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

Emory Frat Has Gay Incident

Alleged anti-gay incident at Emory frat party attracts national spotlight

By Christian Boone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Student leaders met into the night Tuesday to prepare a response. Emory University's administration also weighed in, sending a campus-wide e-mail promising an investigation into the incident, first reported by the campus newspaper and picked up by countless blogs, including the popular Gawker website.

At issue: a scuffle early Saturday morning at a frat party involving a gay student and an Emory alum. No one was injured and no police report was filed.

A year ago, the story would've likely remained within the Emory bubble. But recent high-profile incidents targeting gay youth, including the Sept. 22 suicide of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi, has started a national conversation on bullying. Now, the Emory tussle has become a part of that dialogue, merited or not.

As reported by the Emory Wheel, an openly gay student attending a Sigma Nu party was forcibly removed from the house after intimating that his alleged attacker was also homosexual.

Recent Emory graduate Adam Smith admitted being riled by the inference that he was gay and acknowledged dragging the student -- dressed in a lime green jacket, red pants and a wizard hat -- out by his neck, throwing him onto the front lawn of the off-campus residence.

The gay student, whose identity has not been revealed, told the student newspaper several of the partygoers showered him with homophobic slurs as he was being ejected -- a charge that has not been corroborated. One witness told the Wheel that, while many revelers cheered Smith on, most did not know what prompted the scuffle. Smith and his accuser did not respond to interview requests forwarded by the Emory newspaper on behalf of the AJC.

Though questions linger about the fight, the reaction to it has been swift and certain.

"This gives us an opportunity to have discussions that need to take place," said Beth Brandt, president of Emory's Student Government Association. Brandt said she was surprised this particular incident, in which no one was injured, received so much attention but, "in the context of what's been going on nationally, I understand."

In a statement sent to students and the media, Emory's senior vice president for campus life John L. Ford said the university is "supporting the student involved in the incident" and "has no tolerance for discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."

Brandt said a coalition of student leaders, including representatives of Greek and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) groups, will address the controversy in a joint letter to be published in Friday's edition of the Wheel.

"This is a very inclusive community, but Emory's not perfect and not as inclusive as it could be," Brandt said. "The incident itself is very sad, but we hope to use it as a catalyst for change."

Some students expressed concerned about a rush to judgment.

"No one really knows what happened," said Savan Shah, president of Emory's College Republicans, though he adds Smith appears to have overreacted. "Adam handled it wrong, and if people were cheering, they shouldn't have been, but we don't know that they were cheering because it happened to a gay student."

Earlier posting:

