Name: Roddy Flynn
Hometown: Wilmington, Del.
Position: Executive director of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus
Age: 32
Alma Mater: American University, Washington and Lee University in Virginia.
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Washington Examiner: How did you get started in politics?
Flynn: It was right after undergrad. I became the driver for a guy named John Carney, now the current governor. Then, I went to law school and was a lawyer in Delaware, in Wilmington. While I was there, I was involved with the state party and politics. Governor Carney, the then-congressman from Delaware, and I kept in touch. I started an LGBT lawyers group in Delaware and did pro-bono litigation on behalf of transgender prisoners. Then, Gov. Carney’s chief of staff called me in 2015 about this job. It all happened very fast. I was planning on staying in Delaware for the rest of my life.
Gov. Carney really helped make this happen. It was two weeks from when I heard about the job to when I moved to D.C. I did three rounds of interviews.
I had a strong interest at some point going into public service. My original thought was [pursuing] elected office in Delaware. Or going to work for the state legislature. But this has been a whirl of wind. It’s a unique job, because I’m not working for any one member but a number of members. There are 114 members in the caucus. Two are Republican: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo. And I report to the six co-chairs of the caucus who are the six open LGBT members. Caucuses have a real ability to organize members on a high level when it comes to messaging and vote whipping. You have to be sure that 114 members are happy with what you’re doing. So, I’m balancing all these interests.
Washington Examiner: What’s surprised you the most about this position and working with members of Congress?
Flynn: I don’t think I realized how much is going on in the House of Representatives. There’s all this talk that Congress is broken. But when you see how many votes there are and how many of those are LGBT-related, you view it differently. How much active work there is in committees and that kind of stuff. If we’re doing our job well, it doesn’t trickle out because we stopped something that was bad for the LGBT community.
Washington Examiner: So, a good amount of your job is playing defense on LGBT issues?
Flynn: Tons of defense. For example: If there’s a bill percolating somewhere that has no relation to LGBT issues or social justice issues and a member decides they want to ban funding being spent from being used for LGBT issues. I have to help stop members from forcing anti-LGBT stuff into places where we had no expectation that would happen.
Washington Examiner: What work lies ahead?
Flynn: Even though the president has done plenty to reverse the march toward equality for LGBT people, there’s always more that he could do and that we expect him to do. I check the Federal Register every day to see what they could be rolling back in subtle ways. It’s literally a daily task. And then, I have to translate those things because the impact isn’t always obvious. Making sure my members have a message so our response can be fast and loud. The past year has been a lot of defense and a lot of rapid response. The administration could be doing more on workplace discrimination and hate crimes enforcement; there’s tons of stuff they could be doing.
Another thing I’ll say is we are very aware that there are not any transgender members of Congress at the moment, so we’re always trying to bring in representatives of the transgender community to speak to members. I don’t identify as transgender, but I know about a lot of issues affecting transgender people. It’s important to bring in folks to talk about how their community is affected and the ways members can help.
I’m obsessed with my job. I’m really the only person on the Hill who works exclusively on LGBT issues. I came out when I was 16 and was blessed that my parents had no problem with it and were encouraging and happy for me. I recognize the blessings that I’ve had and translate it to helping others. I was raised in a religious household and still am very religious. It’s terrible the way that religion is pitted against the LGBT community. I was raised Catholic and am now Episcopalian.
Washington Examiner: What is it like working on LGBT issues under this administration?
Flynn: The president is actively cruel to LGBT people, in my opinion. It gets to an emotional level. There was a survey of older Americans done by the NSOAAP, the National Survey of Older Americans Act Participants, to see if they’re being supported in the way they need to. One question on the survey asked if the recipient identified as transgender. The administration erased that question from the survey; it’s a fairly obscure survey that happens every year. They reached in and plucked out that one question, they changed one thing. Question: Are you transgender? They just removed the transgender one. It’s one thing if they redid the entire survey. Every other question is exactly the same. Can’t fathom the animus you must have.
And then, the ban on transgender people in the military. We encouraged transgender people to come out and serve openly. There’s no objective reason that trans people can’t serve. Dealing with that kind of community that is being attacked in a personal way has made this a much more challenging job emotionally and gives me a lot of passion to continue.
Washington Examiner: Have any favorite hobbies, weekend activities?
I love the Dirty Goose and Trade. They’re my two gay bars of choice. I’m learning golf; I got a set of golf clubs for Christmas. I love to read; I’m on a memoir kick. I just read The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I saw “The Post,” and then, I saw it again twice. So, I got Katharine Graham’s memoir, Personal History.
Washington Examiner: Did you come from a political family?
Flynn: My dad was very involved in politics when we were young. We went door knocking when I was 4, and he put us in candidate shirts and stuck us out by the polls. He’s a Republican, a very strong Republican in Delaware. We’ve been doing this our whole lives, so it wasn’t ever really a question of if I’d be involved in politics. It was, in what way and what party?
My dad is Republican, my mom is Democrat. I’m a Democrat, and my brother is a Republican on the Homeland [Security] Committee. We are a bipartisan family. We’re not a contentious group of people, which is, I guess, surprising in politics. We’re not the kind of family that had shouting matches at the kitchen table. We were always very aware of a difference but not too aggressive. In 2008, I worked for Hillary Clinton, and my brother worked for Mitt Romney. That was a little tense there.
I didn’t work for her this last time, but I had my share of heartbreak on Election Day.
