<p>This post may be better served on a forum that's not necessarily specific to U-M, but I have been wondering about this for a couple of years.</p>
<p>I recently graduated from Michigan, so this wouldn't affect me directly, but I was wondering if any social fraternities have had any men who were out of the closet? As somebody who is out himself, I had always figured, even though I wasn't out at the beginning of my college career, that I wouldn't fit in or would feel uncomfortable in a setting where a lot of the activities are structured around showing romantic interest in women. </p>
<p>Do people agree with this perception of homosexuality in a fraternity?</p>
<p>I assume you mean social fraternities, but there is at least one person who is out as queer in my professional fraternity and no big deal is made of it at all.</p>
<p>As far as social frats go, it’s tough to know. I’m sure it’s not unheard of. UMich has a not-insignificant LGBTQA student population and I guarantee that some of it is in Greek life. The way I’ve always thought about it is that when you’re at a party or a mixer and everyone is drinking and trying to have a good time for themselves, not many people are going to be too concerned about what you’re doing. In a tragically funny way, it might even be viewed as having less competition if one of their peers is gay, hah.</p>
<p>I do agree that your perception makes sense, but I can’t really give you an answer. Someone who is/was in a social frat would have to pitch in. I guess this makes my response kind of useless, but it’s been a boring night.</p>
<p>Last summer my graduate son and all of his fraternity brothers went to a wedding…of two of their fraternity brothers! I don’t know how common it is to be “out” and a member of a fraternity, but it definitely does happen! This was not at University of Michigan, but in Oregon.</p>
<p>It’s really important to find a frat that you feel comfortable with… As an alum, I know a bunch of the smaller frats on campus had openly gay members who were respected and treated like equals. In the larger, more competitive frats, that might more of an issue as there’s more pressure to blend in.</p>