“I am and continue to be amazed by the changes for the positive for LGBTQ people. I had forgotten how suppressed I was in college and can only imagine how my life then may have been different had I enjoyed the changes I have seen since.”

“One of my brothers and friends was kicked out for being gay. I felt we betrayed him. He looked to us for support and our chapter turned our back on him. I have looked for him since and haven’t been able to find him. I need to make peace with him as I didn’t stand up and try to stop what happened for fear I would be outed as well.”

“I don’t think that being in the closet really affected my fraternity experience at all. We were more focused on drinking, goofing around and having fun than whether someone was gay. There was speculation about people, but more from curiosity than anything negative; and after the fact, people haven’t cared at all and wished I had told them sooner.”

“The only think I was asked to do (as a joke) was to learn to talk about sports, as that was the ‘guy’ thing to do during recruitment. It was brought to my attention as a gag gift book called How to Talk Football.”

“I don’t regret being completely closeted in college and my fraternity because it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and had I been out it would not have been possible. Even if I had felt comfortable coming out to my brothers, I would not have for fear of tarnishing the reputation of the chapter on campus.”

“My chapter was concerned that if word got around that there were out men in our chapter that it would hurt recruitment and no one would want to join.”

“I rushed out so I do not know how my experiences would have been altered if I had started the process in the closet. Because my sexuality was always at the fore, it was rarely an issue and I don’t think it affected my experience.”

“Out of 80 of us in our chapter, 20 are openly gay. Therefore we are looked at as the ‘gay frat’ – which is fine to us, because we are the No. 1 chapter of our fraternity in the country and the best on campus.”

“I was informed that if I did not bring my boyfriend to a formal someone else would because he should be there. … Some brothers oute’ me to pledges saying, ‘Just so you know, Brother ___ is gay. If that’s not OK with you, you need to find another house.’”

(Source: Campus Pride)