Students turned out in large numbers on Monday night to attend “Out and Greek,” a discussion forum about “coming out” as gay or lesbian while being involved in a fraternity. The forum, organized by the Gallagher Infirmary and the Order of Omega greek honor society, featured nationally recognized lecturer Shane Windmeyer. Those in attendence included members of fraternities and sororities, gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, and other members of the Rensselaer community.
During the hour and a half interactive presentation, Windmeyer used humor and real-life examples to help explain the “coming out” process for men and women in greek letter organizations. He related this to his own experiences of being a gay member of a fraternity at Emporia State University. Windmeyer is the coordinator of the Lambda 10 Project, a national clearinghouse for gay, lesbian, and bisexual greek issues, and is also the co-editor of two books about “coming out” in a fraternity or sorority. Out on Fraternity Row is a compilation of stories of men who come out in their chapters, and Secret Sisters is the sorority equivalent. During his career, Windmeyer has visited over 100 college campuses to spread his message of tolerance to greeks.
“I think that this is an issue that is all too often pushed aside or ignored but should be just as important as any other equality or tolerance issue,” said Skyla Loomis ’02, a former president of the Panhellic Association. “It helps to raise awareness, and I thought he did an excellent job of stressing that each of us, gay or straight, needs to stand up for each other and speak out against those who are intolerant.”
“I could not help but think about how strong my own brotherhood is and whether it could withstand the subject,” said Travis Lull ’05, a brother of Lambda Chi Alpha. “It also forced me to reflect on my own behavior and outlook and come to a few realizations—one of which was that I may not be as ‘sensitive’ to the issue as I previously thought.”
During the presentation, students were asked to challenge commonly held stereotypes of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Windmeyer also asked students to think of what it might be like for their fraternity brother or sorority sister to come out to them. In addition to his greek involvements, he is currently developing an on-line resource for gay, lesbian, and bisexual student organizations called Campus PrideNet. (the resource can be found at www.campuspride.net.) Earlier in the day, Windmeyer worked with the new Safe Zone program and met with Safe Zone allies at Safe Zone’s first annual reception.
“Out and Greek” is the latest student-driven program to come to campus this year and is part of an effort to improve the diversity climate at Rensselaer. The event marked the first time in the past several years that an openly gay speaker visited the RPI campus. Last month, students organized “V-Day” and a performance of The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness of women’s issues on campus. These events have helped Rensselaer to become more aware of its own diversity and more sensitive to the differences among members of the student body.
