The Office of Diversity Affairs hosted solo performer Dan Bernitt Sunday afternoon, along with students from Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., to discuss challenges that arise when confronted with the realities of homophobia and homosexuality.

Bernitt is a young solo performer who wrote an undergraduate thesis on how homophobia can destroy a community. He was interested in exploring issues of masculinity and homophobia and created four male characters to represent the relationship of brothers in a fraternity in his one-man play, "Phi Alpha Gamma."

Bernitt was not a member of a Greek organization during his time at the University of Kentucky, but he thought a fraternity would be a great setting to evaluate the issues he was studying for his thesis.

"I tried not to let (not being Greek) limit me by doing a lot of research," Bernitt said. "I grappled with the issue of not having been a member but this play is not just about fraternities. It's about the issues raised. The setting is not supposed to be the focus."

Bernitt gave voices to four members of the fraternity - one in jail for committing an act of violence against a homosexual, a deeply religious member, the chapter president and the confidant of one of the newly out gay members. None of these characters were victims of discrimination, which Bernitt did to give his presentation a new angle.

"I wanted to explore how oppression forms and the effects on an oppressor from oppressing," Bernitt said. "I thought there was already a lot out there about victimization and I wanted to look at it from a completely different angle."

He said his goal in performing this play throughout the country is to start the conversation about homosexuality and homophobia.

Junior John Folk, a manufacturing engineer major and member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, said he came out as gay at the beginning of the fall semester to all of his brothers.

"For some people it's hard to deal with and it's awkward," Folk said. "But a lot of brothers have been very accepting and make an effort to ask questions and bring it up in conversations."

Folk recounted how he had a difficult time as a first-year deciding whether to tell his brothers or not. He describes his experience as "a fun adventure because it's not something you hear about very often."

Anne Marie Roderick, a religion major at Earlham University, said she met Bernitt at a film festival this summer and invited him to speak at her school and Miami University.

"Earlham is only about 35 minutes away, but we barely interact," Roderick said. "I think it's important for universities to stay in contact together because we are dealing with a lot of the same issues."

Earlier in the semester Roderick contacted Miami's Office of Diversity Affairs because she thought Bernitt's topic was very relatable to the culture at Miami because of the prevalence of Greek life.

Demere Woolway, coordinator of GLBTQ Serivices at Miami, was excited Roderick contacted her about having Bernitt perform in Oxford.

"It will help to open up the conversation about the challenges many GLBT members face in Greek organizations," Woolway said.

She has studied research about members of the GLBT community and the reasons for joining Greek organizations.

"They join for many of the same reasons everyone else does, for leadership and social opportunities, but they are often met with discrimination," Woolway said. "Sometimes about small things like date functions, when they have to determine what is acceptable."

After Bernitt's performance, students from Earlham and Miami discussed Greek life on Miami's campus and the issues faced by homosexual members. Since Earlham does not have Greek organizations, the students were curious about what Greek organizations are really like from the perspective of real members.