Jamie Howell
   Staff Writer

All over the country, a myth has persisted that if more than a certain number of single

women live together in one place, then it is, by law, considered a brothel; but there is no evidence to show that the so-called “Brothel Law” has any basis in fact.

Such a law would beg elucidation on such cases as large, female-only families.

The myth has been used as a way of explaining why sororities on certain college campuses don’t have houses while some fraternities do. A columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times called the brothel law “the most widespread piece of university folklore making the rounds.”

The 2002 Greensboro City Zoning Laws designate 68.1 percent, or 49,628 acres, of land development for residential zoning; this includes single-family and multi-family. There is nothing in the city’s zoning laws stipulating the allowed demographics of single- or multi-family homes.

Curtis Tarver, associate director of programs fraternities, explained that

UNCG doesn’t have “legitimate” frat houses. The houses students see are more like groups of boys who are in the same fraternity who decide to be roommates; they just call these houses their frat houses.

Tarver said that the Brothel Law is an “urban legend,” and there is nothing baring

members of sororities from doing the same thing that fraternities do.

Jim Settle, Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, said that he can’t speak to the

past, but now there are no so-called brothel laws.

Settle said that different zones in Greensboro allow for different things to take place

within them. According to the Greensboro zoning website, in order for sororities and

fraternities to have houses, they would have to be in zones which allow for group living.

The Greensboro zoning website states that zones are used to separate the city into

different districts and give a purpose for each one. The website states, “Typically, zoning districts are created to attract and regulate certain types of development, such as single family homes, offices, neighborhood businesses, general industry, or a mix of related uses.”

According to snopes.com “Some municipalities do indeed have zoning laws prohibiting

more than a specified number of non-family members (male or female) from living together, but

not even in those cases would a household in violation of those codes be labeled a brothel.”

The website continues, saying that it’s not about the gender of the people living in one place but the activities that take place within the house that would designate it a brothel.

According to Settle, there are no rules about sororities or fraternities having houses that stem from UNC-Greensboro Housing and Residence regulations — any restrictions come from city ordinances or the sororities and fraternities themselves.

In order for sororities and fraternities to have legitimate houses, said Settle, they would have to meet with certain safety standards such as a sprinkler systems for potential fires.

Shannon Lloyd, freshman International and Global Studies major, told The Carolinian that she has heard the rumor spread in a variety of ways.

“When I first toured here, the question was raised about why Greeks don’t have houses on campus,” Lloyd said.

She said her tour guide, who was in a fraternity told her tour group “about the [brothel] law and how frats don’t have on-campus houses” in order for the university to “[make] it fair.”

She went on to explain that rumors of the law are not solely campus-based.

“My roommate is in a sorority, and her realtor even told her about it,” Lloyd said.

She explained that Greensboro natives who “aren’t affiliated with UNCG” have also mentioned the law as the reasoning behind the lack of sorority houses.

The myth doesn’t just exist in Greensboro or even just in NC; it has cropped up on

college campuses all over the United States.

An article in Appalachian State University’s school newspaper addressed the rumor and disproved it on their campus, saying, “This supposed brothel law has often been used to explain why sororities live in the Appalachian Panhellenic Hall rather than sorority houses, but the law is only a myth.”

“The Odyssey,” a online social content platform, came to the same conclusion recently regarding Illinois state universities, saying, “There is no law that prohibits 6 or more women from living together.”

The Daily Free Press in Boston Massachusetts suggests that the idea of the Brothel Law

may have been derived from the Blue Laws of Puritan New England, “Though the “Blue Laws” were repealed in 1984, public awareness of their elimination is not well publicized.”

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica website Blue Laws were established to create a social order that was acceptable to the Puritans who lived in pre-revolutionary New England.

These were laws such as prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sundays and what is seen today as the Brothel Law.

The encyclopedia Britannica states that in most American colonies, there were laws

similar to the Blue Laws, which were prevalent in places like Massachusetts and Connecticut; many of these laws, however, started slipping away after the American Revolution.

The encyclopedia Britannica says that while most laws, specifically the Brothel Law, have been taken out of practice, some state laws regarding things like the sale of alcohol may have their roots in Blue Laws.

North Carolina, in fact, is not allowed to sell alcohol until after noon on Sundays because of Blue Laws. The Brothel Law, however, is not, if it ever was, an enforced law.