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When I first came to Penn State, I was approached by a senior who was interested in starting a fraternity.
Even though Delta Lamda Phi is a fraternity that is focused around welcoming
gay, bisexual, trans and progressive men, we do so much more work in general social
justice ideas. New members spend eight weeks as part of a new member process before they
become brothers. And during that process, their education is built only about 20% around
actual fraternal knowledge. This entire education program is really built on bringing them to
a higher level of social awareness, and that entire program is something that I built over
the last three years, and it is something that is shared among the country. After getting
involved with the fraternity, and founding the chapter here, I got involved in the LGBT
Student Resource Center. Ido a lot of the marching and the rallying and the speaking
or the etching in classes and having one on one meetings with administrators and staff
and faculty to try to make positive change. If I don't tell people that I'm gay, and I
don't tell that I came from an upper middle-class background and I just tell them I grew up
on a farm in Lancaster County, the stereotype that comes along with who I am gives me the
power to say pretty much whatever I want in spaces that are controlled by heterosexual,
upper middle-class white men. To be able to fit in to that kind of group, "the boys club",
that is running the majority of the major institutions in America and holding most of
the power, is a huge avenue where I can use my privilege, I could use my position at a
table where a lot of other people didn't have voices to voice the concerns of those who
are not at the table. I feel like it is my obligation to help other people, and it is
my obligation to do the work that other people can't do, other people won't do. "When we
work as a community towards a collective vision to use our strength" So an ethical leader
can't decide that at the rally today he or she is going to be an ethical leader and then
in the workplace tomorrow be quiet while something that is wrong is happening. I find that the
most exciting places, where my passion really lights up and I can feel that jazz, comes
with being able to bridge the gap between race and gender and sexuality and class and
culture and religion, I can't wait to explore those intersections because I feel like it's
at those intersections of identity that the answers to the questions lie. I don't think
I could do this work if I didn't believe that change was possible, and I believe that social
change will happen and that people will change. "And he became a student leader almost his
first year here" So when people see that I'm doing this work, and they praise me as a bit
some part of who I am, that makes me able to do this work, I always like to remind people
there is nothing different about me that separates me from other people in the work that I do.
It is simply allowing myself to be the hero in my own life, and that's what I feel like
I should do for others, is to inspire them to be heroes in their own lives. "For born
out of that fear was one of the most beautiful dreams ever conceived at Penn State, the idea
of a brighter future for LGBT people." (cheering and applause)