Allyson Robinson has had one unique journey. The Scranton native is an Army veteran, a mother and a wife — and also a transgender woman leading the LGBT-equality movement in the military to its next level. In October, Robinson became the first executive director of OutServe/Servicemembers Legal Defense Network after the two organizations merged. Robinson spoke at last week’s inaugural Lambda Law Symposium at University of Pennsylvania, just days before Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was expected to announce that the military would go forward with granting same-sex partners of service members some of the same rights and benefits as heterosexual spouses. But, there is still a way to go for full LGBT equality in the armed forces, Robinson said, which the new OutServe/SLDN plans to pursue. Robinson considered her role at the organization, which is dedicated to full equality for actively serving LGBT military personnel, as a homecoming. “I owe so much to military communities and their families,” she said. “The military is my family and so to have the opportunity to contribute to improving the quality of life for our servicemembers, their families and our veterans, to me that was the opportunity of a lifetime.” Robinson is a 1994 graduate of the United States Military Academy. Both her father and grandfather served in the military, which influenced her decision to enlist. “For me, it was not only a case of growing up and wanting to follow in my dad’s boot-steps, but also of a set of values that were imparted to me from the time that I was really little that serving others and serving the common good is the highest calling a person can have,” she said. Robinson, like many, had a difficult time with her coming-out process initially. She said she knew as a child who she was, but could not understand how others did not recognize her internal struggle. “It wasn’t long before I understood that not only could they not see it, but that people for the most part would not accept me. So I learned over the years to hide all those things about me and I became very good at it.” Robinson was a graduate student at Baylor University and a pastor at a Baptist Church when that struggle nearly overcame her. “One day while I was on my commute home from school, I was sobbing like I did most days at that point in my life and I knew from the route that I drove every day, there was a bridge that passed over the interstate and I caught myself thinking, If I stepped on the gas right now, I could probably hit that bridge going 120 miles and it would be over and I would never have to feel this pain that I feel constantly now having to live a double life,” she said. She went home and picked a therapist at random in the phone book, who it turned out had experience with transgender and gender-non-conforming individuals and set her on a healing path. “I learned the truth of something my mom told me: Most of the time in life, the things that we fear the most never happen,” she said. “I didn’t lose anything I was afraid of losing. And the things that I left behind, my career in ministry, I chose to leave behind. I was able to make a real, empowered decision to do that and so I did it without regrets.” After Robinson finished graduate school in 2007, she decided to pursue a career in the LGBT-equality movement, inspired in part by the SoulForce Equality Ride she witnessed at Baylor. She became an informal liaison between the riders and the Baylor staff but, with graduation approaching, didn’t take part in the action because she feared retribution from the university. “They said, ‘We’re leaving tomorrow, but you are going to be here and this community is going to need witnesses, people who can speak about the truth of what happened here today and so you should come and watch’ and I did,” she said. After the protest, Robinson submitted résumés to LGBT-inclusive organizations, but grew increasingly discouraged that she would find the right job. She ultimately landed a position as deputy director for employee programs at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which she said was the right fit. “I never felt less than fully supported as a person and supported in the work that I sought to do there. The things that I learned and experienced there are the things that have allowed me to do what I am doing today,” she said. Robinson said she is aware of the criticism HRC has received about its transgender work, especially after its support of the 2007 version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which excluded gender identity. “I always point people to the work, specifically with the Corporate Equality Index and other programs like the Back to Work Program I started, which helps transgender individuals find employment,” she said. “HRC today is not the organization that it was in 2007.” Robinson said her decision to transition to the helm of OutServe/SLDN was an easy one, although not one free of doubts. “I think, as I look back on that, the impression that I had of myself, it had a lot to do with the inadequacies that transgender people have in the world. It has been a fun first 100 days or so of getting over all of that and realizing that I am exactly the right person at exactly the right time to move the ball forward.” Robinson, who was one of a small number of military veterans on the staff at HRC, had a front-row seat for the leadup to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” attending planning meetings that gave her an inside look at the process. The night it was officially repealed was a momentous one for her personally, she added. “I sat with Danyelle, my wife, who is also a veteran, and with my children, and watched on CSPAN the night of the final vote. When the roll call came down and it was done, it was this amazing sense of accomplishment and yet, because I had been involved, I knew that we had to sacrifice a lot to make that moment happen,” she said. Robinson said the next step in LGBT equality in the military is to make sure same-sex couples have all the same benefits their heterosexual counterparts have, which will ultimately include the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Another area of focus is full inclusion of trans individuals. Robinson said OutServe/SLDN has a chapter of actively serving transgender members, who will work to educate the military and the public about trans issues. “We know their stories. As trans people, those stories will play a crucial role in eliminating transgender exclusions in the military, raising awareness and visibility that this community is willing to put their lives on the line for our country every day but our country is forcing them to serve in silence, to deny the very core of who they are. Getting those stories out there is going to be tremendously important.”