This is the second article in a two-part series focusing on senior Sofia Nelson's efforts to eliminate bias against the lesbian gay bisexual transgender (LGBT) community. The first part, which ran in Tuesday's paper, focused on Nelson's efforts at Tufts. This installment will focus on Nelson's work at the state level.
Since her freshman year at Tufts, Sofia Nelson has been challenging the status quo and fighting relentlessly to ensure equality for the LGBT community. Now a senior, Nelson has seen her efforts pay off, as she will continue her work on behalf of LGBT rights this summer with an internship at the National Center for Transgender Equality. Because she received a Truman Scholarship this year, her internship will be funded by the Truman Foundation through the Truman Scholars Summer Institute.
According to its Web site, the Truman Foundation aims to find and honor college students "with exceptional leadership potential who are committed to careers in government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education or elsewhere in the public service."
The group chooses students who gravitate toward service work and provides them with financial support for graduate study, leadership training and fellowships with other students who are committed to similar ideals.
The foundation receives nominations of students from colleges and universities across the country. After reviewing applications from these students, the foundation selects and then interviews the finalists, and from there, the Truman Scholars are chosen. Only about one or two students from each state or territory in the United States are chosen.
"I was really proud to get the Truman Scholarship," Nelson said. "I am just really proud of the Truman Foundation because it picks these amazing students committed to social justice -- every issue from climate change to HIV/AIDS. I feel fortunate and grateful for having the opportunity to get to know other Truman scholars and am thankful to Tufts for making that a reality for me."
Senior Jennifer Bailey was the only other Tufts student to receive the award this year.
According to Nelson, Truman scholars are required to put in at least five years of work in the public sector after graduate school. As for her own career plans, Nelson plans to attend law school and pursue a career fighting for LGBT rights by doing litigation and policy work, specifically focusing on transgender rights.
"I think that transgender rights in particular are underemphasized and in sore need of changes," she said.
Nelson's efforts have carried over to the state level. For the past two years she has been supporting and trying to ensure the passage of Massachusetts House Bill 1722, which would ban wide swaths of employment discrimination, including hate crimes and unfair practices toward transgender people.
"I think this bill is incredibly important; there's no federal protection at all for LGBT people in employment nondiscrimination," Nelson said. "I've lobbied at the state house for this bill, I've attended fundraisers, and I've tried to rally support for the bill at Tufts."
According to Nelson, the bill did not pass in its most recent hearing, but Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Attorney General Martha Coakley, as well as groups working on behalf of equality in Massachusetts, including the Transgender Coalition -- of which Nelson is a part -- have endorsed it.
Nelson hopes that this time around, the bill will be successful. She will be leading a lobby protest at the State House on Tuesday to rally support.
"I'm hoping this legislative session is a chance to get the bill signed into law and get rid of a horrible practice allowing employers to discriminate unfairly," she said.
Nelson is currently working on her senior thesis paper about the racial scapegoating of African Americans that she asserts took place in the media after the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which banned gay marriage.
"The exit polls misrepresented how racial minorities voted on this legislation," she said. "The media says Prop 8 was voted overwhelmingly for and by African-Americans, but this is untrue. When you control for religion, education, et cetera, race is not a statistically significant factor on how people voted on this legislation."
Her thesis discusses how blaming African-Americans for the passage of Prop 8 is damaging to the queer movement because it alienates and erases the experiences of queer people of color. She also explains why this scapegoating may work to the advantage of those hostile to the queer movement.
"This racism is perpetuated by organizations like FOX News, which have something to gain from trying to start a fight between two progressive groups of constituents," she said. "If they fight against each other, they won't be fighting against the group that's trying to restrict their rights."
