rotation issue in world space

Not sure if this is the way it's supposed to work...

When I attach a GUI object to a character in the scene, then change the rotation on the GUI object, the GUI object does not rotate until the character moves. So, even when I see in the inspector that the GUI object is rotated 180 degrees on the Y axis, this does not appear to be true in the scene and game view.

Here's my workflow:
-Start game
-Duplicate GUI object & attach it to character in scene (instantiate)
-I use rectTransform.rotation to rotate GUI object on y axis.
-I enable the GUI object so that it is visible.
-GUI object appears in scene, but it's backwards
-I check inspector and it appears that Y axis was changed.
-Wait for character in scene to move.
-Once character has moved, GUI object snaps to correct rotation.

Am I missing something simple?