[Opie25]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
From the articles I've read, the percentage of gay men in fraternities is lower than 10%, and the number of lesbian women in sororities is far lower than the number of gay men in fraternities. (This of course only applies to those who are "out," since we can't do studies on those who aren't . . . ) Nobody's sure why the number of gay women is lower than that of the men, but I have a feeling it might have something to do with IFC vs. NPC rush systems -- fraternity men are more likely to know a guy or be friends with him before he goes through rush (or he may not "rush" in a conventional sense at all) whereas, with NPC formal rush, you may not know much, or anything, about a woman before rush and would be more likely to judge on initial impressions. If the only thing you know about a woman before rush is that she's a lesbian, you're less likely to give her a bid than if you know she's a lesbian, the sweetest girl in the universe, an awesome soccer player, a loyal friend and a great singer.

I'm not trying to speak for every gay person -- I know there are many who don't come out until halfway through college, or after it. But I also think it's obvious that the ten percent figure doesn't apply to every situation in life. It's likely that if you walk into a guys' ballet class, you will find more "out" gay men than if you were looking for them on a football field. Reason #1 for that: gay men feel more comfortable coming out in a situation where it's more acceptable to be gay, and where there's a precedent of those who come out being accepted. Reason #2: many people are drawn to situations where they will feel more comfortable, and repelled by those where they would feel uncomfortable. If you're a gay men, you may LOVE playing football but quit the team because some of your teammates make homophobic comments that disturb you. Or you may love football but never join the team in the first place because you're afraid that they won't accept you. Unfortunately, GLOs fall into the category of "situations where many gay people are afraid they won't be accepted." There isn't much of a precedent of people coming out at all, let alone being accepted by their brothers and sisters after they do. (Fortunately this is changing.)

I am by no means trying to say that this applies to all gay people (and I'm sure there are some gay football players out there), I just think it's ridiculous to say that just because gay people make up ten percent of the population, they will make up ten percent of ANY population.

I think that another reasons for the smaller number of lesbian women in sororities could be due to the fact that most studies that I have seen the median age for "coming out" or acceptance of homosexual identity is at a older age for women, thus after the college (and greek) experience.....just a thought.