Lambda Alliance re-elects chair

The Lambda Alliance, the umbrella organization for Penn's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, elected its new board Thursday.

The Daily Pennsylvanian sat down with re-elected chairman and College junior Dennie Zastrow and newly-elected vice chairwoman of political affairs and Wharton junior Baylee Feore to discuss ideas for next year.

DP: What are your goals for next year?

DZ: My main goals are to focus on what we call the "three A's" ... academics, athletics, admissions. We want to ... create an LGBT studies major. We have a sexuality studies concentration within the GSOC major, which really isn't equivalent. An LGBT studies major ... creates an incentive for LGBT applicants to apply to Penn, and once accepted, to matriculate. An NCAA athletics diversity training program [is] in place that Lambda actually advocated for for a long time last year. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't really a focus on sexual orientation within the training. We also want to focus on expanding the training program beyond just coaches, which is what they do now, to athletes. [In the past] Lambda pushed to just increase LGBT visibility within the admissions process ... so LGBT applicants know about all the resources that are available. Having an LGBT Center like we do is actually a huge asset, and it's not something that most campuses have. On top of [those three focuses], there are just a lot of gender-identity issues. On the admissions form right now, you can only put male or female. If you're transgender, there's really no option for you. In addition, [campus climate is] something that minority coalitions at Penn have been working on for, I believe, over a decade now. We're very dedicated to the creation of a survey that would identify problems the University faces with minority communities so that they could target those problems and make the University a more welcoming space.

DP: What from the last year could you improve on?

DZ: Making all LGBT students - or any students that have an interest in LGBT issues - feel like Lambda is their coalition, and that we are their voice. They can come to us with their issues, and we're going to listen to them, and ... take them to the appropriate bodies.

DP: How are the incoming board and the previous one different?

DZ: I took up the chairmanship of Lambda when I was a second-semester sophomore, so I was very timid when dealing with the administration. I'm much more confident [now] in my position. I've built up connections. Everybody [on the Lambda board] is so qualified. We're all going to work really, really well together.

DP: How do you plan to promote unity between the different member groups of the Lambda Alliance?

DZ: That's actually one of [the vice chair of internal affairs'] main goals. Even though a lot of the groups cater to very specific, nuanced subsets of the community, all of us have a stake in the community. Not to sound corny or anything, but we're all fighting the same fight. There's so many things [the constituent groups] should be working on together.

BF: There's also sort of an external sense of collaboration I want to instill. We had a [Proposition Eight, the legislation recently passed in California banning gay marriage,] protest ... [near] City Hall a few weeks ago. People showed up from all the different constituent groups. Our voice as Lambda ... only becomes stronger when it's obvious that we have the support of all the constituents.

DP: What is the biggest problem facing the LGBT community at Penn, and how do you propose to fix it?

DZ: Because Penn is such a welcoming, LGBT-friendly environment, [students feel] there's not a lot they have to do. [With Proposition Eight passing], we were basically granted a civil right by the California Supreme Court, and then the majority of citizens stripped us of that, and something like that really mobilizes a community. That's definitely something that Lambda is really going to get behind ... making sure that every one of our constituents knows what's at stake here. There's so much that needs to be done, and we're not even close to being there yet.

DP: How would you describe the presence of the LGBT community and of Lambda Alliance here on campus?

DZ: Very strong. Penn is such an LGBT-friendly atmosphere that I've never seen the amount of people just so comfortable with themselves like they are at Penn.

BF: The community's strength, in a sense, comes from our ability to work together.

City News Editor-elect Emily Schultheis contributed reporting to this article.

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