A deep-dive with Isaiah Upton, Case Manager at Operation Lifeboat

The volunteer case manager– a gay, trans “husband, son, and veteran” spoke to The Needle about his work

By Artemis T. Douglas

On April 20, The Needle spoke to Isaiah Upton– a volunteer with Operation Lifeboat, who works in case management helping trans people in Kansas get to safety. For Operation Lifeboat, the definition of safety is up to each trans person and family they help.  

Some people seek to flee Kansas, others need help hunkering down. In either case, the goal of the Lifeboat team is to assist trans people on their own terms. 

As for Isaiah, he lives in Central Texas– and is no stranger to the effects of a hostile state’s legislative actions against trans people just trying to live their lives in peace.

When asked to describe himself, he said he’s a “husband and father to a dog and a cat.” Isaiah also stressed that he is a “Brother, son, uncle, veteran.”

He shared that he named himself after the Hebrew Bible’s story of the prophet Isaiah who says “Here am I, send me.” Throughout our conversation, he emphasized that he had the ability to help others, therefore, he should be helping. 

I opened our conversation by asking Isaiah how he understands community. He said,

“It takes a village. … I know people hear it a lot in child rearing or whatever. It takes a village for a lot of things, not just raising children. There’s very few things in my belief that can be done alone. Truly, no man is an island.

Queer community, though, is special. You hear a lot, see a lot– chosen family, found family. Some of us don’t have any ties with our birth families. Some of us still have those ties with our birth families. Either which way, we’ve found family along the way.

Whether you be queer, trans, allies, we build our village. The people that help us celebrate achievements, the people that help us navigate challenges– that’s beautiful."

I asked Isaiah, “What got you involved with Operation Lifeboat?” He responded with,

“A few years ago, I was a moderator for an online group called “Baby Yoda’s Strong Force Memes”. One of the friends I made through that group was getting involved with Operation Lifeboat.

I’ve been friends with per for about six years now. From that time with that meme group on Facebook to now. Per approached me, asking for advice. “Have you heard of Trans Liberty? Any of these people involved with their leadership? What’s your impression of all this?” 

I was like “I’ve heard of [them], but I’d have to look into the rest.” I looked into it and gave my friend some advice. “Watch and listen as they get started.”

A week passes, and per comes to me with “Seems like a good group. What do you think about getting yourself involved?” I was like, “add me to the Discord, I’m willing to talk to leadership.” I suppose the rest is history.

I talked to leadership. It was like, ‘put me in, coach’.”

Isaiah went on to describe his work for Operation Lifeboat. He is a case manager, which means he helps the people asking for help, such as with services, direct aid, or other assistance. “After they submit their request for assistance, I do a follow up call, getting to know them myself.”

Then he talked about how he learns about his clients and their needs, and works to solve the problems between them and a safer situation. 

When I asked him why choose to help this organization in particular, he had this to say:

I will say that I have never put my name on an organization and backed it like this before. I believed enough, both in Lifeboat’s mission and Lifeboat’s leadership. I was like, these people are experienced enough. Heck, the leadership of both Lifeboat and Trans Liberty PAC are experienced in disaster response. That’s what this is, you know?

What Kansas largely faces, what some other states that Trans Liberty is tracking [are facing], it’s disastrous. These people can help take care of my siblings overall, and I can take part in that.”

When I asked Isaiah whether doing this work for Lifeboat was “rewarding or hopeful”, he said simply, “Oh God, yes.”

He then continued,

“I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s frustrating [that] this… has to happen in the first place, but the work is not frustrating to do. It’s well within my knowledge and skill set. I low-key thrive in this type of setting. I can do the workload required. I can easily adapt to what clients need from me.”

Isaiah also shared that his work with Lifeboat is informed by being trans in Texas. 

“A couple years ago, it came out that the state attorney general had approached… the Texas [Department of Public Safety] to demand that the DPS itself start putting together a list of trans residents in Texas. And the DPS essentially said “No, how are we going to do that? And also, no.”

Basically it was back to the drawing board. Essentially, [the state] said, okay, we're going to make a list of people who have changed their gender markers on their licenses. Now, no one can update... the gender markers on the licenses further. In Texas, if you have to renew your license, your gender marker will be reverted. So there's that. 

What I am unclear on is if there are other ways that they are attempting to expand those licenses, whether or not that includes legal name changes, etc., even though theoretically those records are sealed in court documents. I'm not sure. I try not to spend too much time thinking about that piece. 

Now there's also the Texas quote unquote “drag ban”, which does also attempt to enforce gender expression in public spaces. And that's very distressing. I know trans advocates in the state are keeping an eye on that to see if they try and expand certain things around that. So far, I haven't heard about anything in relation to that being enforced or expanded upon. 

Overall, my expectations, predictions, what have you, around trans legislation for Texas… right now [is that] they are watching places like Kansas, Idaho, Tennessee, etc., and waiting. Part of that is because we have a highly contentious and nationally recognizable Senate race coming up involving James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the seat. And currently in May, there's a runoff for the Republican nomination between John Cornyn the incumbent and Ken Paxton, who is currently our state [Attorney General], who is a large proponent of anti-trans legislation. I believe that's why we're currently not seeing any movement on anti-trans legislation. 

[Governor] Greg Abbott is also up for reelection and facing a fairly strong Democratic opponent, Gina Hinojosa. 

As they're watching and waiting for these other states,... what they're doing, how they're being sued, how they're enforcing these laws or not, etc., they're not spending time actually doing anything. But they're probably taking notes.”

His assessment that Texas is watching and waiting to inform their next salvo of anti-trans legislation would explain the relative quietness of Texas in the current period. If Isaiah’s thoughts were to hold true, then what happens in Kansas now would largely be the foundation for the next assaults in Texas as well. 

Isaiah further stressed, "I see these people over here that are mobilizing for Kansas and I was like ‘Put me in coach.’”

At the end of our conversation, Isaiah said he had something additional to share. He felt it necessary to clarify something about Lifeboat and his work.

“You know, the name of the organization is Operation Lifeboat, as in there's only one. But if you think about it, it's more like a small, expanding, flotilla of multiple lifeboats. 

My impression of the organization, and my work as a case manager, is [that I am] putting out as many little dinghies as I can. The lifeboats are going out as fast as possible.

In case anybody is wondering, I don't have a single negative impression of anybody on the team, including leadership. Yes, there are three big, burly bearded men, if you will, at leadership. And they're very sweet. I respect them very much. 

Them and everybody else on the team, cis, trans, straight, queer, has their heart in the right place.”