Gay and Greek: The Inty Paradox of Gay Fraterni on JSTOR

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Kg-to Yng, Mdy Stombler, Gay and Greek: The Inty Paradox of Gay Fraterni, Social Problems, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Feb., 2000), pp. 134-152

Contents:

THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF AN AMERIN FRATERNY

The issu that once kept straight men and gay men apart are dissolvg, real life and popular culture. * gay straight fraternity *

No, this is a story about thgs I saw and heard and experienced, but don’t end wh me steppg bravely forward and proudly clarg my homosexualy to the world and fdg my place . Some of the iends did turn out to be gay, though I had no ia at the time, as they, I thk, had srcely any ia about me. Afterward, my broad-shoulred stoner iend sually told Jason that “What we did was okay, bee I heard you have to do three tim wh a guy to make you gay.

In the aterny which I belonged, a small subset of iends began referrg to the annual fall visatn of alumni as “Homog Weekend. By the time I graduated 1987, I had been through a few Homog Weekends and taken the long walk wh several of my olr aterny brothers, who would awkwardly nfs to beg gay.

MY ATERNY YEARS AS AN OUT GAY MAN

I was too uptight about my own sexualy and this sort of thg h entirely too close to home (homo?

But he left no doubt that he was totally gay, and ma me unfortable when he looked to my ey wh that perceptive visn of his. “But the guy’s a homosexual, and there are guys who say they’re gog blackball him to prevent him om gettg a bid, ” I was told.

MAN WS WORLD'S LONGT GAME OF "GAY CHICKEN": {FONT:NORMAL 800 1.2REM/1.2 "D BOLD",SANS-SERIF;TEXT-TRANSFORM:NORMAL;LOR:HER;DISPLAY:LE-BLOCK;PADDG-BOTTOM:6PX;POSN:RELATIVE;TEXT-TRANSFORM:UPPERSE;}{BACKGROUND:#89308A;BOTTOM:0;NTENT:'';DISPLAY:BLOCK;HEIGHT:2PX;LEFT:0;POSN:ABSOLUTE;RIGHT:0;-WEBK-TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;WIDTH:100%;}{LEFT:51%;RIGHT:51%;WIDTH:0;}{FONT:NORMAL 800 1.2REM/1.2 "D BOLD",SANS-SERIF;TEXT-TRANSFORM:NORMAL;LOR:HER;DISPLAY:LE-BLOCK;PADDG-BOTTOM:6PX;POSN:RELATIVE;TEXT-TRANSFORM:UPPERSE;}{BACKGROUND:#89308A;BOTTOM:0;NTENT:'';DISPLAY:BLOCK;HEIGHT:2PX;LEFT:0;POSN:ABSOLUTE;RIGHT:0;-WEBK-TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;TRANSN:ALL 0.2S EASE;WIDTH:100%;}{LEFT:51%;RIGHT:51%;WIDTH:0;}LIFEBY DAN AVERYSEPTEMBER 29, 2013/4:22 PMBY DAN AVERYSEPTEMBER 29, 2013 / 4:22 PM{"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"NEWSARTICLE","HEADLE":"MAN WS WORLD'S LONGT GAME OF \"GAY CHICKEN\": WATCH","DATEPUBLISHED":"2013-09-29T20:22:11.000+0000","DATEMODIFIED":"2013-09-29T20:22:11.000+0000","IMAGE":{"@NTEXT":","@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT","WIDTH":1920,"HEIGHT":1080},"URL":","THOR":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","NAME":"LOGO TV"},"MAENTYOFPAGE":{"@TYPE":"WEBPAGE","@ID":"},"PUBLISHER":{"@TYPE":"ORGANIZATN","@ID":","NAME":"LOGO TV","URL":","LOGO":{"@TYPE":"IMAGEOBJECT"}},"CREATOR":"DAN AVERY","ARTICLESECTN":"LIFE"}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-BOX;DISPLAY:-WEBK-FLEX;DISPLAY:-MS-FLEXBOX;DISPLAY:FLEX;-WEBK-BOX-PACK:CENTER;-WEBK-JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;-MS-FLEX-PACK:CENTER;JTIFY-NTENT:CENTER;} .TWTER-TWEET-RENRED, {M-WIDTH:65%;WIDTH:TO !IMPORTANT;} {WIDTH:100%;} {MARG-LEFT:TO !IMPORTANT;MARG-RIGHT:TO !IMPORTANT;} IMG{MAX-WIDTH:100%;WIDTH:100%;} > IAME{BORR:NONE;MAX-WIDTH:100%;} > *{MAX-WIDTH:NONE !IMPORTANT;}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}GAY CHICKEN ISN'T SOMETHG YOU ORR AT A FE BOYSTOWN, 'S AN HEAD-SCRATCHG "GAME" PLAYED BY PRUMABLY STRAIGHT GUYS TO SHOW HOW HETEROSEXUAL THEY ARE. HOW? BY KISSG ANOTHER {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;PADDG:24PX 0;} A{LOR:#354A4E;-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;TEXT-RATN:UNRLE;} A:HOVER, A:FOC{-WEBK-TEXT-RATN:NONE;TEXT-RATN:NONE;} B, STRONG{FONT-WEIGHT:700;}THE EDY CLIP ABOVE, OM THE NORWEGIAN EDY SHOW KOLLEKTIVET, EXPLAS THE LOGIL GYMNASTICS BEHD THE GAME'S THKG AND TAK THEM TO THEIR ILLOGIL {BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;CLEAR:BOTH;}{BOX-SIZG:BORR-BOX;MARG:0 TO;WIDTH:90%;M-WIDTH:288PX;MAX-WIDTH:1440PX;M-HEIGHT:194PX;}LATT NEWS

