Grant Sikes, transgender ‘main character of Bama Rush,’ cut from every sorority
 

I didn't want to hijack the Alabama recruitment thread in case this turned into a larger discussion, so I'm posting it here.

https://www.al.com/news/2022/08/gran...outputType=amp

I watched his recruitment process when Bama rush tok started up again. At first I legit thought he was making outfits based on whatever round it was for fun. But he was rushing, and even got to sisterhood round before getting dropped from the process.

The consensus seems to be that he had been living as a gay man and only rushed to get likes on his social media. Also, his grades apparently sucked and he had an arrest record and a lot of Bama people were talking about how racist he is.

He's been living as gay and just did the trans thing for recruitment....not the same

Poor grades? She's lucky she got any invitations then. Arrest record? LOL. Racist? No thanks. And then there's the whole "farming rush and creating drama for likes and follows" thing. If you value sisterhood, stop exploiting it and invest some effort in COB. Somebody ask her if she's down with "bottom house."

The main character? Do these idiots on tiktok know rush is people’s lives and not some random show?

A lot of people on the app either have never heard of greek life or their knowledge comes from that one ADPi doorchant that went viral a while back.

Well with poor grades, an arrest record and reported racist behavior, I can see why Grant would not have been extended a bid. That's too much of a risk for any chapter.

I literally did not know that this was for real.

Is there proof of any of this, or are these just rumors? I can't find anything online.

But the PNMs are putting themselves out there on TikTok. What would they expect to happen?

Several people in the know have put it out there about his grades and the rest. No names.

With the way Bama Rush has blown up on TikTok, I suspect some social media influencer types will go through just for the added views and followers (or whatever they’re called on TT I’m old!). I suspect this Grant person is one of them. It’s a really easy to just slide your name and profile information into the national media spotlight.

He just went on TikTok and said that he is not transgender, he is not nonbinary, and he identifies as a male. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t understand why he didn’t clarify this before sorority recruitment and I hate to sound unkind but I think the reason is attention. He knew he wouldn’t get a bid and he continues on with all of this for attention and followers. It is a whole big mess and it’s a shame that it’s reflecting negatively on the Panhellenic system.

I don't see that it reflects negatively on PH. He lied. He had invites. He got dropped. EOS.

Ugh. What a fiasco!

I don’t think it reflects negatively for PH though. They took him at his word when he filled out the application and gave him a chance. That’s what you’re supposed to do: when someone tells you their gender identity, believe it and respect them. Take them as they are presenting themselves. That’s what everyone did.

There’s only one person who comes off looking really bad here.

Update

https://www.al.com/life/2022/08/i-am...sh-tiktok.html

What a jackass. He’s made it harder for people who actually ARE trans and non-binary (sorry, but I don’t believe for a minute that he is) to go through rush by making a giant joke of everything for likes and clicks. I really wish Trumpy would have followed through and banned tiktok when he had the chance.

and he has really encouraged other trouble makers to follow his example in doing this. Making rush and sororities seem petty, useless and bigoted. More and more men will take advantage of our sororities' crushing desire not to look bad to anyone. He was just screwing with us and it will not be the last time.

What GPA does a PNM need to have a competitive recruitment at Alabama? Just wondering since Grant touted his 3.19 in the article.

I don’t believe a word this person says anymore.

It wasn’t for attention yet he’s certainly not turning down any interviews? How
Many Tik Tok videos will he come up with, analyzing every aspect of this experience?

But it’s not for attention, he swears!

The recommended GPA is a 3.2 BUT the incoming class of 2026 had a 3.8 average. Those are just the freshman numbers and I’m sure that the upperclassman also have to have higher GPAs to be able to compete.

I’m thinking NPC needs to start making rules regarding social media and that it’s essential for members and rushees to stay off of it.

My understanding from some on the ground so to speak is that Grant never said he was Transgender in order to "sneak in" to recruitment. Honestly him being able to go through recruitment is more of a Panhellenic issue and maybe something needs to changed in the wording when dealing with circumstances like this.

I did find this confusing. My understanding is that most organizations have changed their language to specifically include any person who identifies as female, to include trans women which I think is great. But he was very clear in his video that he does NOT consider himself a trans woman?

It also sounds like independent of his gender identity he had a lot of red flags as a PNM, including being a junior which generally is really a huge hurdle for any pnm.

Most schools have upperclass quota now. Alabama does.

