LXA - UND Allegations of Gender Discrimination
 

Wow. I seriously hope this is not true, because this is heinous.

Yikes.

I heard about this too and was so revolted. I'll wait to see what the investigation uncovers, but if there is any substance to this then I think heads should roll...

Also, this isn't really gender discrimination so much as sexual orientation or sexual identity/expression discrimination. Or, more plainly, accusations of a hate crime.

I for one will wait and see what the out come will be!

LXA chapters have had gay members such as my own and was treated with respect!

If this turns out to be true, I will be very disappointed in my fellow Brothers!

Yes, Tom, me too. My son is an LXA and this would not reflect his chapter. I think nationals will investigate this thoroughly and act appropriately, if action is needed. They don't tolerate misbehavior.

I am sure I H Q will check this out thoroughly and then make a recommendation.

If it is true, this goes against ALL principles of L X A. I would then be first in line to suspend them and kick out the / those members. I have always told my guys, if I find out any hazing problems I will call I H Q myself!:o

Apparently their alumni advisor is an openly gay man, and personally knows all the members in this chapter. The advisor says he was welcomed "with open arms", that his being gay wasn't something the chapter tried to avoid. He says the members ask him all the time about his spouse and children and how things are going. So it'll be interesting to see how this story develops.

I have a cousin who is a member of this chapter, and I believe the sitting North Dakota Attorney General (an upcoming gubernatorial candidate next year) is also an alum of this chapter.

Some chapters just have dumbass members who should not have been initiated in the first place, but somehow slipped through the cracks.

--it'll only get worse as we move to eliminate pledging.

Many RM problems involve alcohol. What people say when sober verses when "boozed up" is totally different.

Regardless, unacceptable behavior

Kevin, just to remind you that LXA outlawed hazing @ 1985 and seems to be working out very well.:)

True, any chapter will have dumb assed actives and I think an Alumni group should be on top of something like this and quash it in the bud! Here is when I point out that Alums are still important part of any GLO.

Kevin, you and I are a lot in sync on 100 % of things and I thank you for your post!

Well this is an interesting twist at the end. I wonder if all the media who were so happy to spread the word about a possible hate crime involving a fraternity will just as eagerly run a follow up about the supposed "victim" being the actual aggressor and making false reports to police. :rolleyes:

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news...ght-police-say

Any chapter which is part of the FIPG likely banned hazing while I was still in diapers. Banning dumbass, risky activity isn't going to end it. The fact is, our collegiate members are only members for 4 years. They depend on alumni for their institutional memory. If alumni show up to the house to show them bows and toes and to sing racist basement songs, that will be the culture of the chapter.

Kevin,
that is so true!

My chapter is blessed with a great Alumni group who would not put up with any stupidity in any kind of hazing!

You being a founder probably did the same as i did, NO Hazing.

But old line chapters who hazed, I am sure that the mentality of hey we were hazed and if good enough for us, it is good enough for current members. These thought must stop!

--or at least they should be allowed to die out before recolonizations happen.

I can't say I'm totally surprised by the turn of events. We saw something similar happen with ZBT at UF. A fraternity is a very easy and believable target of these accusations--in part because so many of these things actually happen.

So many of what things? Homophobia in fraternities is a huge issue, and I do not doubt that at many given campuses (if not most), bids are denied, flamboyantly gay members are not admitted to parties, etc. But this man alleged he was ganged up on, unprompted, by several men, punched in the face, and stripped naked. "So many of those things" do not actually happen. At my alma mater, which wasn't exactly Ole Miss but was an extremely large, traditional, and stereotypical Greek school, a chapter that did the above would be absolutely unthinkable. Subtler displays of homophobia, unfortunately, would not. Not to say violent, homophobic assault hasn't happened in places (although still, that would have been utterly unthinkable in my chapter and campus), but I think we are doing a huge disservice in terms of moving chapters forward by dramatizing the issues our systems have. By holding that incidents like this are what we are talking about, we are steering away from the real discrimination that happens on a day to day business...ie, comments like "Well he's chill, but do we want to be known as the house with a gay pledge?" and "Well if we bid him, I don't want him in the showers" etc.

This reminds me of the UVA rape debacle, in which the story was run about several men coordinating and premeditating an attack in which the victim was raped repeatedly, punched, cut by glass, etc. People were quick to jump on that story too, which to my ears as somebody who has been in a fraternity sounded patently absurd and completely made up. It turned out to be false. Similarly, I don't disbelieve the fraternity culture has rape issues, but it seemed from my time on the college campuses that many of them were issues of questionable consent/drunk consent/between friends. The idea of anybody in my chapter meeting up to discuss luring a woman to our house and beating her up is so beyond plausible, however, the idea of some of my brothers getting a little too drunk with a girl and taking silence for consent is not. We need to work on fixing the latter attitude.

I think the media jumps on the most extreme stories because they meet a public perception that people have, whereas many of the issues actually in the fraternity system are of a far subtler (but no less insidious) nature. I think we are going to see something similar with the UCLA "Blackface" party, where it is becoming more and more apparent each day that no actual blackface occurred. However, that is not to stay that subtler issues of discrimination, like parties that may lead to ethnic stereotypes, need fixing here. But students and media labeled it blackface before any proof was found, and no such proof has actually appeared.

And of course, after these chapters are smeared through the mud, no public retraction ever gets even a tenth as much of attention, and these students are left as guilty in the public eyes, all the while losing the opportunity to correct subtler issues of discrimination, sexism, racism, rape culture etc that may have actually existed in those chapters.

Your mileage may vary tremendously, of course.

DTD Alum:

So true! The old adage of where there is smoke there is fire run rampant when it comes to anything Greek.All we hear are negatives and very damn little of the positives of what each and everyone of us accomplish with our charity works that continue yearly. While I cannot talk about others, I am proud of LXA and their millions of pounds of food that is donated for the less fortunate. Not to sound like an egoist, but in my mind, we are some what elite because of all what is done by us on Campi all over the country! Where would schools be with out Greeks at Home coming, sporting events, community service, and at the schools. Then throw into the mix of a better GPA than school average the I would say we are some what elite not cookie cutters of any kind! If so, so be it!!!
I for one get tired of half truths until the prove to be true! I stand by my fellow Greeks and I hope each of you do also!

Now that the university has had its say, it appears this case is officially closed.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news...ars-fraternity

This fake, trumped up incident is disgusting to me on so many levels. All the wasted resources and ridiculous outrage because of a big fat liar.

That is normal in todays generation!

Guilty before proved innocent. And this is especially true when it comes to the Greek community!

We need to be much more aggressive legally. The University, I think, did nothing wrong, but the gentleman leveling the accusations needs to be sued.

Agree 110%

This situation has shades of what happened at UVa last winter. Something happened, but it wasn't what it seemed, and it was too provocative for the media to ignore or report objectively.

In this case, what happened was the guy was drunk, became belligerent, and refused to leave the fraternity when asked to do so.

I'll just say this about my own chapter.. and we're not even that old. Fraternity men go to law school in droves. If we ever experienced anything remotely like this incident with my chapter, we would sue the hell out of anyone and everyone we could and there would be so many lawyers at the plaintiffs' counsel table we'd be borrowing chairs from all over the courtroom.

I don't understand chapters like the above which do not sue. It truly boggles the mind. This is not about financial recovery, this should be about sending a message that Greek organizations are not soft targets for outrage warriors to attack whenever they want to rage against the machine. Especially when they want to do so with completely made up facts.

Actions have consequences, hippies.