The Lambda Alliance, a new coalition for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-interest groups, elected Wharton senior Clifford Jones its chairman Thursday night.
The Lambda Alliance unites eight LGBT groups: Allies; the Queer Christian Fellowship; the Queer Student Alliance; Queer People of Color; the Wharton Alliance; Jewish Bisexuals, Gays and Lesbians; Delta Lambda Phi and Penn's Athletes and Allies Tackling Homophobia and Heterosexism.
The group's other newly elected officials include Political Chairwoman and College junior Alexis Ruby-Howe, Finance and Development Chairman and College junior Jonathan Kiman, Communications Chairman and College sophomore Malek Lewis and Programming Chairman and College sophomore Kevin Rurak.
Jones spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian about his new job uniting the eight organizations in the Lambda Alliance.
Daily Pennsylvanian: What do you hope will change as a result of the Lambda Alliance?
Clifford Jones: What we're looking for is the strengthening of the voice, cohesion and presence of the LGBT community on campus.
DP: What are some of the issues the strengthening of that voice could improve?
CJ: That will help us lobby for policy changes. One example would be the gender-neutral housing issue, [in which groups are lobbying to make co-ed housing more widely available.] By getting all the groups to work together more, it really helps to get more people involved and bring the community together.
The LGBT community, over the past several years, has been growing in strength. Now we've reached that critical mass which allows and also gives us benefits from forming a greater level of organization in order to direct and amplify our efforts.
DP: What model do you hope to put forward as chairperson?
CJ: [The Alliance] is responsive to and accountable to its constituent groups because it's there for the groups. I really believe that everyone who was elected believes that they are here serving on the Lambda Alliance in a position of leadership. We have a responsibility to the community.
DP: What specific issues will you be focusing on in order to unify the community? What projects do you have planned?
CJ: The most important thing we need to do is to build strong machinery by which the Lambda Alliance is run, that does make it accountable to the constituent groups, that does solicit involvement from the groups in its activities. That said, one specific thing would be a leadership retreat for the leaders of the groups that would train them to be better leaders and also help the leaders of the organizations to work together.
