Name: Harvey Van Blerkom

Social Justice Group: Sports and Equality

Date of Fieldwork: November 27, 2017

Name of Organization: N/A

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Chris Mosier, Olympic Athlete

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed Chris Mosier, the first-ever transgender Olympic Athlete on team USA via Skype.

What I learned:

I learned that Chris Mosier transitioned as he was older, and that changed his perspective on the issues, and I learned that it is very hard for kids to help with the issue other than to just be an ally when someone is being bullied. One last thing that I learned was that Chris never grew up with a transgender role model to look up to and he is glad that he can be someone who many look up to.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

Through the fieldwork, I learned that being transgender, even in today’s world is very hard. Take Chris Mosier’s story for example. Even though he achieved his ultimate goal and ended up as an Olympian, he still faces adversity and “haters” who don’t believe that he should be competing with the men. He had acceptance, and getting to where he is now would not even be thinkable in the world 20 years ago, so it is a big success, but there is just no way that our country has figured out that would make it fair for LGBT members, specifically the “T.” I also learned that in general, transgender people, outside of athletics as a whole could be receiving threats by many. I knew that many people still have conservative beliefs and think that being transgender is not ok, but I didn’t realize the extent of what was going on.