Bros helping transbros

February 26, 2013 11:28 AM

The brothers of Phi Alpha Tau are helping a brother become a brother. In today's stereotype-shattering news, the brothers of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity have launched an IndieGoGo campaign to help a pledge cover female-to-male gender reassignment surgery. The campaign has been covered by Out, and has already reached and exceeded its stated goal, much to its members' happiness.

Phi Alpha Tau is an unusual fraternity, with no residence and no other chapters. But they're not the only Greek organization to welcome transgender and GLB members.

posted by ThatFuzzyBastard (25 comments total)

This is thoroughly awesome, and an uplifting sign of the times. I gotta admit though, after a moment the fraternities initials did occur to me and Julia Sweeney instantly appeared in the back of my mind and made me giggle a little.
posted by trackofalljades at 11:34 AM on February 26 [4 favorites]

Phonetically, Phi Alpha Tau would spell "phat," which may not be any better.
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 11:51 AM on February 26

The kids are all right, after all.
posted by Theta States at 11:52 AM on February 26 [1 favorite]

This is great. Thanks for posting it.

My fraternity was known for being gay friendly so we'd have 2-3 gay brothers in each class. A few of them dated and there's one couple that graduated 5 or so years ago that may be getting married in DC soon.

When I was there it was still pretty heteronormative, and still probably is, but it's something the organization is working on.
posted by Aizkolari at 11:59 AM on February 26

That is just outstanding. Hell yeah. I mean, it's at *Emerson*, so there should be some expectation of gay-friendliness. But still. I heard about this earlier today and found it pretty heartwarming.
posted by rmd1023 at 12:03 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Best of the world.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:13 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

Well, rock the FUCK on, kids!

That just made my day.

Cheers on the share, too.
posted by Samizdata at 12:33 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

There is some general okayness about LGB people. But I find that wide swaths of people are still squicky around Trans folk. So this god damned awesome. Punch it in, bro!
posted by munchingzombie at 12:33 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

This is the best thing I've read all day.
posted by elsietheeel at 12:42 PM on February 26

Holy crap. That's amazing.
posted by tittergrrl at 12:42 PM on February 26

Kids these days.
posted by flippant at 12:46 PM on February 26

Wait, do we know that the pledge wants to transition, or is this just fraternity hazing?
posted by chrchr at 12:47 PM on February 26 [7 favorites]

If you read the indiegogo page, you would know that insurance had declined to pay for it, so they are helping out instead. Way to go, that's amazing.
posted by gemmy at 12:58 PM on February 26

Just curious, is there an explanation for the $4,800 number? I imagine the surgery has to cost astronomically more.
posted by eugenen at 1:00 PM on February 26

"There is some general okayness about LGB people. But I find that wide swaths of people are still squicky around Trans folk. So this god damned awesome. Punch it in, bro!"

Yeah, trans folk end up getting a mighty shaft most of the time, not least in the law. The org I work for is working on a couple of bills that deal with trans folk, and our state just does not know how to deal with the difference between sex and gender at all. (It's awkward too, because we're getting pushed by some of our more radical or progressive members to push for including genderqueer folks and it's super awkward to be like, "We have absolutely no idea how to currently draft that into law without really terrible unintended consequences or dismantling the whole idea of gender/sex in the law in the first place, which also won't happen any time soon." It's, like, a totally legit thing to push for, but the legal language to articulate it just isn't there yet. And our legislative laison is even a trans dude, and he can't make this shit make sense.)
posted by klangklangston at 1:15 PM on February 26 [4 favorites]

How far we've come!
posted by ericb at 1:23 PM on February 26

Never had much love for fraternities, but you guys: you guys are all right. Way to fucking go!
posted by gkhan at 1:30 PM on February 26

Just curious, is there an explanation for the $4,800 number? I imagine the surgery has to cost astronomically more.

AFAIK, $4800 is low, but not absurdly low for top surgery. (There not really such a thing as A Sex Change, with capital letters, despite what the media would have you believe.) I would guess he has some money saved up. There's a chance insurance is doing something crazy like paying for anaesthesia but refusing to pay the surgeon. I don't think so, though--I watched enough of his video to get to the part where he talks about insurance refusing to pay and didn't mention such a thing.
posted by hoyland at 1:40 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

I thought it was a no-no to promote Kickstaters and their ilk that are still going.
posted by Talez at 1:43 PM on February 26

This is infinitely better than bros icing bros (trans or otherwise).
posted by dhens at 1:45 PM on February 26

I thought it was a no-no to promote Kickstaters and their ilk that are still going.
posted by Talez at 4:43 PM on February 26 [+] [!]

The campaign .... has already reached and exceeded its stated goal
posted by neroli at 1:49 PM on February 26 [1 favorite]

I thought it was a no-no to promote Kickstaters and their ilk that are still going.

It's something we're pretty firm about but if everybody promises not to get the wrong idea, I'm willing to let this post stand as is as just people being pretty awesome and the IndieGoGo thing being incidental.
posted by cortex at 1:49 PM on February 26 [3 favorites]

Wait, do we know that the pledge wants to transition, or is this just fraternity hazing?

If this were to turn out to be a stunt, I can imagine all of those involved would be criticized and not happy to carry a 'black mark' forever forward just for a prank.

And, they'd likely be kissing away any access to future jobs and connections in film, television, music and the arts by way of Emerson's esteemed 'Emerson Mafia' in L.A., Hollywood and elsewhere.
posted by ericb at 1:55 PM on February 26

It's something we're pretty firm about but if everybody promises not to get the wrong idea, I'm willing to let this post stand as is as just people being pretty awesome and the IndieGoGo thing being incidental.

I don't think "because the community consensus is that it's cool" should really be the hole that should be made in this dam. We put up with a lot of different stuff that ultimately comes down to the discretion of you guys but I honestly think that getting crowdsourcing promotion, even incidentally and there's no apparent intent, by slathering it in enough human interest backstory is a bad precedent to set.

My apologies to TFB. I say it here because I don't want to start a MeTa shitfight over it. Cortex, feel free to delete my comments if this is going forward and you feel my comments are disruptive and derailing.
posted by Talez at 2:00 PM on February 26

chrchr: Wait, do we know that the pledge wants to transition, or is this just fraternity hazing?

In the Happiness video, Donnie mentions he's been taking testosterone for fourteen months, and talks about how disappointed he was when his surgery was denied by insurance. The Out article also discusses his history a little.
posted by Georgina at 2:31 PM on February 26