Two months ago, an SU and SUNY ESF chapter of a gay fraternity was little more than an idea in the heads of eight students.

This weekend the idea is nearly a reality.

‘Within the span of a week, we defined who we were, got a sense of where we were headed and started in that direction,’ said James Kaechele, a sophomore environmental forestry and biology major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and president of the group.

Delta Lambda Phi, a national fraternity for gay, bisexual and straight men, will become a colony Saturday at Syracuse University and SUNY ESF, officially becoming a part of the Greek System.

‘That for us is a huge accomplishment, and we’d really like for people of the community to celebrate with us,’ Kaechele said.

To become a colony, the members must be inducted through rituals that will mark the formal beginning of the pledge education process, said Paul Mercurio, a graduate student in landscape architecture in SUNY ESF and mentor of DLP. All of the members will receive their pledge pin as well.

The house of the former Alpha Gamma Delta fraternity, which left campus two years ago, will serve as the location for the rituals, Mercurio said. The house may become DLP’s future home.

‘It’s a beautiful house,’ Mercurio said. ‘And the fact that we might be moving in there, it just adds to the awesomeness.’

At least 11 brothers from different chapters around the country will come to Syracuse in celebration of the advancement, Kaechele said. The main event, a reception at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center on Saturday night, will allow guests and certain members of the university community to learn more about DLP and the pledges. The SU and SUNY ESF members will also learn more about the fraternity as a national organization.

‘It’s a great way for other colonists and other brothers to see what we’re like nationally, and let them know what we’re all about,’ Kaechele said.

The colony will become a chapter by next December at the earliest, after three more pledge classes have gone through, Mercurio said.

‘I’d like to see this be as large as possible, but ultimately it’s up to them,’ Mercurio said. ‘And if we want to be able to afford a house, we need more members.’

The Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning has been very interested in working with DLP and the colony will follow OGLEL policy, Mercurio said.

‘It’s difficult to be an 18-year-old gay male living in a residence hall,’ said Josh McIntosh, associate director for administration and assessment for OGLEL, who has met several times with members of the group. ‘You need a safe and secure place to grow, and DLP provides that place and that sense of brotherhood necessary and maybe even more important for that community.’

DLP also challenges stereotypes of what it means to greek and gives gay men another arena on campus to share a common identity, McIntosh said. He does not yet know under which fraternity council will recognize DLP.

The attention that DLP has received has prompted other students to ask about the fraternity, Kaechele said

‘That in itself is great, we don’t have to explain from ground zero what is it,’ Kaechele said.

No one has given him, nor any members he knows of, negative feedback, Kaechele added.

When Mercurio described the progress of the interest group to DLP national directors, the directors were very happy with their progress. One director joked that Mercurio, who has already helped to start chapters in Boston and Seattle, was crucial to making other chapters form across the country.

‘He said, ‘Paul, you’re like the gay Johnny Appleseed!” Mercurio said. ‘Then of course, that got around and everyone started joking I was spreading my seed, and then it got to be a bit much. But it was really funny.’

While brainstorming how the group could raise funds, Mercurio thought of a cookie delivery service in Boston where people could order cookies and they would arrive still hot at the buyer’s door. With that idea in mind, everyone met one Saturday at Mercurio’s off-campus apartment for a full night and day of baking.

‘I wonder what our heating bill will be like after having the stove on for like, 24 hours,’ Mercurio said with a laugh. ‘Throughout the day I kept going in there to steal cookies.’

Together, they sold 101 boxes of the dozen chocolate chip and sugar cookies, at a price of $6 a box. After considering expenses, the group raised about $530, said George Northy, a sophomore advertising and sociology major and treasurer of the group.

‘We hope to have raised a thousand dollars before the end of the year,’ Northy said. ‘We need a lot of money to get the colony off the ground.’

But while the eight men filled out forms, held meetings, planned their goals and mastered their culinary skills, they developed the most important requirement for the fraternity: brotherhood.

‘They bonded so deeply and quickly,’ Mercurio said. ‘They all get along so famously. It’s a good number of people to be a founding class.’

Published on November 20, 2003 at 12:00 pm