New gay fraternity starts at UCF

Members of the Delta Lambda Phi fraternity at University of Central Florida (UCF) are bonded by brotherhood and something elseâ┚¬â€all of the brothers are gay.

â┚¬Å”Delta Lambda Phi is the national social fraternity for gay, bisexual and progressive men,â┚¬Â said Adam Conrad, the chapter's president.

Delta Lambda Phi is new to the campusâ┚¬â€founded in 2009â┚¬â€and the fraternity is on the path to becoming chartered by the national organization and integrated into UCF's established Greek system. According to pledge educator Tyler Teegardin, the campus Intra-fraternity Council (IFC) rejected their application to join the council two years ago, but Delta Lambda Phi was accepted in 2010.

â┚¬Å”[We're] proud to be one of the most inclusive organizations on campus and we look forward to the value Delta Lambda Phi will add,â┚¬Â said Council president S. Kyle Schumacher on the IFC website.

Now that Delta Lambda Phi's place at UCF is established, the fraternity's leadership is working toward recognition from the national group, called â┚¬Å”chartering.â┚¬Â The fraternity recently got a boost toward this goal when the Metropolitan Business Association (MBA) donated $500 of the required $600 charter application fee.

â┚¬Å”One of our goals for this year as a board was to focus more on LGBT youth and supporting youth organizations,â┚¬Â said MBA president Gina Duncan. â┚¬Å”[The donation] lined up exactly with what we want to do.â┚¬Â

Conrad said to meet the goal of becoming chartered by 2012, DLP has to submit its final application by late August or early September. Now the brothers are focused on raising the $100 needed while finalizing that application. Several of the members just returned from a national convention of the fraternity in Philadelphia.

Delta Lambda Phi at UCF appears to be in the final stages of becoming established and accepted, but Conrad said it was a long road to get there.

â┚¬Å”The original alpha class, the class I'm part of, started with 23 guys then got whittled down to 13. On one hand, we lost a couple of people who are really missed and I believe some of them are re-rushing this coming fall,â┚¬Â he said â┚¬Å”But the 13 guys we had left were so close knit, so strong together, we can't even fathom anybody else leaving.â┚¬Â

He said the past two semesters have focused on working on the fraternity's â┚¬Å”internal issues,â┚¬Â while figuring out how to have an identity within the established Greek community.

â┚¬Å”Starting a new organization is really hard,â┚¬Â Conrad said. â┚¬Å”There is no tradition to go by, so we have to consciously decide what we want our traditions to be.â┚¬Â

He said there are 10-15 people interested in rushing in the fall.

â┚¬Å”My job is to work with the new members who want to join and then teach them the traditions, the symbolsâ┚¬â€all of the things that make up the organization,â┚¬Â said Teegardin. â┚¬Å”Then sponsor them through an eight week process to go from new member to hopefully understating what it means to be a part of the organization.â┚¬Â

He said he was attracted to Delta Lambda Phi after experimenting with other UCF gay groups and finding they didn't have the structure or moral code he craved.

â┚¬Å”I felt like people were cliquey and they just wanted to hook up or they didn't really have any motivation, and I have always been extremely driven,â┚¬Â he said. â┚¬Å”I wanted something a lot more focused but I didn't want to join a [traditional] Greek organization because I didn't quite understand the Greek model and it didn't seem like I'd feel comfortable [pledging].â┚¬Â

He added that he was looking for standards of living that didn't come from religion.

â┚¬Å”It's about creating a place for other people to come and be who they are, and it's about not taking people's shit lying down,â┚¬Â Teegardin said. â┚¬Å”It's about being who you are in a safe place without the garbage of an unorganized group, but it's more special because the Greek model provides such a unique friendship and brotherhood. I can't imagine what my life would be without the organization. It's become such an integral part of who I am.â┚¬Â

So what if a straight man wanted to rush the fraternity?

â┚¬Å”So far, we are all gay. If we're ever asked about it we're very open that we support progressive men who are just supportive,â┚¬Â Conrad said. â┚¬Å”We would never turn anyone away, but we're tailoring our recruitment efforts to go for the gay community.â┚¬Â

They also don't have a fraternity house, but he said it's something on his radar.

â┚¬Å”As far as I know, there are no open houses on Greek Row,â┚¬Â Conrad said. â┚¬Å”I think we could definitely be getting a house in the next 10 years, but it's not going to happen this year.â┚¬Â

The national fraternity's tag line is â┚¬Å”Making Our Presence Known,â┚¬Â and Conrad said that right now the majority of the organization's social activity happens on Facebook, but he'd like to change that.