Quote:
Originally posted by Firehouse
I really hate to see gay men being sold this bill of goods, i.e. the subliminal suggestion that if they reveal themselves or "come out" to their fraternity brothers then all will be welcoming and forgiving.
Just about the only place I can see this happening is in a chapter that is uncompetitive and low ranking already. I have seen recently on the campus where I live the effects of a fraternity pledging men who were either openly homosexual, or found out to be that way. Their rivals are unmerciful, and the members are violently split in their reactions. The individual gay members then become lightening rods for anything bad that happens.
The truth is - in spite of what the popular media implies is the norm - healthy young heterosexual college men traditionally do not want close association with open homos within the confines of a fraternity house, and are extremely uncomfortable with it.
When I ws an undergraduate, we had members in the chapter that we suspected were homosexual, but we never asked, and they had the good grace and fraternalism to play the manly role while they were in school. It's a matter of getting along and not making your friends uncomfortable.
I think Coramoor is right: gay men join fraternities for the same reason the rest of us do: friendship, social outlets, networks, acceptance of peers. If revealing their behavior is going to cause trouble, they should recognize that and simply remain quiet.
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I thank God that Otterbein isn't anything like this. Every single fraternity, the largest, the smallest, the oldest and the youngest, ALL have gay men (openly so) in them. All are given the same rights as brothers, some live in their houses and find it a very comfortable place to bond with their brothers. A good portion of the sororities also have lesbian members, who are still treated exactly the same. A member is a member, and honestly, I don't think that homophobia has any place in my bylaws or sorority. If chapter members want to start fights and create internal problems over admitting a certain member ...they can turn in their pins and hit the road, no loss to us. I'd rather have the rest of the campus laugh at us for accepting a gay member than reject the sisterhood, friendship, and service that she would offer. And asking her to deny who she for sake of some stupid tier system is asking her to be half a member. Our motto set down by our founders damn near 90 years ago says "And This Above All, To Thine Own Self Be True", and I'm not going to have our 103 year old founder coming after us for going against that motto. Ain't doin' it. We bid girls for EVERYTHING they are, not what everyone thinks they should be.
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