The nation’s first gay fraternity is suing a newer inclusive Greek organization for trademark infringement. Delta Lambda Phi, founding in 1986, has taken the seven-year-old Delta Lambda Psi to federal court, claiming it has caused confusion with a name that differs by only one Greek letter and an abbreviation, DLP, that is identical.
Delta Lambda Psi was started at University of California at Santa Cruz and has another chapter at Northeastern Illinois University.
A Delta Lambda Psi spokesman says his gender- and orientation-neutral “frarority” isn’t competing with the older organization, and that his group isn’t affiliated with a new Delta Lambda Phi opening at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where the lawsuit was filed.
“Delta Lambda Psi’s opening of a new chapter at the University of Oregon in Eugene has made the need to address this harm particularly urgent,” Delta Lambda Phi attorney John Mansfield wrote in an email. “DLP offered several times to meet with Delta Lambda Psi face-to-face to resolve the dispute in person, but Delta Lambda Psi never responded to any of those offers.”
Delta Lambda Phi currently has 30 chapters in the US and Canada, with 400 current members and 2,500 alumni.
Source: SF Gate
MikeE
oh my god, if you have time to be hiring lawyers and starting lawsuits, then you aren’t fricken’ working hard enough on your school work!
Damned spoiled crybabies.
Guillermo3
Just what we need to break down gay stereotypes:
A bitch-slapping hissy-fit between two Lambda
fraternities/sororities.
Hope their trust funds evaporate.
Tracy
Just because there’s a “gay” element in a piece of news doesn’t mean Queerty should pick it up. Case in point: the lawsuit filed by this bunch of attention-seeking brats.
Apparently, the d-bag stereotype doesn’t apply merely to straight frat boys.
Adam
I mean, isn’t it obvious that the fraternity’s higher-ups are doing the suing, and not college-aged guys, who are dancing in the video?
Kyle
I feel this discriminates against LGBTQI students and does not take into account there are students outside the gender binaries. When I rushed for Delta Lambda Psi, the first thing we discussed in our pledge process was preferred gender pronouns. We need to take the steps to register, Delta Lambda Psi, as a gender-neutral organization and not as fraternity. Also, we need to keep in mind that DLP / “change legal intellect” is not our motto, but our mantra. Plus, Psi / Phi both start with P, but philosophically have WAY different meanings. We need to take the steps to actual “change legal intellect” and create safe zones for all students within the Greek system! Honestly, the article is biased and baseless.
Kyle
I feel this discriminates against LGBTQI students and does not take into account there are students outside the gender binaries. When I rushed for Delta Lambda Psi, the first thing we discussed in our pledge process was preferred gender pronouns. We need to take the steps to register, Delta Lambda Psi, as a gender-neutral organization and not as fraternity. Also, we need to keep in mind that DLP / “change legal intellect” is not our motto, but our mantra. Plus, Psi / Phi both start with P, but philosophically have WAY different meanings. We need to take the steps to actual “change legal intellect” and create safe zones for all students within the Greek system!
Kyle
*selique = / = mantra
nervous typer here.
Kyle
* Sorry. I recant, mantra was correct.
again, nervous typer here..
Dumdum
Hey if I ask real nice do you think I could get a little hazing from those college studs? Maybe paddle my butt and let me work on my knees for a week or two? Wink, wink.
Legacy Prince
It’s sad news to hear orgs in legal battle but it wouldn’t be the first time. It normally happens on local levels when two orgs are targeted to the same demographics. With that saidI would also like to state that Delta Lambda Phi isn’t the First National Gay Fraternity. That honor goes to Delta Phi Upsilon Fraternity, Inc founded in 1985 on the campus of Florida State in Tallahassee.
Zazah
@Guillermo3:
except my organization is not a fraternity or a sorority
Delta lambda PSI welcomes everyone regardless of gender, orientation, race and/or class.
Our org’s main purpose is to queer greek life. And we’re not rich in fact compared to most greek organizations, our fees are significantly and drastically low.
I’m sorry if you may have a negative experience with greek orgs. I understand. We dealt with it all the time with other fraternities and sororities while I was at UCSC and on the other side within our Queer community because of the label at times.
I”m not asking for you to understand us. But please do not put us in a box just because we’re a greek organization. We welcome everyone and anyone to rush and pledge our org.
I hope this gives an insight to what we stand for since i can’t officially give a real explanation. and I can not provide such evidence but you can look us up on wikipedia as well we’re a very young organization just trying to be progressive and beyond labels
Dumdum
@Zazah: Just because you use the Greek alphabet doesn’t make you a Greek organization. There are known fraternal organizations which existed as far back as ancient Greece and in the Mithraic Mysteries of ancient Rome. Analogous institutions developed in the late medieval period called confraternities, which were lay organizations allied to the Catholic Church. Others were groups of tradesmen, which are more commonly referred to as guilds. These later confraternities evolved into purely secular fraternal societies, while the ones with religious goals continue to be the format of the modern Third Orders affiliated with the mendicant orders.
The development of modern fraternal orders was especially dynamic in the United States, where the freedom to associate outside governmental regulation is expressly sanctioned in law. There have been hundreds of fraternal organizations in the United States, and at the beginning of the 20th century the number of memberships equaled the number of adult males.[I”m not asking for you to understand us. But please do not put us in a box just because we’re a greek organization. We welcome everyone and anyone to rush and pledge our org.] Are you from Greece? Sounds just a little pretentious to call A CLUB a Greek organization.
Zazah
@Dumdum:
i’m sorry if that sounds pretentious and i will admit fault to labeling it as such.
But as i mentioned before the organization is NOT exclusively male or female. So we’re not a fraternity nor a sorority we are a organization that is trying to queer “greek” life on campus by not excluding anyone and welcoming anyone of any gender.
Dumdum
@Zazah: Sounds like a very noble aspiration. Utilizing the democratic principles combined with education certainly embodies the ancient Greek ideal. So I suppose it is all semantics.
GayBacon
@Zazah: Ummm isn’t that labeled as a Co-Ed Fraternity? I mean there are plenty of academic fraternities that are co-ed like Theta Tau. Also, maybe I was just distracted by the awesome hunky ad that keeps popping out in the bottom right corner of my screen, but which one is the freaking gay fraternity here again, Psi or Phi?
Oh just remember boys, Legacies wear a String of Pearls. LOL
mixedinsf
@MikeE “Damned spoiled crybabies”
@Guillermo3 “Hope their trust funds evaporate”
@Tracy “Apparently, the d-bag stereotype doesn’t apply merely to straight frat boys”
I wonder if you are as racist as you are judgmental.
You are exercising the same twelve year old mentality that makes the lgbt community full of cliches and isolates people.
Guillermo3
@Guillermo3: ATTEMPTING to evade QUEERTY’s
Censor and “comment is awaiting moderation” limbo:Let’s change my words
to P*nnc*nts,those entitled,rude suburban hicks.
Guillermo3
Also:Fuck Queerty’s censors.
Tracy
@mixedinsf:
That is the lamest attempt at deflection I’ve ever seen.
Douchebags are douchebags, and they need to be called out.