STAND UP TO HATE

Frat That Rejected Gay Applicant Gets What’s Coming To Them

BS md-morgan-fraternity-conflict

We have an update on the story about the Maryland frat that rejected an applicant for being gay, and it’s good news … kind of. The frat’s been placed on probation. So, that’s justice, we suppose.

Brian Stewart filed a complaint with the school back in October, after they used some colorful slurs to reject his application. The exact nature of the “derogatory social media messages” have not been made public, which is a real shame because we would love to see exactly how vitriolic they are. But that’s really not the point: the point is that the frat acted like a bunch of douches; the victim stood up to them; the school investigated; and now the perpetrators have been held responsible, to some extent.

This took no small amount of courage on Stewart’s part. Standing up publicly to denounce intolerance and discrimination at a powerful institution can’t have been any easy decision, particularly when it was an institution for which he previously had a lot of respect and reverence.

The probation lasts until 2015, and means that the frat won’t be able to participate in official college activities. Boo hoo.

More importantly, the college has held two campus-wide meetings about the incident, prompting lots of discussion and dialogue and healing. Overall, that seems like a pretty productive outcome for what was an entirely ugly incident.

So far there’s been no comment from the Alpha Iota chapter, nor from the national Kappa Alpha Psi organization. But what could they say at this point? “Whoops?”

Actually, there is plenty they could say. “We reject all forms of discrimination, etc. etc. etc.,” or “the members responsible for this reprehensible act have been excommunicated,” or “we pledge a year of fundraising and awareness campaigns to make up for the harm for which we must now take full responsibility,” would all be acceptable.

In the meantime, Brian Stewart is a hero. The end.

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