Vanderbilt University Christian Fraternity Revokes Membership Of Gays

The Vanderbilt University student newspaper the Hustler reports that two former members of the school Beta Upsilon Chi chapter were asked to leave the fraternity recently because they violated the organization’s Code of Conduct which does not condone homosexuality. Beta Upsilon Chi, according to the report, is a registered religious/ spiritual student group as well as a Christian fraternity. The paper writes that a former fraternity brother who wishes to remain anonymous and fraternity president Gregg Wigger spoke this spring, saying that “On April 18th, 2010, we met alone in my dormitory and he began asking me about my excessive absence from fraternity events. And my attendance was bad, but I knew that another brother, also a 2010 graduate, whose attendance was worse. Rather than being forced from the brotherhood, he had been offered early alumnus status.” That opportunity would never be offered, however, as the conversation between the two turned to brother’s perceived sexual orientation, Wigger saying that “someone had approached the officer corps and suggested that I might be struggling with homosexuality,” and that the brother said he was in fact gay. Wigger then allegedly asked what he meant by “gay,” and if he was “sexually active or just attracted to men? The brother said he was not sexually active, but ten days later Mr. Wigger informed him that he had been deactivated, his membership in the fraternity revoked. The Hustler reports that the fraternity’s Code of Conduct’s second clause states “We believe that sex is a gift of God to be enjoyed only inside the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. Therefore, we will not condone such activity as homosexuality, fornication, or adultery. (I Corinthians 6:15-20; Hebrew 13:4).” That clause, however, completely contravenes Vanderbilt’s anti-discrimination policies, which states that all student organizations must “refrain from discriminating in membership selection, officer or advisor appointment, or practices of organizational activities on the basis of race, sex, religion, colour, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, military service, or sexual orientation, in compliance with Federal law, including the provisions of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.” It is not clear what action Vanderbilt can or will take against the chapter, and the fraternity itself, including the national governing body, has so far refused to comment.