As women flood the sorority houses of Syracuse University this weekend, some members of Delta Lambda Phi will be in search of sisters.

DLP, a fraternity for gay, bisexual and straight men, launched last fall at SU and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and became a colony in early December. But Lambda Delta Omega, a sorority for lesbian, bisexual and straight women, has made much less progress.

‘I’ve never been on a campus with a sister sorority, and I think it’s a great idea,’ said Paul Mercurio, a SUNY-ESF graduate student, who has worked with Delta Lambda Phi chapters at three different campuses, including SU and ESF.

A group of friends at Penn State University formed LDO in search of an all-female social group that provided fun alternatives to fraternity parties or picking up guys every weekend, said Erica D’Aramo, Penn State’s LDO vice-president.

‘And they chose a sorority as the forum to do that,’ D’Aramo said.

But LDO – originally Lambda Delta Lambda before the founders realized the name was already taken – could not be successful at SU and ESF unless a substantial amount of students wanted to devote their time to launching it.

‘First and foremost, students would have to be interested,’ said Laurel Reed Rosch, associate director for leadership programs in the Office of Greek and Experiential Learning.

Those students would then meet with the associate dean of students, Dean Joseph Oravecz, of OGLEL, Rosch said. He would explain the process of becoming a recognized student organization.

But some believe that women of the SU and ESF campus have yet to express a desire to launch an LDO chapter.

‘If there is enough interest, I haven’t seen it yet,’ said James Kaechele, a sophomore environmental forestry and biology major and president of SU and ESF’s DLP. ‘But I would certainly be willing to help out anyone who wants to investigate it.’

The launch of DLP sparked interest in Jen Spinner, a sophomore policy studies and women’s studies major. But after researching the sorority, she felt as though it would not succeed because of the low level of lesbian involvement in campus LGBT activities.

‘The gay guys are more involved in organizations like Pride Union, and lesbians don’t really go toward those organizations,’ Spinner said. ‘They tend to shy away from them. The two communities are very different.’

Gay women seem to meet each other on their own, while gay men tend to find friends through such organizations, she added.

‘I think that’s why they’re so excited about this fraternity,’ Spinner said.

On other college campuses, lesbians seem far more active in LGBT organizations than they do at SU and ESF, Spinner said.

‘Even if you go to Ithaca College, you see more attendance by lesbians at events and meetings than you do gay men,’ Spinner said. ‘At SU, we’re dealing with a different demographic of students.’

Only five chapters of LDO exist in colleges throughout the country, while DLP is nearing 20. The cause for the low number of LDO chapters remains unclear.

‘In today’s society, it seems generally more acceptable for a woman to be a lesbian than for a man to be gay, especially when dealing with his or her peers at a college age,’ said Angela Minardi, a senior public relations major and membership development chair of the Panhellenic Association.

On a societal level, gay men may find less acceptance within mainstream activities because they are so marginalized, said Kathleen Farrell, associate professor of sociology at SU. They might tend to seek out specifically gay-friendly organizations. But lesbians may feel more comfortable in mainstream situations because society is less rigid about female sexuality.

‘Where gay men are more apt to join a fraternity to find those who share their ideologies, lesbians are more able to find those who share their ideologies within the mainstream,’ Farrell said.

‘Women can go out to a bar and dance together and they don’t need to be out,’ D’Aramo said. ‘They might not need to worry so much about sexuality being an issue, so they might not need to seek out that outlet as much as men do.’

Because many women at SU and ESF identify as bisexual, not lesbian, they may be hesitant to join an organization seemingly limited to lesbians, Spinner said.

‘More girls tend to fall in to the bisexual category,’ Spinner said. ‘And a lot of girls wouldn’t want to be pigeonholed by joining this sorority and saying they’re a lesbian.’

Not as many men on campus identify as bisexual, so that might not be a main issue for DLP, Spinner added.

If a group of women wanted to form a chapter of LDO, they would not have any additional guidance from an established sister. DLP, however, had Mercurio to help them organize, Spinner said.

But if community members and straight women helped the group form, its chances of being successful would dramatically increase, she added.

‘We’d emphasize that it would be a place of acceptance, just a safe space for women in general,’ Spinner said. ‘We wouldn’t want it to be just for lesbians, but for women in general. I know tons of straight women who want to join.’

Many of the women within Penn State’s LDO chapter identify as straight, D’Aramo said.

‘But I don’t even know the orientation of many of the girls, and we don’t ask,’ she added.

LDO would probably receive the same level of acceptance as DLP, if not more, Mercurio said.

‘There’s always a niche for something like this,’ Mercurio said.

While the sorority may help end stereotypes of what it means to be a lesbian, many women of other SU sororities believe that LDO could help change stereotypes of sorority life as well.

‘I think it’s a great idea and brings diversity to Greek life on campus,’ Minardi said. ‘It’s a great way to open people’s eyes to new ideas and to the fact that there is not one ‘typical’ sorority girl.’

‘LDO can definitely help to challenge stereotypes, especially because Greek women on this campus have such a stereotype,’ Kaechele said.

If a chapter of LDO were to launch at SU and ESF, the university community would work to make it successful and beneficial.

‘People are quick to give negative stereotypes to anything that is different,’ Minardi said. ‘But with faculty support and efforts by the Greek system already in place, they should feel welcome in no time.’

The members of SU and ESF’s DLP believe that the university community has responded well to their organization and have received support from the administration and other Greek organizations, especially sororities.

‘Almost all of the sorority interaction has been very positive here,’ Mercurio said.

Activities among LDO and DLP could complement each other as well, he added.

But Kaechele said that he believes LDO could be successful at SU and ESF.

‘We have to remember even last spring, people laughed at the idea of a gay fraternity and said that it wouldn’t work,’ Kaechele said. ‘All we can do is talk about it and offer a hand to those who are interested. It will happen when the time is right.’

Published on January 29, 2004 at 12:00 pm