DeltAlum |
05-31-2003 01:40 PM |
Delta Tau Delta's magazine is called "The Rainbow."
It is named in honor of The Rainbow Fraternity, a small group of Southern chapters which which Delt merged many years ago -- sometime after the Civil War.
The name "Rainbow" became a controversy a few years ago because of it's symbolic use by the Gay community.
The name was changed to "1858," which is the year of the Fraternity's founding. Many of the older alums felt that the change had been made without going through the proper process -- that is being voted on by Karnea, our international conference.
At Karnea five years ago in Minneapolis, the name was changed back by an open vote of the voting delegates.
As a division officer, and voting delegate representitive of our local alumni chapter, I voted for the change back to "The Rainbow" out of respect for our former Rainbow Fraternity brothers -- and also because I believe there is no place for homophobic reactions to a word which has come to represent something different than it's original meaning for our Fraternity. In addition, I am absolutely sure that EVERY fraternity (men and women) includes gay members, whether they are "out" or not, and I don't believe there is room for discrimination of any kind in our organization. I know that's not a universally popular position on GC, but it is one I believe.
Many of our chapters still use "The Rite of Iris," which is based on the Rainbow Fraternity Ritual. It is generally used during initiation week, but is now an open ceremony.
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