Memphis College Students Kicked Out of Frat Party for Being Gay

Two students in Tennessee say they were violently kicked out of a college frat party for being gay.

Benjamin Buckley and Luke Chapman, students at the University of Memphis, say they went off campus with some of their friends this weekend to a party hosted by one of the fraternities. But once there, they were confronted by several members of the frat who told them they didn’t belong because they’re gay.

“He was screaming at us and called us faggot and all these things,” Buckley said of one of the frat boys. “And he looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to beat the fuck out of you. I’m going to beat the life out of you.’”

Buckley and Chapman say they were actually pushed out of the party into the rain during the altercation, but were eventually able to find their friends and leave.

Once safely home, Chapman, who is a British exchange student, posted about the incident on Facebook, calling out the school and the south in general.

“If you all really want to know what it’s like being gay in the South of America, its awful. It really is fully of hatred and pure homophobia,” he wrote.

“Tonight I attended a University of Memphis fraternity party, of which I was forcibly removed from for being gay, getting shouted ‘fuck off you fag,’ and ‘go the fuck back to great Britain you faggot.’ [It] isn’t acceptable in many forms and many might know that, but when the institution of study agrees with the people that physically threw you out…who do you go to?”

The school took note of Chapman’s post, and sent out an email to the student body saying they are investigating the “off-campus incident involving possible bigotry.”

Chapman and Buckley say they are pleased that the school is looking into things, and hope that the situation is treated as one part of a larger systemic issue, both at the school and going on in society right now. They’re also hoping the students that kicked them out will face some sort of accountability for their homophobia.

“We were just wanting to have a night out for fun,” said Buckley.