And after all, if I took a strong posn on the matter, someone might assume I was gay, and I was not gog to let that happen!

Much later Marc would fd out I was gay too, spe my self-protective measur, and he would be very supportive, god bls him.

If we we’re gog to blackball a gay guy jt bee he’s gay, then we’re not really about diversy at all, are we? Stori of the “gay murr” Lock Haven, Pennsylvania appeared everywhere, and were read by lns the big cy newspapers Philalphia and Ptsburgh. Well, I don’t want to overstate , but ’s clear that Mike – like most gay people – had been eply and adversely effected by the closet s and homophob that surround him.

GAY AND GREEK: THE EXPERIENCE OF BEG GAY AND A ATERNY

The same year I belatedly disvered that soon after Mike Hoeknecht was found ad on mp, a gay and lbian support group was formed at LHU. It stands to reason, however, that such a high-profile tragedy would galvanize the gay muny and lead to the formatn of such a group.

In 1992, when I found out about LHU’s gay and lbian group, I told myself that if such a group were loted near my home New Jersey, I would jo right away. The day after I heard about the Mike Hoeknecht-spired gay support group at LHU, I joed GAAMC. The guys that elected their first openly gay print would have had no ia about the experienc of Mike Hoeknecht four or five years before that.

And the guys the aterny today would probably be surprised to hear that they were once prid over by one of only two openly gay men on mp at that time. Class, and the odd profsor, on his way to teach , who all knew I'd jt “shacked, ” a term ually rerved to slut-shame sorory women but which was applied jt as egregly to me, the out gay man who wasn't Greek but sperately wished he were.

YOU’RE NOT BREAKG BARRIERS BY BEG GAY A ATERNY

When I me out my Appalachian high school at 15, my male classmat provid a daily ccible of homophobia. The sex was eher borgly heteronormative, like the top-tier aterny man who wanted me to lie there silently as he thst and out of me, leavg $50 on my nightstand as he left bee he thought I “need” , or vlently homophobic, as wh the man om the “date rape aterny” who liked to smack me the face and sp on me, remdg me what a ltle queer I am.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY STRAIGHT FRATERNITY

My aterny years as an out gay man | .

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