“Sadly, I feel like transgender issues get sidelined in queer organizations and feminist organizations,” he says. ”What I find particularly poignant about their struggle is that people are so stubbornly resistant to recognize the rights of transgendered people to live.”

Zahr says he wants to continue his campaign for transgender rights—and perhaps get RUS involved in the act.

“There just needs to be consistency to keep it in the campus consciousness,” he says.

A ‘Natural Progression’

While Zahr’s bid to become the only male member of an all-female board might seem strange, he says his involvement is a “natural progression” of his struggle to promote awareness of transgender issues—and draw men into feminist activism.

Zahr, an Arab-American from New Jersey, started attending RUS meetings after studying gender, feminist and queer theories. He also devoted two summers to researching the politics of the body and Middle Eastern sexuality.

“It got me into thinking of alternative ways of conceiving of sexuality and identity,” he says. “It’s really important to destabilize any strict concept of gender.”

Zahr says the concept of men being concerned about feminism should not be so alien to people.

“People question why men are involved, but not why men aren’t involved,” he says.

Before he decided to run for political chair, Zahr approached then-current officers and members of RUS about the possibility.

“I was somewhat aware that I would be, if not the first, one of the first [males] to be on the board,” he says. “[The officers] were also enthusiastic about my membership. If I could inspire others with my own passion for the group, then it seems to me mutually constituting.”

Jennifer L. Flores Sternad ’04, the other newly-elected political co-chair, says Zahr’s running for a board position was not a surprise.

She says he cautiously approached her about running for the position in an historically female group—and she immediately encouraged him.

Marcel A.Q. Laflamme ’04, the only other man who regularly attends RUS meetings, says he discussed Zahr’s candidacy with him and they concluded a male presence on the board could only strengthen the group.

Laflamme says he would like to see even more men at RUS meetings—and more men realizing that feminist issues affect them as well.