Most people know the University of Alabama for its phenomenally successful football program, but the school has grabbed headlines for a 2021 TikTok trend called #BamaRush. TikTok users who hoped to pledge to a sorority in Tuscaloosa documented their efforts to join.
After the school cracked down last year on pledges sharing rush videos online, sorority hopefuls were more low-key this year in their social media posts.
As the Daily Mail reports, “It’s believed that the university implemented the veil of privacy after the social media popularity brought a level of scrutiny to the sororities last year, with one unnamed Panhellenic executive admitting to DailyMail.com that the community was ‘getting more publicity’ than they wanted.”
But one 2022 #BamaRush participant faced rejection from every single sorority on campus for one obvious reason: because he’s a biological male.
Grant Eli Sykes, who some outlets are referring to as transgender, tried to pledge to the sororities as well.
View this post on Instagram
Sykes’ Instagram is full of pics of him cavorting in dresses and women’s swimwear, and his makeup often looks like he has put polyurethane over his face.
Recommended: Wow, They Really Want to Do This? Delusional Democrats Advance ‘Transgender Bill of Rights’
Yet somehow, he believed that the coeds of the University of Alabama would just accept him because he thinks of himself as one of the girls. Clearly, this guy underestimated the traditionalism of Greek organizations in the South.
Biological males are now participating in rush week to join a sorority at University of Alabama pic.twitter.com/S5WqYuZTuG
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 15, 2022
Sykes revealed his fate in an Instagram post, the text of which read in part, “Unfortunately, this chapter is closed. This recruitment journey is over for me. Being dropped from my last house this morning during primary recruitment at the University of Alabama doesn’t come as a surprise considering out of the almost 20 chapters- I was dropped by every single one except 2 before day 1.”
Naturally, Sykes felt compelled to include a message of inclusivity.
“I’m hopeful of a future where everyone is welcomed for just being themselves—everywhere,” he continued.
He concluded his post with a promise to his late grandmother that “this is just the beginning.”
Of course, the comments on Sykes’ post are overloaded with support and affirmation — and attention for the wannabe groundbreaker.
The school is remaining hush-hush about the process as a whole, and the Panhellenic council is demanding that pledges do the same.
“According to the Panhellenic, neither Grant nor I can make any statement at all, nothing,” Sykes’ mom told the Daily Mail.
The University is distancing itself from the whole brouhaha — not just the transgender stuff, but the #BamaRush phenomenon as a whole.
The Daily Mail reports that “The University stated it ‘does not restrict students from speaking to the media’ in a statement to DailyMail.com, however, it conceded that sororities ‘may have media guidelines for their active members.'”
Sykes isn’t the first to try a stunt like this. In 2016, a biological male wanted to join the Alpha Omicron Pi chapter at Tufts University in Boston. The chapter offered him a membership, but the sorority’s international office initially balked until the ensuing controversy led them to cave.
Let’s give the sororities at the University of Alabama credit. They stood up to the radical gender craziness. But let’s also hope they don’t experience too much of a backlash.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member