This is another thing I'm having a hard time tracking down. When and where did HE say he was transgender? Perhaps he said this at some point and I just can't locate it?

There's certainly some misleading messaging bouncing around, indicating that only two or three NPC sororities have policies accepting transgender women. This isn't true.

At the same time, I'm not aware of any sororities that have policies accepting non-binary members, so perhaps this is at least partially what caused the heavy cuts.

Where are you seeing that he's a junior? Based on his Instagram page, he graduated high school last year.

I don’t know - it’s such a part of the lives of this generation, I think that might be impossible at this point?
And for the most part, I actually found a lot of the TikToks with the work week stuff and the PNMs OOTD really cute and in good taste. It also may get a lot of people excited about Greek life who wouldn’t otherwise have any exposure to it?

He graduated with his AA from community college before he started at Alabama and so he’s a junior by credits, not by age.

“The Sorority Drama Circling the University of Alabama”—-dated today, this is the headline for my morning NYT’s newsfeed.

Sadly, it won’t die.

Unfortunately, it did reflect negatively on PH. Theta and Gamma Phi were the only two chapters that didn't cut Grant right away. Those two chapters gave him a chance. When he eventually got dropped, I saw a bunch of people get on our Gamma Phi Beta Alabama chapter Insta and post things like "Justice for Grant!!!!" I don't understand why they were protesting the chapter that tried to give him a chance when the others just straight dropped him ASAP. But yeah, they wanted to shame Gamma Phi for not bidding him.


I don't know if he ever said he was transgender; but, Grant said on TT that he is a male. In his video he says, quote, "I am not transgender", "My sex is male. I was born male.", "I'm just non-binary....I live my life as just Grant."

But then Grant's LinkedIn says "she/her" for pronouns. I'm not sure what "their" current preference is.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/6pqe3z.png

I’m pretty sure “publicity seeking jagoff” is the pronoun we should be using for this person at this point.

:D:D:D

I don't take rando comments on social media seriously. And others shouldn't either. Grant got justice = he got what he wanted and what he knew he would get.

I’m with Titchou on this one. I can only imagine what kind of BS the public IG accounts for UA sororities have to deal with…because the TikTok fiasco has attracted plenty of random, unstable people with plenty of opinions.

Last year it was the same thing. Yet they still got record numbers of PNMs and it’s still one of the most respected systems in the country.

The more Grant speaks…the more I think people will realize that the sororities were right in not offering this person membership. It’s pretty clear this was one giant publicity stunt.

Attention seeking jag off!

Sobriquet of the Year, thus far!

Based off of the edit in the article, Grant is non-binary. I don't know why they expected to get accepted into a sorority when they do not identify as female. I'm sure they'd have no problem getting into a co-ed GLO as long as they got through rush. This all just seems like a silly stunt and trivializes what trans individuals have to go through to join GLO's that align with their gender identity.

Has everyone noticed that you don't hear of a biological female trying to join a fraternity?

Women who have transitioned and consider themselves males have gone through fraternity recruitment and some fraternities nationally have agreed to accept them.

Often FTM trans people are pretty low key and don’t want anything other than to pass as their gender and be accepted. I’ve noticed considerable histrionics and attention seeking behavior from some MTF trans people. Not all, of course.

Grant- who knows what Grant identifies as- I haven’t bothered to check today since it changes so often. However, I don’t think Grant’s issues stemmed from gender identity- just a way to piggyback into the TikTok rush video views and publicity. Grant was whatever Grant had to be that day to get more views. Which, as others have indicated, just cheapens the idea of trans/non-binary and makes it harder for people who genuinely identify as such to be taken seriously in life.

Yes, I haven't followed Grant's story super closely, but have seen the back and forth based on articles where Grant was interviewed etc. I have to say this, and this is just my two cents. I do feel like Grant was using this to gain notoriety and I agree with you Winter, it does make things more challenging for those in the trans and non-binary community. For people in these groups this isn't a joke and with the other societal/mental health/healthcare access/legal issues it is a shame because I feel like Grant is just making a mockery of everyone. The greek system, and those who are non-binary/trans.

I feel like Grant needs to step forward and apologize and at least own up to the motives behind this.

Hopping off my soap box.

What makes you think the co-ed GLOs want Grant? I belong to one (Alpha Phi Omega) and he's done more than enough that I wouldn't want to vote him into brotherhood. (Yes we use "Brother" for all and have since Title IX had us go co-ed in the USA)

Good point!