GARY — Individuals do not make changes in society. Social change takes people “acting intentionally as part of a collective endeavor.”
Rhiannon Carlson, veteran program coordinator and counselor at Indiana University South Bend, delivered that message as part of her “Advocating for LGBTQI Rights at IU and the State of Indiana” discussion Tuesday at IU Northwest. The presentation was co-sponsored by the IUN Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
A transgender woman, Carlson enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1999 after graduating from Elkhart Memorial High School, volunteered for the Airborne Infantry and served as a paratrooper during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
A decade later, Carlson made the transition from male to female. In 2016, she shared her experiences with Indiana legislators in a presentation entitled, “A Trans Veteran’s Perspective.”
Carlson spoke Tuesday afternoon to a standing-room-only crowd of undergraduate students, faculty and staff about her own experiences and how activism needs to work in the 21st century.
Statistics indicate 27.7 percent of the transgender population has served in the military, she said, citing studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense.
“Transgender people have served in the military from the American Revolution to now,” she said.
“The military is seen as the epitome of masculine achievement,” Carlson said, adding that like other transgender women who enlist, “I had to prove to myself and the world that I was macho. Transgender women join Special Forces, are paratroopers and pilots.”
While it’s been the policy of the U.S. military to provide services to transgender personnel, Indiana law doesn’t protect the LGBTQI community, she said.
“Your boss can say ‘You’re gay. You’re out,’ ” Carlson said. “The hate crime legislation just failed (to pass the Indiana Senate) this morning.”
Advocating for policy change is a seven-step process, she told the group.
“Steps one, two and three are intelligence work,” Carlson said.
“One, make a list of contacts, meet with people, shake hands. Two is building up social mapping, social demographics, different neighborhoods and attitudes. Three, identify your leaders,” she said.
“Step four involves organizing using A, E, I, O, U — agitate, educate, inoculate, organize and unionize,” Carlson said. “Agitate is stirring the pot of the system. Educate is understanding situations.”
Inoculation trains those involved in a movement how to deal with the abuse they will face including being harassed on social media or being fired, she said.
The sixth step involves strategic planning, while step seven is negotiating and tactics.
“Our opposition is highly organized, professional,” Carlson said. “Being a social-change agent is rewarding. There is no high like it.”