Senior Betsy Adams said she can’t wait to see a stranger on campus wearing the shirt she created, a reminder of her efforts to support the LGBTQ community.
Adams, a member and former president of Alpha Delta Pi, and senior Brett Gilbert, a member of Delta Chi, teamed up this semester to support inclusion of the LGBTQ community in greek life in the simplest way they could think of: T-shirts.
The shirts include a rainbow and “LGBTQ+” in Greek alphabet letters on the front and the phrase “Be a sister be a brother #be an ally” on the back. Adams originally thought to sell them after she realized IU’s Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council greek organizations don’t talk about LGBTQ inclusion or even sexual orientation as much as they should.
“We’re completely missing the mark, especially on a campus where we’re so focused on other things,” she said. “These are the conversations we forget to have, and these are the conversations we should be having.”
The proceeds from the shirts — which totaled $1,129 after the first round of orders — will go to the Trevor Project, a national nonprofit that provides support and resources to members of the LGBTQ community under age 25.
About half of the orders came from universities other than IU, such as Iowa State University and Michigan State, Adams said. She said the idea of students wearing the shirts at other universities made her realize how much of a positive change the shirts could make.
Although Adams and Gilbert, who both identify as gay, said they had unproblematic experiences joining greek life, they know others have not.
Several anonymous homophobic comments were posted last week on Greekrank.com, an online forum for university greek organizations. One post alleged two fraternity brothers kissed at a party. Another asked why greek houses even bid gay members.
Gilbert said they want to show support especially to those in a sorority or fraternity who have not come out yet. Even a rainbow logo on a shirt, which seems trivial at first, could help someone feel accepted, he said.
“It might make people feel validated for the first time,” he said.
Gilbert said the lack of inclusion of the LGBTQ community is not specific to IU. He said issues like Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was widely criticized to allow discrimination against the LBGTQ community until it was amended, make Indiana especially in need of change.
“The historically homophobic environment makes it tough to overcome,” he said.
Gilbert said he wants the shirts to spark change on an individual level.
“If it can impact at least one person’s life, then I’ll be happy,” he said.
Adams said she thinks it is important members of the LGBTQ community are not tokenized in their sororities or fraternities. Members should not be accepted because of their sexual orientation, she said, but regardless of it.
“People accepted my identity as being someone who is gay and then moved past that to letting me be other things,” she said. “I wasn’t Betsy, our gay president. I was just Betsy, our president.”
Adams said the two plan to open a second opportunity to order the shirts online once they receive photos of people wearing the shirts from the first order, which ships Feb. 27, so they can display them on their website.
