It seems like a whirlwind, but I had a very successful speaking engagement at the University of Washington this Tuesday, May 6. On behalf of the Lambda 10 Project (an educational initiative of Campus Pride), I was asked to speak with the Greek community about LGBT issues.

The day started at 6 a.m. with my flight from Charlotte, NC to Portland, Oregon. Not sure why, but it was a long day of traveling. The campus of UW is two hours away from the Portland (PDX) airport. Well, the day really began at 1:30 p.m. PST when I had lunch with two dozen or so men and women from the UW fraternity and sorority community. The luncheon program was very informal; however, I found the students engaging and sincerely interested in the topic. The group shared a list of a dozen key points and, or educational resources on the topic that they felt were important to their Greek community. We covered many online tools at Lambda10.org and also mentioned our annual OUT & GREEK Leadership Conference (www.lambda10.org/outandgreek) which is the only conference of its kind for LGBT and ally fraternity and sorority leaders.

Later that evening, I spoke to over 750 fraternity and sorority members. The crowd was lively and engaged as was the earlier luncheon. I always ask audience members to text message questoins to my phone while I am talking so I can randomly choose some questions toward the end of the program. I received over 30 which was a good response and the questions ranged from "how to deal with a brother coming out to understanding how one can be religious and accepting gays." None of the questions were out of the ordinary. I think the most telling response was the Panhellenic President who came to me after surprised. She commented that she had never seen this large of an audience that was so "into it" -- basically she expected some behavioral issues (I think) or at least some chatting in the back of the room.

Truly, I am not surprised anymore. I am intrigued that todays young adults want to learn about LGBT issues and want to have these topics discussed -- even in fraternities. One fraternity guy after the program came up and said a personal thanks to me. He had recently had his Dad come out to him and he gets tired of the anti-gay sentiments in his fraternity. He felt like my program would open up some new dialogue and he personally felt glad that the campus had brought me to speak about LGBT issues in Greek Life.

I want to say thank you to Heather, Jory and the UW students who made this happen! THANK YOU! I truly enjoyed my "quick" visit to UW and learning all about the campus -- Nike, the Simpson -- WOW!