Greek-letter organizations have few transgender and nonbinary members due to non-inclusive bylaws and an apprehensive culture. Additionally, a perception that Greek life isn’t welcoming to LGBTQ+ students often deters them from applying.
While the decision to include or exclude trans and nonbinary applicants generally falls to the fraternity or sorority, at Colorado State University, the listed policy is that applicants cannot be discriminated against based on their gender identity or expression.
The CSU Student Bill of Rights guarantees the right for students to seek membership in student organizations. If the national policy for a fraternity or sorority is exclusionary, the local chapter must have an exception, or it cannot be recognized by the University. Despite this, trans and nonbinary representation continues to be sparse.
“Out of the last three recruitment classes we’ve had that I’ve been like heavily involved with … there has been none, so out of the last year and a half, there hasn’t been any,” said Delta Sigma Pi President Morgan Falconer, when asked about how many trans or nonbinary students had applied to her organization.
Delta Sigma Pi is a professional fraternity, and unlike most Greek-letter organizations, is one of two recognized fraternities on campus that is all-gender, meaning students of all genders are allowed and encouraged to join.
Despite being all-gender, according to Falconer, Delta Sigma Pi still doesn’t encounter many trans or nonbinary students seeking membership, and with a gendered Greek-letter organization, such membership is likely even rarer.
While CSU policy might be inclusive, the cultures within the organizations themselves could vary. “People will complain, no matter what people will complain,” Falconer said regarding trans and nonbinary inclusion, an attitude she said was often due to the historical context of Greek-letter organizations. “For a long period of time that just wasn’t allowed, so I think people just not getting over the past is the biggest thing,” Falconer said.
Many organizations in Greek life were founded in the early 20th century and have bylaws (internal rules) that don’t outwardly mention gender inclusion, leading to environments that don’t always prioritize it. Falconer explained that progress towards including trans and nonbinary students, while not unsubstantial, was limited.
“There is some progress compared to 20 years ago, I would say, but do I think it is a highly accepted thing? No, I don’t, like I just don’t think there’s enough people from that community represented in Greek life.” Falconer said.
While progress is limited, it’s also reflected differently depending on the area of Greek life, with some organizations emphasizing inclusion as a main priority.
“It was definitely something I kind of stumbled into, I never thought I’d want to do Greek life,” said Elizabeth Williams, former president of Alpha Sigma Kappa, who identifies as nonbinary.
According to them, they originally avoided Greek life because they thought it would be like its stereotypical portrayal in the media, but after going to a recruitment event on a whim, they were pleasantly surprised.
“Everyone was just so nice and welcoming, it was actually joining this organization and that small community that allowed me to like figure out that I was nonbinary,” they said, explaining later that they had often pushed that side of themself away. “Within a few weeks of joining, I was able to figure out like who I was, and they were the first group of people I came out to,” Williams said.
Established on campus in 2015, Alpha Sigma Kappa is an associate sorority of the Panhellenic Association and is one of the few Greek-letter organizations on campus that openly promotes inclusion of transgender and nonbinary students. Williams was one of the sorority’s first non-cisgendered members, and, as president, took actions to promote diversity.
“I personally have done a lot to make sure our bylaws, our policies, and also just the way we present ourselves is very inclusive,” they said, explaining that such bylaws weren’t present in the rest of the Panhellenic Association. Alpha Sigma Kappa also uses gender neutral language in its official ceremonies, such as “sibling” instead of “sister,” which was something that Williams found particularly helpful when they were a new member.
Another area they found particularly inclusive was the office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. “I think the office of Fraternity and Sorority Life has done a lot of very good things … I’ve always felt supported as someone who is nonbinary when I have to interact with people in the office,” Williams said.
However, there were also areas of Greek life they didn’t feel quite the same about. “The general membership of Greek life is definitely better than what I was expecting, but there’s room for improvement,” Williams said.
Williams elaborated that with larger, 100-plus member sororities and fraternities, promoting inclusivity was something that could fall through the cracks.
“You get to a point where leadership is not having those direct interactions with membership,” Williams said. “And also, what’s different about chapter leadership to general members is that leadership in chapters have to go to these workshops, and different things held by FSL, by the office, about inclusivity … they’re getting direct programming about these things.”
According to Williams, it’s difficult to pass that programming along in such a large organization, and the extent of time devoted to doing so also varies from chapter to chapter, with an attitude that exists being to simply not address LGBTQ+ inclusion at all. Williams continued by saying there could be steps taken towards creating more inclusive bylaws, and more broadly a more inclusive culture in Greek life, with recruitment being a good place to start.
“The energy you put out is what you get back, and so I think if there was more focus on just inclusivity in general during recruitment seasons, then they would get new members who had that like positive attitude towards the community,” Williams said.
In their experience, Williams found that communities in Greek life as well as the office of Fraternity and Sorority Life could be very accepting, with the lack of representation being partly a result of people avoiding Greek life based on stereotypes.
However, they also noted that if more efforts were made to promote inclusion of transgender and nonbinary students, it could help to start dismantling those stereotypes in the first place.
