“Oh, I didn’t tell you guys, but I’m gay,” Ohlinger told the brothers. The following day, a few of the ADPhi brothers called Ohlinger to ask why he’d turned down the bid. They gave it to me and I turned it down.” So I just turned down my bid right up front. “(I didn’t know if) it would be OK with those people having guys come back to the frat … if it would be awkward in front of people, or if people would have a problem with it.
“I didn’t think the whole, being in a frat and being gay went together at all,” Ohlinger said. But, rather, Ohlinger thought he wouldn’t be welcome in the fraternity once the brothers found out he was gay. It wasn’t that Ohlinger didn’t enjoy the people he had met - some of his best friends decided to join. Even after he and his friends received a bid to the same fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi, Ohlinger still opted against it. And although he said he enjoyed the rush process - the free parties and booze, the friends he made - Ohlinger never seriously considered joining. This was fall 2008, Ohlinger’s first semester at the University. “So I ended up being on, like, 12 different rush lists.”
“We figured out that you can get a lot of free beer and free alcohol and free food if you tell the fraternity you’re rushing,” Ohlinger said.
