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:: Greek Frat Tradition has Strong Root in Homosexuality Page 1 of 3

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*THIS PIECE IS DIRECTED AT BLACK

FRATERNTIES AND SORORITIES (A PHI A,
ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA, KAPPA ALPHA PSI,
DELTA SIGMA THETA, OMEGA PSI PHI, ZETA
PHI BETA, PHI BETA SIGMA, SIGMA GAMMA
RHO, IOTA PHI THETA AND ANY OTHER
AFRIKANZ WHO DON'T KNOW THEY
HISTORY — THAT BEIN' A BLACK GREEK IS
AN OXYMORON!!
- M'Bwebe, DGT CEO

Among the usually lame messages left by

fraternities and sororities on campus
sidewalks, there have been some
interesting phrases left by Western
Michigan University's new colony of the
national fraternity for openly gay and
bisexual men.

Delta Lambda Phi's official national slogan

is "What others hide in shame, we boldly
embrace with pride," despite what the sidewalks say. With 20 active chapters across the country, Delta
Lambda Phi is proving homosexuality and fraternity life can actually mix. However, the Greek
community has not been known for its liberal acceptance of homosexuals. WMU's chapter of Delta
Lambda Phi was organized after its president said he probably wouldn't be able to get a bid at an
established WMU fraternity because he is openly homosexual. He did not want to go back into the
closet in order to join the Greek community.

At other colleges, Greeks have made an effort to welcome homosexuals. Cornell University, has an
organization called Greeks United Against Homophobia that is "committed to making fraternities and
sororities a safe place where the true ideals of brotherhood and sisterhood can emerge."

Homosexuals are still one of the most openly discriminated-against groups in society. They are the
subject of ridicule, prejudice and hate. There certainly will be Greeks that will accept Delta Lambda Phi
into the community without a question, but there will probably also be some ridicule and resentment.

There really shouldn't be. Any Greek that would not accept homosexuals into the community would not
only be exhibiting bigotry, but outright ignorance of the fact that the term "Greek" implies a long
history of accepting homosexuality.

Perhaps it is due time we examined the true nature of Greek brotherhood by taking a little trip back in
time.

Fraternities are said to have their origin in the Middle

Ages when young men would go off to foreign countries
to study in the new universities at Bologna or Paris. Men
from the same countries clung together in the notion of
brotherhood.

In early America, the founders of collegiate fraternities

chose to name their organizations using Greek letters
(Phi Beta Kappa being the first, in 1776), drawing upon
the high culture of ancient Greece. Fraternities slowly
spread across the United States, and what we know as
the "social fraternity" has its roots in the mid-to late 19th

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century. Following tradition, these men chose to name

their organizations using Greek letters.

Because Western civilization has chosen to emulate and

draw upon the accomplishments of ancient Greece
doesn't mean that the cultural standards in their society
were comparable to ours. In fact, the Greeks were far
more modern in their acceptance of homosexuality. Most
of the greatest Greek citizens were active participants in
homosexual sex.

Manly love was a common fixture of everyday Greek life.

The Greeks practiced what was called pederasty: open
sexual relationships between older men and adolescent
boys. Both Plato and Xenophon explored the beauty of
this love in their "Symposiums."

Distinguished Athenian citizens would stand around the gymnasium, where young boys ran naked, and
the men would pick and choose a boy for a lover. This was all very legal, as long as the boy had
reached puberty. Solon the lawgiver, himself a pederast, imposed strict laws against children being
included in this practice. Boys were only attractive to older men if they had no hair on their face, thighs
or buttocks. There were many arguments among the philosophers about which was greater: sex with a
woman or sex with an adolescent boy. Achilles Tatius wrote, "Boys' sweat has a finer smell than
anything in a woman's makeup box." In mythology we see such relationships between Zeus and
Ganymede, Dionysus and Ampelos and Apollo with Hyacinthus and Cyparissus.

While what we consider homosexual sex (sex between men of the same age) was relatively rare in
Greece, the heroes made it into an art. Theseus and Peirithous, Orestes and Pylades, Achilles and
Patroclus and Heracles (Hercules) and Iolaus all shared what the playwright Aeschylus called "the
sacred communion of thighs." In pederasty, the boy was not supposed to receive any pleasure, which
was reserved for the man. But among the heroes, sex was mutual and fulfilling. Only death could end
such relationships.

The Spartan soldiers - some of the most heroic and masculine warriors in history - participated actively
in homosexual sex. Alexander the Great had a longtime male companion. When the corpses of Theban
soldiers were found on the battlefield at Chaeronea, they were found in couples. Each loving pair of
men fought bravely to their deaths, back to back.

So to the Greeks of old, sex between males was accepted. Only time will tell if the members of Delta
Lambda Phi will be accepted and taken seriously by the Greeks of new. The Greek community does a
lot of good at WMU. They should be lauded for their community service, academic achievement and
commitment to excellence.

But bigotry in any form is never excellent. For any Greek that opposes the existence of Delta Lambda
Phi, every time he sends a younger brother out for a "naked run," he should think about the Athenians.

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Every time an older member of the frat uses a paddle adorned with Greek letters to strike young
pledges in the bum, he should think of the Spartans. And every time a Greek proudly displays his
letters on his clothing or writes Greek letters all over campus, he should understand that in using the
Greek name and alphabet he is representing a society with a rich and beautiful tradition of homoerotic
sexual idealism.

By James Griffioen, Opinion Columnist

Western Michigan Herald, 10 February 1998

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