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On November 19, 2011, Florida A&M University student Robert Champion Jr. was found unresponsive aboard a band bus after the school's biggest game of the year. Police ruled the death a homicide from hazing; furthermore, the parents of Mr. Champion, a 26-year-old drum major in the university’s famed marching band, have recently revealed that Mr. Champion was gay. The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s largest Black LGBT civil rights organization, is urging the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service (CRS) and Civil Rights Division, in addition to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, to launch an immediate investigation into Mr. Champion’s death as a potential anti-gay hate crime. You can help by signing our petition.

The loss of Mr. Champion is an unfortunate reminder of the need for proactive measures that foster inclusive environments for all students, regardless of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity, and that address the severe issue of hazing at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country—Florida A&M being one of the nation’s oldest and largest HBCUs.

Just as Campus Pride and Lambda 10 Project head to Indiana University for the 2010 OUT & Greek Fraternity Leadership Conference, we learn that gay and straight ally fraternity Sigma Phi Beta will initiate their first out-of-state members at Indiana University this weekend.

Sigma Phi Beta, founded at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., will initiate 15 members at Indiana University. The school is the home of the oldest and largest college fraternity system.

"I look forward to welcoming the new members from the Indiana University colony into our Brotherhood,” Nathan Arrowsmith, the fraternity’s national president, says in a release.

Arrowsmith will preside over the Indiana University initiation ceremony.

"The students at Indiana University have worked hard to bring Sigma Phi Beta to their campus, opening up more opportunities for gay men and their allies to experience brotherhood within the traditional Greek fraternity system," Arrowsmith says. "This is our first major step towards achieving our vision of creating a uniquely diverse safe space within the traditional Greek fraternity system on college campuses nationwide."

Sigma Phi Beta was founded in 2003. It's national organization was formed in 2005.

For more information about Sigma Phi Beta Fraternity, visit www.sigmaphibeta.org.

Campus Pride Hosts Second Annual OUT & GREEK Conference for LGBT & Ally Fraternity & Sorority Members, Nov 19-22

Registration Open; Call for Workshop Presenters until Friday, September 25, 2009

Manhattan, KS, September 14 , 2009 – Campus Pride announced today the dates for the second annual Out & Greek conference designed for LGBT and ally college students and professionals involved in Greek life. The conference, which will take place November 19-22 at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, is the only conference of its kind for LGBT and ally fraternity and sorority members nationally. Registration now open along with call for workshop presenters online at http://www.lambda10.org/outandgreek.

Echoing the mission of Campus Pride's Lambda 10 educational initiative, the Out and Greek Conference aims to bring together lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and ally members of fraternities and sororities in an effort to foster dialogue and create safer, more LGBT-friendly learning environments at colleges and universities.

"Fraternities and sororities were once considered a primary source of homophobia on college campuses," said conference chair Chelsey Fritch who is also a member of Gamma Rho Lambda, one of the nations queer-inclusive sororities. "But now more than ever LGBT members of the Greek system are being open and honest about who we are. This conference hopes to provide an opportunity to enhance that dialogue, share tools and create further strategies for change."