Nation’s first Black fraternity won’t include trans members

Historic Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha has “overwhelmingly” voted to exclude trans men and nonbinary members from its organization, whose stated goals include “[aiding] the downtrodden.” Despite the landslide vote, members say that the ban reflects a generational divide, with most votes in favor coming from older members who no longer attend college.

The proposal to amend the fraternity’s bylaws, which was put forward at the organization’s Constitutional Convention in Chicago last week, will restrict membership to “any male defined as a human being naturally born male, who remains and continually identifies as a male,” according to GLAAD.

It is as yet unclear how the fraternity would enforce such a ban or whether the ban would affect existing trans and nonbinary members in addition to prospective pledges. The amendment, following a process of revision and individual charter votes, will face another general vote for formal adoption next summer.

Alpha Phi Alpha is the oldest Greek-letter organization for African-American men, founded in 1905-1906 at Cornell University in direct response to the racist exclusion policies from white fraternities. It now has nearly 300,000 members and 730 chapters across the world. Members have included Martin Luther King Jr, W.E.B. DuBois, Duke Ellington and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

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“After the NAACP, it’s Alpha Phi Alpha, honestly,” explained Matthew Shaw, assistant professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School and assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt Peabody College. Shaw, an Alpha Phi Alpha member, went on to note that unlike other venerable Black civil rights institutions like the NAACP, the fraternity still does not recognize LGBTQ+ members. In official communications, it has repeatedly ignored Pride month and it maintains heteronormative language, despite pressure from queer members.

“If we allow certain discriminations, we have to allow for all of them,” Shaw added. “If Alpha then adopts the logic that White Citizens’ Councils had against Black people desegregating schools in the 1950s and ’60, what’s to say that you couldn’t use that logic against Black people in 2024?”

Other members echoed these sentiments. “Their decision to alienate trans and nonbinary people from membership is reactionary, asinine, and unbecoming of an organization with a professed commitment to human rights,” said Deandre Miles-Hercules, a member who identifies as gender-creative. “It’s ludicrous to be the fraternity of Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr. and come up with a policy that bans trans people.”

“Trans men are men,” said a Philadelphia-based member, remaining anonymous to avoid repercussions. “I just feel like at the end of the day, if you identify as a man and you want to be in fellowship with other men, then you should be allowed to. It doesn’t sit well with me that a white man can be a member of Alpha, this historic Black institution, with no problem, but we’re going to tell Black trans men that they can’t. We’ve got all types of men in this fraternity, so to me, that’s how I look at it. It’s just another type of man.”

Following the vote, influential civil rights organization the National Black Justice Coalition issued a statement condemning the ban. “These proposals starkly contradict the historical commitment to equality, justice, and the advancement of all Black people,” the organization’s CEO and executive director David Johns told The Hill.

“By seeking to exclude transgender people, these fraternities are turning their backs on the very principles of brotherhood and inclusivity that they were founded upon and are a betrayal of the legacy of activism and leadership that these organizations have upheld for over a century.”