Gay Emory Student Dragged From Frat Party By Asher Smith

An incident occurring at around midnight Saturday morning - during which a gay Emory student was forcibly ejected from a party at an off-campus home inhabited by members of the Sigma Nu fraternity - has raised questions concerning the extent to which Greek life at Emory is welcoming toward the University’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community. According to the alleged victim, his admission that he was gay instigated his forceful removal from the premises. His ejection was accompanied by anti-gay slurs and followed by what he termed “affirmative cheering” from many in attendance. The student, who has not yet filed a police report and wished to remain unnamed for this story, attended the party at Sigma Nu’s off-campus house with multiple friends after first venturing out to Eagle Row. His particular choice of costume - a lime-green jacket, red pants and a wizard hat - meant that he stood out immediately among the crowd at the house, the student acknowledged. “At first, when I walked into the party, some people were taking pictures of me and appreciating, if you will, what I was wearing,” he said. About half an hour later, however, another attendee - confirmed by multiple witnesses as recent alum Adam Smith (’10C) - took the student’s wizard hat and began questioning him. “This guy approached me and asked why I was wearing my hat. ... I said that I like the hat, just as you like your pink shirt. He then asked me if I was gay, and I said I was. He then started choking me with his elbow and put me into a head lock, and he dragged me out of the party by my neck.” After the student was allegedly dragged the approximately 10 to 15 feet from the house’s common area to the door and thrown onto the front lawn, Smith was overheard telling other attendees “Hey, this kid’s a f****t.” Adam Smith tells a slightly different story. "This kid was at the party, and was acting kind of ridiculous. I went over, took his hat and started dancing around," he said. Smith then said he asked the student: "Why are you wearing this gay ass hat?" According to Smith, the student replied that it was for the "same reason you're wearing your pink shirt." Smith said that he then asked if the student was implying that he (Smith) was "f***ing gay or something." Hearing an affirmative reaction, Smith then admitted to putting him in a head lock and ejecting him from the party. College junior Sabrina Bernstein, who attended the party with the student, echoed the student's account of the altercation and of the approving reaction of those who realized what was going on. “[Someone] said something along the lines of ‘Good, now we got that taken care of,’” Bernstein said. She conceded, though, that most students at the party did not realize what was going on and did not react to what they most likely presumed to be an isolated scuffle. According to the alleged victim, most witnesses appeared confused by what happened. He said Smith then told security that he was trying to start a fight and should no longer be allowed at the party. Bernstein expressed regret that she did not call the police and report an assault but cited her desire to tend to her friend. She explained that she reached out to University administrators, including Emory University President James W. Wagner, the next day. When reached for comment, Wagner wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that he had nothing to say other than to reiterate his disappointment at what he termed an “alleged act of disrespect and intolerance.” Sigma Nu chapter President Khurram Dara wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that: “We’d like the Emory community to know that we are taking this allegation very seriously. We have reviewed the limited information made available to us in an effort to learn as much as we can.” The statement refers to the alleged victim as “an uninvited Emory student [who] was not known by anyone who lived in the residence.” The statement continues on to say that Smith was asked to leave as a direct result of the altercation. “At this point,” the statement concludes, “we believe this to be an issue of personal, not fraternity, conduct.” Yesterday, the student met with Dean for Campus Life Bridget Riordan, Director of LGBT Life at Emory Michael Shutt and Director of Greek Life Buck Cooke. Riordan would not comment specifically on the content of her meeting with the student but said: “Any student on this campus who feels in fear needs to reach out, and we need to try and get that student help. He believes he was treated terribly, and we need to do something about that. So we’re going to try to support him any way we can because our students always need to feel safe.” Riordan added that it was fortunate that the student came to the proper administrators. “Any time any of our students are assaulted or harassed because of who they are we have to take very strong action, and that’s why I’m appreciative that he has come forward. We have to keep a safe community here for everybody, and we need to do everything we can to make sure that everyone feels safe here,” she said. This occurrence follows on the heels of several high-profile incidents at a number of American universities, including the Sept. 22 suicide of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi. While in a previous Wheel article Emory administrators conceded that instances of violence have been less visible on Emory’s campus, Michael Shutt, director of LGBT Life at Emory, acknowledged then that the effort continues to implement policies, provide resources and develop programs aimed at providing Emory with an inclusive atmosphere. When contacted yesterday, Shutt said that he was still in the process of gathering information and did not wish to comment at that time. Bernstein, for one, expressed a belief that Emory’s Greek life is in need of further education. “I think it’s something that could have happened at - not every fraternity, because there are differences between the fraternities - but I think there are definitely some fraternities where it would not be completely surprising that it would happen. I guess what was so surprising was the physical nature of it. I would not have been shocked by verbal abuse. You hear things, you hear hate and discrimination from people’s mouths, especially amongst the fraternity population.” Bernstein added that specific fraternities do not provide a particularly welcoming environment for gay individuals. “We talked about going to another fraternity that evening, and [the alleged victim] said that he would not be let in. ... I think there are definitely fraternities that are known for being discriminative not only against gays, but against different people in general.” When asked about this issue specifically, Riordan mentioned the fact that a significant number of Emory students who have participated in Greek life at Emory are openly gay. “It’s not uncommon for someone to bring a [same-sex] partner to a formal or to an event,” she said. However, she acknowledged that the need still exists to provide education for students both in and out of Greek life. “We have new people every year. Every year we have another class of students. And so that’s when we tend to realize that we may have everything going well with some people, but it has not hit everybody yet,” she elaborated. When asked about Greek life at Emory as it pertains to gay students, Cooke - who is in his first semester working at Emory - declined comment, saying that he was still in the process of learning about Emory culture. http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=28899 http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/alleged-anti-gay-incident-696280.htm

Ohio University Gays and Greeks Develop Play

Gays team up with greeks to eliminate group divides
4/14/2010 11:53:00 PM	Email this article • Print this article
Actors and actresses in Gays, Greeks and Grape Juice perform in Baker University Center Theatre last night as part of Pride Week. (John Nero PICTURE EDITOR) Callie Driehorst • For The Post • cd234008@ohio.edu An audience packed into Baker University Center Theatre last night to watch Gays, Greeks and Grape Juice, a play about two distinct groups of friends. The performance was part of Pride Week, which is sponsored by the Ohio University LGBT Center and was funded by the Greek Programming Council. About 220 people attended Gays, Greeks and Grape Juice starring Joseph Klocke. The plot centered on how a group of greek friends and a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered friends worked together to write a play. In the process, the students not only realize how inaccurate stereotypes can be but also that what they share in common is what they had thought divided them. Dustin Page, a graduate student studying college student personnel, wrote and directed Gays, Greeks and Grape Juice. Page said that although previous programs have tried to connect Greek Life and the LGBT community, attendance had been low. "We're hoping to bridge the gap between the two groups by sharing what we have in common with them," he said. Chauncey Jackson, a senior studying political science and former Student Trustee, said he wanted to see the interactions between the two polarized groups. "Even though I'm non-greek, it's good to see them coming together for greater good. ... It's important for OU to be a safe place for all students," he said. Mickey Hart, director of the LGBT Center, said that problems arise when people rely on stereotypes when making judgments. "The lesson of the play is that we rely on stereotypes too broadly ... you really have to be critical of any form of stereotype," he said. "... Some people fit stereotypes, but not everyone does. ... It's important to draw on those stereotypes to point out how false they are." Rosalyn Robinson, a junior studying organizational communication, attended the play because of her involvement in Greek Life. "Fraternities are just seen as so masculine and sororities are seen as so feminine. It's a common misconception that gay people wouldn't belong. There's no perceived in-between and that's sad," she said. Page said the most important thing is the LGBT community has allies - people who support the LGBT cause - at Ohio University. "If greeks can be allies, anyone can," he said. http://thepost.ohiou.edu/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=31302&SectionID=3&SubSectionID=5&S=1