Murmuration: Tell us about where you grew up.

Carson Harder-Hyde: I grew up in Lakeland, Florida, in an interracial family in a conservative, Evangelical community. It was a rough time and place to grow up as a trans kid. I remember people yelling slurs and screaming at me. Despite it being a hostile environment, there were pockets of LGBTQ communities—even including a bowling team. And some of my earliest exposure to civic engagement happened in Lakeland. When I was in high school, I saw a gay couple standing on a median with signs protesting for their right to get married. This was back in 2003, and gay marriage was still criminalized in a lot of states across our country. I decided to make my own sign and joined them. And little by little, more and more people started joining us on the median every weekend. I also stopped standing for the Pledge of Allegiance at school as a way to protest against unequal rights, and got other kids to join me.

Murmuration: In our “Burn It Down or Build It Up” Insights post, we explore the language people use when asked to imagine what they could change about the country if they had a magic wand. We found that only 19% use constructive language, which may signal that many Americans aren’t imagining how to build a better future; they’re stuck on what they’d like to see gone. How does this compare to your own civic journey?

CHH: I can see why people would feel this way. When I was growing up, my parents were very anti-government and I also grew up poor, and it was really hard. After my dad got discharged from the Vietnam War, he wasn’t all right. He was incarcerated on and off, and halfway through elementary school, our house was foreclosed upon. I met my dad’s parole officer, we moved a lot, and I saw my mom deal with racism as she was Filipino in a predominantly white place. It’s this type of grind that can make people feel anger towards our systems.When I turned 18, I started canvassing for Planned Parenthood, Cleanwater Action, and Equality Florida. I was often met with slurs and anger, and was even harassed and detained by the police for “looking too gay.” Once, when I was volunteering for Food Not Bombs, I was told it was illegal to give food to poor people. Honestly, these experiences broke me down. And I think this happens to a lot of people because experiences like these can grind you into the dust.

Murmuration: What changed to make you feel more hopeful?

CHH: I left Florida, and life continued to be hard. I worked minimum wage jobs, lived in crappy apartments, and was homeless on occasion. Finally, I sold all my stuff and moved to New York City with $800. I lived in an illegal basement apartment and hustled until I landed a job as an e-commerce copywriter. After that, I got laid off three times in a year and a half. But New York has a good social safety net, and I was caught by it. They offered a training program for low-income New Yorkers where you would receive extended unemployment benefits and Medicare if you did a job training program through Per Scholas, a nonprofit that offers tuition-free IT education programs. It took me six months, but I finished it and was hired by the ACLU to run their e-commerce store. Finally, I was making a living wage and had health insurance, which enabled me to medically transition after a decade with no health care. I broke my tooth in a biking accident, and I was able to replace it. I even had PTO! Everything changed for me because of New York City.

Murmuration: You’re now a city council member in Vergennes, Vermont. Tell us about what led you to run and what your experience has been like.

CHH: My partner and I got married two months before COVID, and it was hard to be cooped up in a tiny New York City studio all day. We started visiting my partner’s parents in Vermont and loved it. We really enjoy their company, and the housing is affordable out there, so we moved. My partner is very active on the Vergennes civic committees and inspired me to run for city council.

This was right after Trump won, and Project 2025, white nationalism, and crypto scammers were at the forefront. I wanted to take action that could protect people from all of this, and I didn’t see that happening in the federal or media landscape. I can’t change everything, but I can at least work to make Vergennes more affordable, more walkable, less car-dependent, and a welcoming place for people, and a good place for small businesses. So now every other Tuesday I get together with the other council members and community members, and we do the best we can to fix the stuff we can, like building a salt shed or finding money to run a youth club after our Boys and Girls club had to shut down when the Executive Director had some health issues, or finding money to build apartments.

In Murmuration's theory of change, we state our values, which in my own words are: people are inherently good, we are responsible for each other, and we can’t save the country if we can’t look out for one another

Murmuration: What drew you to working at Murmuration, and what connects you to our mission of organizing a network of partners and equipping them with the insights, tools, and services to help communities build and activate the power to transform America?

CHH: I previously worked at a for-profit software company, but I knew I didn’t want to sell a product I didn’t believe in. I care deeply about education, the environment, protecting voting rights—and all the other causes that Murmuration’s network of partners fight for day in and day out. I also canvassed professionally in the past, and I had to use a clipboard, notepads, and paper maps that I kept inside a plastic bag to protect them from hurricane season, so I know how challenging it can be as an organizer when you don’t have access to the right tools to do your job effectively and efficiently. And I believe deeply in Murmuration’s theory of change, which was a collaborative project that Murmuration staff got to work on together. In our theory of change, we state our values, which in my own words are: people are inherently good, we are responsible for each other, and we can’t save the country if we can’t look out for one another.

Murmuration: How do you participate in Murmuration DEIB initiatives?

CHH: My job can be a little solitary at times, so I like that Murmuration has intentional DEIB initiatives like the book and article club, heritage month activities, and retreat workshops. At one of our all-staff retreats in Chicago, we wrote poems about where we are from, and I still remember my poem to this day.

Murmuration: Describe your role at Murmuration?

CHH: If you use Organizer by Murmuration and need help, you will email the support team and put in a ticket. I am the first set of eyes on those tickets, and I help our partners find solutions and get the resources they need to use our tools effectively. My day often starts by checking our support ticket inbox to see the previous night’s activity and look for any responses to requests for more information. I also create automated systems to make our support work faster, to ensure our partners get the speediest response possible from us, especially while they’re out in the field canvassing.

Murmuration: What is your favorite part about working at Murmuration?

CHH: It’s a tie between the people and the Organizer by Murmuration tool itself. My team is very close, and we like to joke and make each other laugh. The tool itself is also interesting to work on because it has a lot of new, innovative technology and is constructed and implemented in interesting ways.