Student Work

I never felt like I had to hide myself or anything like that because everybody knows me as me.

Dylan Harris is a senior at Indiana, a brother of the Pike fraternity, captain of his Little 500 team and completely open about his sexuality.

Dylan Harris, IU senior

I think the thing that surprised me the most was how accepting everybody was.

Nathan Collier, IU junior

Because we’re all completely OK, and we really feel like we love him no matter what. What he says or what he does just helps us all hang out and make that connection and help us be a better team.

Boys train on stationary bicycles.

Pike and the bike team have been nothing but inclusive and supportive when it came to Harris coming out as gay. His teammates couldn’t imagine this experience without him.

Members of Pike’s bike team stand at the track.

Zen Zupin, IU junior

He just brings like a lot of humor and stuff, like, if we just finished like a two-hour workout at like 8 in the morning, and we’re all like ‘oh man, this sucks,’ he’ll drop some stupid bomb, and we’ll just laugh and say ‘why would you say that?’

Pike boys flip between the track and training on stationary bikes.

Not only is he that teammate that makes the bad workouts fun, Harris also….

He holds a position right now in our fraternity, which is mental health chair.

His friends say this says a lot about him.

It just shows how incredibly strong-willed he is as a person and that he can just overcome anything and also just how giving he is, willing to give up time and sacrifice and help other people. He’s just that kind of person.

Harris is show outside on his bike, wearing Pike gear. The team works on bikes in a garage.

While Harris balances his schoolwork in Kelley, his fraternity and his team, he also works at UITS in the Wells library.

I used to see him at work, and it’s so annoying because all the admin will come and be like ‘oh Dylan, how are you today?’ just cause they love seeing him because he’s so good at like talking to them about stuff.

The team is shown practicing riding around the track.

Regardless of his sexuality, Harris’ teammates and brothers think very highly of him, and he thinks this is the most important thing to share:

I’m certain I’m not the only gay rider who has ever ridden in Little 5, whether or not they’re out or not, that’s their own thing, but I think this story and I think talking about being out in a fraternity and being accepting of me, it kind of sets the standard of what fraternity life should be like and what being on a bike team should be like and what Little 5 should be like.

The boys train on their stationary bikes inside.

With the IU Media School, I’m Molly Levine.