Multiple national media sources are citing kollegekidd.com and its report that Men Interested in Alpha Kappa Alpha (MiAKA) are considering filing a gender discrimination lawsuit against Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.

While largely unsubstantiated, this rumor turns up the burner on the simmering discussion about homosexuality on the HBCU campus. From the ‘Plastics’ at Morehouse to gay and lesbian organizations finding support and acceptance on campus, HBCUs have an extraordinary branding problem when it comes to positive relationships with LGBT students and faculty at our schools.

The HBCU is an easy scapegoat for Black America’s overall difficulty to acknowledge and accept its LGBT family members. The view of sexual freedom has rarely been a clear look from the HBCU ivory tower, and this clouded perspective becomes more murky with emerging national political and social agendas advanced by black LGBT activism.

The merit of a lawsuit for men to join a sorority isn’t the question with this story; it’s the ongoing effort for LGBT students at HBCUs to find inclusion. Gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are looking for their lifestyles, their perspectives and ideas to be considered and valued within the entirety of HBCU academic and social culture.

And not just because they are gay, but because they are a part of the HBCU family.

With stories like those of the Plastics and now the MiAKA’s, the push for equity is moving off of the HBCU campus and into the national spotlight. To their credit, many HBCUs have taken bold steps to bridge the gap.

But are they moving fast enough? And is their movement, however speedy or deliberate, considered genuine by LGBT students and faculty?

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. LGBT MiAKA