Being LGBT+ in APO

A brother's experience being Transgender during their time in APO

By: Raylen Greer

I pledged in the Fall 2016 semester with 14 other pledges. A lot of my fellow pledges had joined the chapter for a lot of the same reasons, service, being a part of something, had friends or family in APO. But I had a very different reason to join APO. I joined APO around the same time I was realizing my gender identity. I wanted to find an organization where I would be accepted as being genderfluid. I was cautious at first about coming out to my fellow pledges and the brothers, but after a few service events I grew more and more comfortable with being myself. Once I came out to the fraternity I was showered with loads a support from everyone. When I started to present female within the fraternity and our events no one ever made me feel uncomfortable. As time went on and the university passed out the All In initiative brothers looked to bring more diverse background into the chapter. This included a more diverse background with sexual orientation and gender identities. As being an active member of the LGBTQA community at Penn State I took the mantle of trying to bring more of the community to be in APO. I will still continue to try bringing more of the community to the chapter as we become more and more an open and affirming fraternity.

*Originally published on April 24th 2017*