Gay fraternity party
On a cold, stormy September night in 2018, my 14 fraternity pledge brothers and I received this ambiguous text from one of our pledge masters:
“Tonight’s education meeting is canceled. At 11pm, you will all load into three of your cars and drive to the destination I send you. Transport a first aid kit, five jugs of fluid, three shovels, and a triangular-shaped candle. Dress in all black.”
My mind raced with questions. What could this mean?
An hour later, my palms choked the steering wheel of my Ford pickup truck as I drove from our fraternity house at the University of Southern California toward an unnamed mention in Manhattan Beach. In the car with me were four of my pledge brothers.
“It’s got to be beach-related,” said a brother from the help seat, his voice barely audible over the rain pounding on my windshield.
“Maybe it’s a dwelling party,” another suggested.
“It’s definitely not a house party,” the one in the passenger seat countered. “We’re getting hazed tonight, boys!”
A knot of anxiety tightened in my stomach. This moment, shrouded in uncertainty, mirrored the complex feelings I’d been wrestling with since joining the fraternity three weeks earlier. As t
Recently, it has come to my attention that more and more openly male lover men are joining fraternities. As a first-generation, lgbtq+ student from the rural North, I understand the appeal of joining a fraternity. I’ll be straightforward , I even tried — to no avail — to rush as a sophomore. Finally being standard by a group of masculine straight men would be a dream arrive true to a juvenile gay kid who never fit in. Gay people throughout time have had to make their have families, and I comprehend the appeal of wanting a group of friends you can call your “brothers.” But that is the same reason I am glad I did not receive a invite. I realized that I was trying to arrive a sense of hyper-masculinity or aggressively male deed that I felt I lacked for being same-sex attracted. This internalized homophobia is a struggle for many younger gay men. It is also why I believe so many younger white gay men are joining fraternities now.
But, is that sense of validation worth contributing to a system with a history of violent racism, homophobia and misogyny? The other day I watched a TikTok where an openly gay white fraternity brother joked about how he has to make sure that girls know that they are “safe” around him because he i
Tennessee students say they were kicked out of frat party for being gay
The University of Memphis has opened an investigation after two students claimed they were kicked out of an off-campus fraternity party and berated with homophobic slurs for being gay.
“We were just wanting to have a night out for fun,” one of the students, sophomore Benjamin Buckley, told WMC News 5, NBC’s local Memphis affiliate.
Buckley and Luke Chapman, a senior exchange pupil from the United Kingdom, said they went to the party Friday with a group of friends. They were then approached by several male students who they say forcibly pushed them out of the house and into the rain while yelling anti-gay slurs.
“When he chucked us out, it was something along the lines of, ‘You don’t associate here, f----t,’” Chapman said of one of the students who physically removed Buckley and him.
Buckley said one of the men looked at him and said, “I’m going to beat the f----t out of you. I’m going to beat the experience out of you.”
After they were able to locate their friends and quit , Chapman went home that night and wrote a Facebook post about the incident. He said he was amazed by the response he received the following
What It’s Like Being in NYU’s Gay Frat
I recognize what you’re probably thinking — NYU has a gay frat? What even is a gay frat? What does that even mean?? Do you all just hook up with each other???
And the reply is (obviously, given the title), yes, NYU does indeed have a lgbtq+ fraternity. It’s actually the largest chapter of Delta Lambda Phi, which is the largest and fastest growing queer fraternity in the world. And while we are social fraternity in the most elementary understanding of the synonyms — hosting philanthropy events (such as our annual Drag Show), weekly meetings for chapter, and sharing a nice, lovely, “brotherhood bond” — we’re also quite different from the typical conceptions of a fraternity. Instead of organism defined by characteristics of what most people perceive fraternity life to be all about (hazing, sexual harassment, misogyny, etc.), we’re defined by the specialness of queer friendship.
Not to sound too overly-sentimental and basic, but there really is something unique about queer platonic relationships. It’s as liberating and empowering as much as it is fun and occasionally messy. Many of us grew up living closeted lives, havi
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