campus life

Emory University Student Dragged Out Of Frat Party By Sigma Nu Alum For Being Gay

We all know the stigmatization of Greek life at college, where joining a frat is either a chance to get gay bashed or have a hot jock hook up. But at Sigma Nu at Emory University it Atlanta, it appears it’s definitely the former: a student claims he was forcibly removed from a Halloween frat party after revealing he’s gay.

The ejection was accompanied by folks screaming slurs and applauding his ouster, the student says, all at the hands of Adam Smith, a Class of 2010 alum who has nothing better to do but hang out at the frat house. The Emory Wheel reports:

The student, who has not yet filed a police report and wished to remain unnamed for this story, attended the party at Sigma Nu’s off-campus house with multiple friends after first venturing out to Eagle Row. His particular choice of costume — a lime-green jacket, red pants and a wizard hat — meant that he stood out immediately among the crowd at the house, the student acknowledged.

“At first, when I walked into the party, some people were taking pictures of me and appreciating, if you will, what I was wearing,” he said. About half an hour later, however, another attendee — confirmed by multiple witnesses as recent alum Adam Smith (’10C) — took the student’s wizard hat and began questioning him. “This guy approached me and asked why I was wearing my hat. … I said that I like the hat, just as you like your pink shirt. He then asked me if I was gay, and I said I was. He then started choking me with his elbow and put me into a head lock, and he dragged me out of the party by my neck.” After the student was allegedly dragged the approximately 10 to 15 feet from the house’s common area to the door and thrown onto the front lawn, Smith was overheard telling other attendees “Hey, this kid’s a f****t.”

Smith insists it didn’t go down like that.

“This kid was at the party, and was acting kind of ridiculous. I went over, took his hat and started dancing around,” he said. Smith then said he asked the student: “Why are you wearing this gay ass hat?” According to Smith, the student replied that it was for the “same reason you’re wearing your pink shirt.” Smith said that he then asked if the student was implying that he (Smith) was “f***ing gay or something.” Receiving an affirmative reaction, Smith then admitted to putting him in a head lock and ejecting him from the party.

Uh, so it did go down like that?

But of course Sigma Nu is taking this issue very seriously, or whatever. Says chapter president Khurram Dara in an email to student paper Emory Wheel: “We’d like the Emory community to know that we are taking this allegation very seriously. We have reviewed the limited information made available to us in an effort to learn as much as we can.” (Notes Wheel: “The statement refers to the alleged victim as ‘an uninvited Emory student [who] was not known by anyone who lived in the residence.’ The statement continues on to say that Smith was asked to leave as a direct result of the altercation.”)

And while there’s no police report yet, the student did meet with Dean for Campus Life Bridget Riordan, Director of LGBT Life at Emory Michael Shutt and Director of Greek Life Buck Cooke.

So congratulations to Emory’s Sigma Nu chapter, for learning a whole helluva lot following the suicide of Tyler Clementi: Making gay students feel unwelcome and ostracized is perfectly acceptable campus behavior.

[This post originally included a photo of a different Adam Smith. We regret the error.]

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