Contents:
- THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF AN AMERIN FRATERNY
- MY ATERNY YEARS AS AN OUT GAY MAN
- GAY AND GREEK: THE EXPERIENCE OF BEG GAY AND A ATERNY
- I WAS A GAY AT BOY. THE “HORRIFIC CINT” AT BUCKNELL UNIVERSY’S FRAN’S HOE WAS NOT AN ANTI-LGBT ATTACK
- GAY HISTORY OF MEN’S FRATERNI
- GAY MEN BLACK FRATERNI
THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF AN AMERIN FRATERNY
This is not a gay g of age story. 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.
) he was homosexual. 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. I was too uptight about my own sexualy and this sort of thg h entirely too close to home (homo?
MY ATERNY YEARS AS AN OUT GAY MAN
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.
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! Marc was about as openly gay as one uld safely be Lock Haven, Pennsylvania the early 1980s.
Much later Marc would fd out I was gay too, spe my self-protective measur, and he would be very supportive, god bls him. But 1984 I was not ready to be tthful about my sexualy wh anyone, even other gay people.
GAY AND GREEK: THE EXPERIENCE OF BEG GAY AND A ATERNY
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. 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.
I WAS A GAY AT BOY. THE “HORRIFIC CINT” AT BUCKNELL UNIVERSY’S FRAN’S HOE WAS NOT AN ANTI-LGBT ATTACK
It was lled the Gay Activists Alliance Morris County, NJ (GAAMC).
The day after I heard about the Mike Hoeknecht-spired gay support group at LHU, I joed GAAMC. In the mid-1990s, the aterny elected s first openly gay print.
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.
GAY HISTORY OF MEN’S FRATERNI
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.
When I me out my Appalachian high school at 15, my male classmat provid a daily ccible of homophobia. I was lled “cksucker, ” “fudgepacker” and “homo” more often than I was lled by my name.
GAY MEN BLACK FRATERNI
Even as a gay man, my sexual currency was fed through heterosexualy. 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. In their book, this was nothg short of a party foul; I had ed the “good tim wh the gay boy” by volvg feelgs, somethg they uld never five.
I see Greek life as a system that upholds the opprsive stctural forc of racism, sexism, classism and homophobia, and my head I n nstct exactly why aterni and sorori are such pernic stutns. There was nothg out of the ordary, but for the fact that Jim was gay.