K-State hosts national Out and Greek conference

The students of K-State took the initiative to bring the Out and Greek National Leadership Conference to Manhattan. K-State was chosen from a list of schools to play host to the second annual conference.

Events at the conference included several workshops, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in the greek system, a special recognition reception, a dance night and drag show.

Alpha Chi Omega and Kappa Kappa Gamma both had keynote speakers from the conference come to their houses, including Shane Windmeyer, a national leader in gay and lesbian civil rights and the executive director of Campus Pride. Speaking at the seminars was Terrance Dean, the author of the bestseller "Hiding in Hip Hop: Confessions of a Down Low Brother in the Entertainment Industry." There was featured entertainment from poet Andrea Gibson.

Jessica Pettitt, national author and educator on the issues of social justice, said the conference is in its second year of operation. The previous year's conference was at DePaul University in Chicago.

"We had people from as far away as California come to the conference this year," Pettitt said. "This conference is one of the many programs that Campus Pride puts on. It creates a better environment within the university as well as greek life."

The conference was sponsored by the Lambda 10 project, an educational initiative of Campus Pride.

"The project works to heighten visibility of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members of the college fraternity by serving as a clearinghouse for educational resources and educational materials related to sexual orientation and gender identity expression as it pertains to fraternity and sorority experiences," according to the conference agenda.

Windmeyer said the conference was started because he thought it was the right time and place for it to happen. Different cities put out bids for the conference, he said, and it depends on which students wanted to host the conference as students are very engaged in the process of selection.

Dusty Garner, conference planning committee member and senior in political science, attended the conference last year at DePaul. He said the experience was very powerful and he thought it would be great if it was in Manhattan.

"It is always nice to see different chapters of the greek community come together," Garner said. "It has been great to have the conference here in town, even though the conference was a little smaller this year, the people who are here have some really fresh ideas to help create lots of change."

Garner said many of the schools who would have come were facing cutbacks, so they could not send as many students. He said altogether, about 40 people attended the conference this year instead of the 60 people who attended last year's conference.

He said there was a good cross section of people who attended who have perspective on the different issues. Garner said the impact of the conference would be the motivation to start conversations that are transformative.

Windmeyer said the different workshop sessions included information on social justice, religious issues, gender theory, coming out issues and transgender issues.

"The change that people create today will impact the next generation," Garner said. "The conversations that we had at the conference were very in depth and personal."

Garner also said he thought it was unfortunate that representatives from the governing bodies for sororities and fraternities, the IFC, the PHC and the multicultural greek council did not attend the conference.

"We were very appreciative, however, that Scott Jones, the director of Greek Affairs, did attend the conference," Garner said. "It is important that he is open and supportive, and we really appreciate that."

Windmeyer said the most important thing for K-State students to remember is: there are gay and lesbian men and women within all sororities and fraternities. He said the only question is whether they feel safe and comfortable enough to be honest and open when coming out to their brothers and sisters. That would be the ultimate test of true brotherhood and sisterhood

Chelsey Fritch, senior in humanities, said K-State is a traditionally conservative and agricultural campus, and by bringing the conference to Manhattan it will involve K-State in the progressive movement.

"Even though not as much of the greek life showed up as we would have liked, we are still sending out a positive message and people will take these things back and implement them to create diversity and tolerance," Fritch said. "We still had a very successful weekend."