Like many people, he’s found the kind of activism that he wants to do, and I think he’s a role model in that sense.”

Madelaine Adelman, founder of the Phoenix chapter of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network,

Scottsdale is known for its small-town Western charisma and beautiful sights of the Sonoran Desert. What many may not know is a force of LGBTQ activism resides in their community.

Rob Chevaleau is a board member for the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization, a support group for families with trans children that helps in bringing education about transgender people to the community. He was the former president of the organization and currently works as the director of education and advocacy.

“Prior to my younger daughter, the height of my advocacy probably came in college when I went to the first organizational meeting for Habitat for Humanity,” Chevaleau said, then joking that he hadn’t gone to another meeting because he didn’t find anyone attractive enough to come back.

Chevaleau’s younger daughter is transgender. She came out to him and his wife at 3-years-old and Chevaleau has since been an active voice in the LQBTQ+ community and is an advocate for trans rights.

“If there are barriers in her way, I want to make sure those are knocked down so that she can be who she is,” Chevaleau said.

In 2016, The Great Hearts Scottsdale Preparatory Academy passed a policy that prohibited students from going to the bathroom of their gender identity. Chevaleau’s two daughters attended Great Hearts and he was heavily involved in the issue as it hit close to home.

Madelaine Adelman, a professor at Arizona State University and the founder of the Phoenix chapter of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, worked closely with Chevaleau in trying to get rid of this policy.

“He knows how to connect to people, whether it’s talking to someone who runs a school, someone who sends their child to a school, or someone who’s in charge of determining policies or laws regarding education,” Adelman said.

As Adelman suggests, Chevaleau is a very personable activist.

She admires that Chevaleau holds a consistent charismatic and calm approach to preaching his message. After several years of meetings and difficult conversations, the policy was officially removed in 2018.

As Chevaleau said previously, his activism truly began once his younger daughter came out as transgender.

“What I like to point out to people is that I’m pretty new at this advocacy stuff in a lot of ways and I’m surprised that people want to hear what I have to say,” Chevaleau said.

Chevaleau’s inexperience in activism does not reflect in his work. Rather his desire and passion for positive change allow him to reach people with ease.

Dr. Vinny Chulani runs the gender support program at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and has worked with Chevaleau on some projects, like the Family Advisory Council.

“He’s looked beyond the needs of his individual child to really meet the needs of all gender-diverse children in the community,” Chulani said.

The Family Advisory Council is a group of parents whose children have stayed at the hospital. Each unit of the hospital has one and Chevaleau has worked with Chulani in adolescent medicine.

Chevaleau helps to make things better for the families but also for the patients as well. Recently, he worked on a project to take the gender markers off of hospital wristbands in order to make young patients feel more comfortable.

However, when the issue was raised at a holiday luncheon, the Chief Operating Officer of the hospital wanted to learn more about the project.

The COO attended the next meeting of the Family Advisory Council. Chevaleau stated in plain and absolute terms that the gender marker should be just done away with. The COO came back with the argument that this small change could affect the whole hospital’s operations. Chevaleau was not impressed but he was willing to listen.

He gave an example to help explain to Chevaleau what he meant. In the oncology department, patients lose their hair and their eyebrows due to their treatments and often don’t look like their exact gender. The gender marker helps these young patients to feel more comfortable about themselves because it serves as a reminder about who they are.

Chevaleau believed his project wouldn’t get to go through, but the COO actually proposed a different solution that would work instead of a complete ban on gender markers. Together they worked to develop a solution that would satisfy all departments but also still accomplish Chevaleau’s mission.

“It’s a spectrum; people want this binary solution for everything,” Chevaleau said.

This spectrum varies from loud and angry protests to the quieter kind of work that Chevaleau is a part of. While he does not partake in protests of the sort, he understands that sometimes that’s what is needed to enact change.

His work is done in both public outcries but also in behind the scenes work.

Adelman commented that they are currently working with a school district on LGBTQ policies. Whether it be in schools or in hospitals, Chevaleau is determined to enact positive changes to help make the LGBTQ community in Scottsdale a better place.

“Like many people, he’s found the kind of activism that he wants to do, and I think he’s a role model in that sense,” Adelman said.

Editor’s Note: Caroline Yu is a student reporter at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.