Fraternity life, often considered the ultimate venture into masculinity, has been a staple college experience for generations of young men. But does a world dominated by beer and brotherhood appeal to members of today's gay community?
For sophomore Patrick Armstrong, diverse sexuality and fraternity life are not mutually exclusive.
Armstrong, who is pledging Phi Kappa Psi this semester and is openly gay, originally had qualms about joining a fraternity.
"You can never anticipate how people are going to react to your sexuality," Armstrong said. "I was worried that I might be outcast or treated differently because I'm gay, just like I'd feel in any new setting."
Armstrong had already told his friends and family that he was bisexual when he was 18 - to lessen the blow, as he put it - and finally came out as gay over the summer. His news was received with widespread acceptance.
"I lucked out big time in the amount of support I got from friends and family. Oftentimes coming out can destroy friendships and tear families apart," Armstrong said.
Armstrong had wanted to get involved in Greek life since his freshman year, and he decided that the bonds of brotherhood and support of a fraternity were worth a minor foray out of his comfort zone. Despite his early reservations, Armstrong was ecstatic to find that his sexuality was a non-issue once he received his bid.
"I felt 100 percent accepted by all the brothers and pledges, which was awesome," Armstrong said. "Everyone treated me the same before knowing and after finding out I was gay, which was exactly what I wanted."
But while Armstrong immediately felt comfortable among those at Phi Psi, not all fraternities at Hopkins seem to draw in other openly gay pledges and brothers.
"In our fraternity, there are no openly gay brothers that I know of," Jake Meth, the recruitment chair of Alpha Epsilon Pi, said. "I'm not sure why, although fraternities tend to have an assumed 'bro' atmosphere that hasn't attracted much interest among the gay community."
Greek life at Hopkins, especially in the fraternities, typically provides a forum for fostering a sense of community and closeness for those not involved in other organizations. But according to Keshav Khanijow, the director of operations at Hopkins's Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance (DSAGA), the brotherly bonds promoted by fraternities may not be all that attractive to members of the gay community.
"Fraternities tend to be a male-dominated culture with male bonds limited to friendship," Khanijow said. "Gay guys can have guy friends, but we want to date guys too, and you would never, ever date a brother."
Khanijow added that some members of the gay community at Hopkins could be concerned about their straight brothers' reactions to and perceptions of any differing sexuality.
"A gay person could be slightly intimidated by going into a completely straight world that has only recently made it acceptable to be gay," Khanijow said. "There is always the potential that having an interaction with a gay male may make straight brothers uncomfortable."
While it seems on the outset that the staunch heterosexual atmosphere purported by fraternities would lead to discrimination against those of more diverse sexualities, many of those currently involved in Greek life insist that they would not have a problem with having a gay brother.
"Sexuality doesn't matter to us," Andrew Brandel, Sigma Phi Epsilon's recruitment chair, said. "We've had brothers who have come out in college or before rushing, and some of my brothers have come out to me."
In fact, Max Dworin, a sophomore brother in Alpha Epsilon Pi, considers the close-knit atmosphere created by a fraternal organization to be a safe setting for those who need support to come out.
"Anyone [in AEPi] is my brother and my friend, and I would hope that any fraternity in particular mind would embrace someone coming out, since it's something to do in a certain environment like this," Dworin said. "I think being in a fraternity would be a good way to bring it up if coming out were an issue for someone, or at least I should hope it would be."
However, not all members of the gay and lesbian community at Hopkins think Greek life organizations cultivate tolerable conditions for those who are either in the closet or out in the open; some, in fact, consider the University's Greek system to be uncomfortable for those of diverse sexualities. One gay student, who wishes to remain anonymous, considered pledging a sorority until she realized that the values upheld by the predominantly straight sisters did not match her own.
"Most of my friends are in Alpha Phi and Theta, and they hang out at fraternities on weekends, which is not necessarily a community in which you feel comfortable in terms of sexuality," she said. "I know closeted girls in sororities and they aren't able to come out and feel welcome in their groups of friends."
She also noted that fraternities provide particularly difficult environments for gay men.
"This sounds terrible, but the idea of a gay [fraternity brother] is weird," she said.
Rob Turning, director of Greek Life, maintains that the Greek community at Hopkins is welcoming to members of the gay community.
"Guys have come out to their brothers and have been pretty well supported," Turning said. "There have been no incidents in the past five years, nor has there been any [noted] discrimination."
But while members of the Greek community claim they would be supportive of a gay brother, some admit that their fraternities might not be the best environment for anyone who is gay.
"While I wouldn't have problem with it, people might feel more pressured not to come out in our fraternity because our conversations are more directed towards heterosexual things. There's not much we can do about that," sophomore Alex Morrison of Beta Theta Pi said.
Even Armstrong, who is also involved in DSAGA, does not see a lot of interaction between fraternities and sororities and the gay community.
"I don't know of anyone else in DSAGA who is involved in Greek life," he said. "I'm not actually sure that there are a lot of gay people involved in Greek life."
Khanijow, who says he knows of at least one closeted brother in every fraternity, maintains that there are some fraternities and organizations that are very accepting of members of the gay community, and that not everyone should feel that Greek life is closed to them.
