for queer women.

"A sorority is a lot more serious. A club, you can come and go, and you don't really feel that involved," said sophomore Melissa Gioino, one of three founding "mothers" of UC Berkeley's colony. "A sorority - it's more of a commitment."

While Gamma Rho Lambda is the first queer sorority at UC Berkeley, it is not the first queer organization within the campus's Greek system. A gay fraternity, Delta Lambda Phi, existed briefly in the 1990s. Currently, Sigma Epsilon Omega, a gay fraternity founded in 2007, has 40 active members, according to junior James Kealohi, president of the fraternity.

"It's nice to have a group of friends that share the same values and opinions as you," Kealohi said. "At the end of the day, SEO is a tight group of gay people and close friends."

Kealohi said he rushed various fraternities and considered joining a traditional one, but when he went to his first rush event at Sigma Epsilon Omega, he knew he belonged there. After one year, he became president.

Sigma Epsilon Omega, Kealohi said, was immediately accepted within the Greek system, and several students within the Greek community said it is generally accepting of queer students.

Sophomore Sean Oh, Interfraternity Council vice president of external affairs, said he has never heard of any conflicts within UC Berkeley's Greek system between queer and straight students in fraternities, but he encourages the formation of queer-specific fraternities.

"Every house has an individual culture," Oh said. "If they want to start their own, that's fine. It's all about where you fit in."

At the same time, Oh said no effort is made to be inclusive specifically of queer students. Yet many, including sophomore Jonny Park, say the environment of UC Berkeley is uniquely accepting of queer students compared to other campuses where queer students are more frequently rejected from the Greek scene.

Park, who identifies as a guy who likes guys, is a pledge of the fraternity Theta Chi, a traditional social fraternity. He said he never planned to pledge a fraternity, though he did rush SEO.

"I understand the need for LGBT-specific frats and sororities, but I personally don't necessarily believe in them," Park said. "I feel like fraternities and sororities should be frats and sororities - they shouldn't be gay or straight."

Park said he thinks having openly gay brothers is beneficial for traditional fraternities because it exposes everyone to different perspectives.

"I hear of a lot of people who are in the closet and are afraid to come out of the closet," he said. "I feel like these are brotherhoods - they're not straight frats - and once you're a brother, you're family."

Gioino is currently the only non-queer sister in Gamma Rho Lambda; she has been a queer advocate ever since some of her close friends came out during high school.

Nevertheless, Gioino said that being a straight student in a lesbian sorority means she often has to defend her own sexual orientation. She said her friends and family members often ask "Are you gay? It's okay if you are," although most do not trust her answer.

Moving forward, Lai said they will integrate more into UC Berkeley's Greek community by having fraternity exchanges because the sisters "want to fit in with what sororities do," Lai said, adding that there are girls in the sorority who are attracted to men. The group also hopes to gain recognition as a sorority for queer women and those who do not fit in with traditional sororities.

"We were a bunch of queer women who knew of other queer women, but we didn't identify with the specific cliques," Lai said. "I guess, in a way, we formed our own clique."

http://www.dailycal.org/article/112646

Penn to Adapt LGBT-focused Member Education

Fraternities to adapt LGBT-focused member education

By Eillie Anzilotti

This year’s new fraternity members will have a better understanding of what it means to be gay at Penn.

A new member education program designed to promote sensitivity toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the Greek system is currently in the works.

A similar program began two years ago, according to the then-Interfraternity Council President David Ashkenazi, who graduated from the College and Wharton in 2009. However, the LGBT education workshop was not featured last year.

Currently, the LGBT Center, the Interfraternity Council and the Lambda Alliance - Penn’s umbrella organization for the LGBT community - are combining to educate new fraternity members about showing acceptance to brothers who identify as LGBT.

“It’s a two-way problem,” College freshman and Lambda Alliance Vice Chair for Finance and Development Hugh Hamilton said. “On one hand, there are some - not all - houses that have a less supportive atmosphere. On the other hand, a lot of LGBT people are very apprehensive about rushing. We want to make sure frats are open and accepting toward LGBT members.”

While this year’s program focuses specifically on educating fraternity members, a similar program is anticipated for sororities in the future, according to Hamilton.

Discussions are also underway to create an LGBT and Greek constituent group under the Lambda Alliance.

“The LGBT members of the Greek system need representation,” Wharton junior and incoming IFC President Harris Heyer said. “We need to know what the demand for that type of group is.”

The proposed constituent group would “send a signal to people outside the Greek system that it is an accepting place,” said Engineering and Wharton sophomore Andrew Staniforth, who expressed interest in joining such a group.

Meanwhile, there has been debate among LGBT fraternity members concerning the necessity of the LGBT new member education program.

College senior and Phi Kappa Sigma, or Skulls, fraternity brother Adam Thompson said, “this training isn’t necessary” because the new member education process itself “does a great job fostering relationships and instilling brotherhood.”

He added that having a program like the LGBT-focused education “might encourage homophobia.”

However, LGBT Center Director Bob Schoenberg noted that there is “definitely a reason to encourage sensitivity” through the education program.

Discrimination against LGBT members in fraternity houses can be “subtle,” he said, adding that members may not be fully cognizant of its occurrence.

College junior and Vice Chair of Political Affairs for the Lambda Alliance Victor Galli said the situation in fraternity houses may differ for gay members who are “out” and those who “change their public sexual expression after they’ve already been in the Greek system.”

The program aims to promote sensitivity toward “those who are not only out of the closet but also in,” he said.

Heyer emphasized that the LGBT education program reflects the nature of the Greek system on campus. “We are supposed to make everyone feel welcome, because they are,” he said. The program is “a way we can make our freshman aware of our mission as an organization developing good citizenship.”

http://thedp.com/article/fraternities-adapt-lgbt-focused-member-education