National gay fraternity Delta Lambda Phi starts rush at Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter BALTIMORE (U-WIRE) -- Delta Lambda Phi, the only national gay fraternity, began its fall rush last week for its new Baltimore chapter. The membership will consist of male students of all sexual orientations from colleges and universities in the Baltimore area. Founded in 1986, DLF already has 17 other chapters across the nation, mostly concentrated along the West Coast. The idea of a "progressive" fraternity, said Wade Price, governor for the northeast region and an alumnus of DLF's original chapter in Washington, D.C., arose in response to a lack of social outlets for gay college men. Traditionally, gay bars have provided the only major social outlet for such students, but "DLF provides an alternative to that for meeting friends," Price said. The fraternity is "modeled on the Greek system" of other fraternities, continuing the tradition of rush, pledging and initiation into the brotherhood. But there is a strict no-hazing policy. "Gay men are hazed, in a sense, by society as a whole," Price said. Another variance from the traditional fraternity archetype is that many chapters are based regionally and not on specific campuses. For example, Price, who graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1991, was a member of the D.C.-area chapter. One side effect of this multi-college emphasis is that very few chapters have a fraternity house in the conventional sense. "In established chapters, we'll have a house or apartment, where at least two brothers live, that serves as a focal point for the group to hold meetings and host social events," Price said. In Washington, D.C., for example, seven DLF brothers live in two adjacent rowhouses, forming an ad hoc fraternity house. With few exceptions, DLF chapters have encountered very little homophobic reaction from campuses around the country, Price said. Ironically, it is the "traditional" gay community that provides the most resistance to the notion of a gay fraternity, he said. "There have been some negative reactions [from the gay community], but not a lot," Price said. "Some say it is wrong to impose an 'oppressive' structure on a gay environment. Some are opposed to fraternities on the basis of their being exclusionary and discriminatory." Delta Lambda Phi, however, "does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation." While Price was a member of the Washington, D.C., chapter, there was one bisexual DLF brother and even two straight members. "They were friends of the brothers and didn't like the straight fraternities on campus," he said. "They even brought their girlfriends to fraternity events."

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