Indiana- Interview: Lilliana Talks Running for Office in Deep-Red Indiana

By Jane Migliara Brigham

Lilliana Young is an openly transfem candidate for state office in a hostile state where Democrats have little to no power. She spoke to The Needle about the state of things in Bloomington, Indiana, and what she is doing about it.

Jane: Okay, we're rolling. My name is Jane Brigham. I'm here from The Needle News, a new trans publication that just started up last week. I reached out to you through our mutual friend because she mentioned that you are running for state house in Indiana. So, do you want to start by introducing yourself? 

Lilliana: Yeah, I'm Lilliana Young. I'm running for Indiana House of Representatives, district 61, which encompasses the city of Bloomington. I also currently serve as the secretary of the Bloomington-Monroe County Human Rights Commission, and I have been an LGBTQ activist and community organizer for about two years. 

Jane: Can you set the scene for our audience as to what Bloomington is like? 

Lilliana: Bloomington most famous for being the home of Indiana University (IU). It's where IU was founded. There's IU Health, which is Indiana's largest hospital network.

If anybody's ever been to Dallas, Texas, I would say that Bloomington, Indiana is a smaller, more condensed Dallas. It's a very diverse city. We have a lot of different immigrant populations here. We have a pretty large LGBTQ community. People here are predominantly left-leaning. It's a really nice city to live in. About half of the year when IU students are gone, it's also a very quiet city. If you're local, you have about half the year to enjoy the city to yourself. 

Even the counties around Bloomington are pretty liberal or left-leaning. Bloomington is regarded as the most progressive and left-leaning city in Indiana. 

Jane: I want to talk to you about the queer and trans scene in Bloomington. What is the culture there like? 

Lilliana: Overall, I would say the non-queer population is very accepting. You don't usually run into any trouble if you're openly gay, trans, whatever. The queer community itself here is a pretty large population for the city size, but there isn't any one central area where you'll find people. We do have one queer bar, the back door, which hosts a lot of karaoke and drag and trivia events and such, but it's a very small bar. You tend to just find the queer community here pretty spread out, although we actually are finally working on building an LGBTQ community center in the city. 

Jane: I want to ask about the run for State House. I did a little research on your opponent, Matt Pierce. This guy hasn't had any opposition from either the Republicans or from within his own party since 2010. It seems like he is there because he hasn't had any pushback. 

Lilliana: Most of the people that I have known in the city regard Matt as a centrist, old school Democrat. He participated in a Democrat walkout back about 20 years ago. That was the last big thing that he ever took part in. The state Democrats have been getting weaker year over year in Indiana. It used to be that the Indiana Democrats actually controlled the state house. They held the majority for a long time. And after they lost the majority, the Democrats never tried to regain it. 

I don't say that Matt hasn't put forward good legislative proposals, because he has. But they haven't been effective because the Democrats have not had any real power here, and they haven't tried to regain that power. 

It's a lack of power due to a lack of ambition. Matt's just known for being a nice guy and that’s all anybody says about him. 

Jane: What would your legislative agenda look like, especially in terms of trans people?

Lilliana: That’s dependent on a couple of things. The way that things stand at this moment. The Democrats in the state house are not just the minority party, they are the super minority, because the Republicans sit on the super majority status. 

If that holds true after the midterms, my goal will be to do everything that I possibly can to obstruct, and control the bully pulpit to highlight issues to the public. Spur people on to gather at the state house to protest things that can put pressure on the Republicans. 

If we break the super majority, which is likely because we have a lot of Democrats running this year, my goal will be to do everything possible to inspire the Democrats to act as an organized and active opposition party. My goal is to weaponize every legislative tool that we have at our disposal to slow down the legislative process. 

If we have to, I will try to get the Democrats to break quorum again and leave the state to force the Republicans into a compromise position. So these are some of my primary goals. As far as trans rights, queer rights go. My goal is to get all of the anti trans legislation that's been established by the state repealed. 

My goals. We have no trans women in sports on any grade level grade school high school college. I want to get that repealed. I want to get the ban on HRT for minors repealed. My goal is to get LGBTQ protections codified in the state constitution. I want to see marriage equality and interracial marriage codified in the state constitution. I want to see protection on the grounds of gender identity codified in our state constitution. 

Jane: It seems like a lot of your legislative agenda is simply repealing the last couple of years. So, imagine you could sweep away all of the recent bullshit from Republicans, both relating to trans issues and otherwise. What is your agenda then?