Undoing Greek
homophobia

My sexuality has never been an issue for my fraternity brothers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining Phi Sigma Kappa, I made it clear that I would not hide it, and they accepted me as a brother anyway. But other fraternities are not as accepting. A close friend of mine was assaulted by his "brothers" when they found out he is gay. So I decided I had to do something to combat Greek homophobia on campus. I founded Greek Allies as a means to build a bridge between two communities that have traditionally been linked only in secret. Any gay fraternity brother who was "straight until graduation" would probably agree this was a long time in coming. I received the support of Dan Bureau, the assistant dean of students and coordinator of Greek affairs at Illinois, and at the beginning of the school year we started to spread the word. I facilitated our first educational workshop, which was a milestone in our efforts to raise awareness in the Greek community. Our success was most evident on the national Day of Silence a few months later. More than 210 representatives from 33 Greek chapters on campus spent an hour and a half at a special "Out and Greek" presentation. After the event, Rick Nowak, vice president of membership development for the Interfraternity Council, said, "Many of the attendees were chapter presidents, and they will be able to relay [to their fraternities] the importance of treating LGBT members like any other brother or sister." Now, as the school year comes to an end and I move on to spend my senior year studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I am confident that Greek Allies will continue. I hope that the positive experience I have had as an out gay fraternity brother will become less the exception and more the norm.