Delta Lambda Phi

Delta Lambda Phi Social Fraternity (ΔΛΦ, DLP, or Lambda) is an American social fraternity for gay, bisexual, transgender and progressive men. The fraternity was founded in 1986 in Washington, D.C. It offers a social environment and structure similar to other Greek-model college fraternities. It was the first, and as of 2013, the only, national fraternity with an emphasis on gay and bisexual men.

Delta Lambda Phi was founded in Washington, D.C. on October 15, 1986, by Vernon L. Strickland III. A fellow student on his university campus had been denied fraternity membership due to the presumption that he was gay. When Strickland became aware of other examples of this, he began organizing a fraternity with a more welcoming model that would not discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Strickland wrote the fraternity's ritual, selected a name and its symbols, and advertised for rush. Eligible members included gay, bisexual, and progressive straight men. According to a fraternity member, a progressive male is "a person willing to accept the virtues, ideals, and truth that gay, bisexual and transgendered [sic] people feel. They are essentially straight allied members of the gay community." The fraternity was founded with 29 members and was community-based, rather than being affiliated with a university.

The three purposes of the fraternity are:

The Washington, D.C. Area Alpha chapter was formed on April 10, 1987, with the initiation of 24 members. The fraternity was incorporated in Washington D.C. on September 10, 1987. Strickland traveled to college campuses across the United States for eighteen months, working on expanding the fraternity. In April 1988 a group of gay men at University of California, Los Angeles were recognized as the first Delta Lambda Phi chapter to be affiliated with a university. This was followed by chapters at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Minnesota. The fraternity continued to add colonies and chapters across the United States, becoming "one of the nation's fastest-growing fraternities".

In August 1995, the University of Minnesota chapter opened a residential house in a former Chi Phi chapter house on fraternity row. This was the first chapter house for an openly gay fraternity in the United States. In 2011, the fraternity changed its charter to specifically include transgender men. The fraternity went international with the chartering of Beta Omega chapter at McGill University in Montreal in 2012, although that chapter has since closed. It established fourteen chapters between 2011 and 2014.

Delta Lambda Phi has been a member of the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) since 2013. The fraternity's highest honor is the Vernon L. Strickland III Founder's Award for extraordinary service to the fraternity's brotherhood.

The Greek letters Delta (Δ) to represent the pink triangles that the Nazis made homosexuals wear and Lambda (Λ) because it is a symbol used for gay pride; however, the complete Greek meaning is known only by its members . The fraternity's initiation ritual is also secret.