Late last month, the Trump administration moved to fire transgender people serving in the armed forces.
This includes those who have honorably served for for 19 years (one year short of retirement) those who have served honorably in combat situations, and those in whom the military has already invested millions of dollars in training.
I’m a transgender woman who medically transitioned while on active duty service. I wish more people knew that transgender service members are not a threat. Instead, we’re the ones who volunteer when others won’t. We bring unique perspectives and skills to the armed forces. Transgender individuals are twice as likely as all adults in the US to have served in the armed forces, a testament to our commitment and dedication.
We are also seven times more likely than US civilians to attempt suicide during our lifetimes. This is no surprise when we are constantly told – through actions like this drastic transgender military ban – that our careers and our lives are not worth saving.
I served for 20 years in the army and endured my share of hardships. In 2005, I was deployed to Afghanistan, working as a repairer on Apache helicopters, when I found out that my wife had been diagnosed with cancer. She died 12 months after I got home, and I became a single parent to our young children.
As their only provider, I was fortunate to be able to keep my job when I came out publicly in 2016 under President Obama. But while I was stationed in Missouri, I faced a frightening amount of transphobia. I was verbally harassed, physically threatened, and once, someone stood in my driveway and shot into my car. My kids saw all of it. This is the reality of the discrimination that transgender service members face.
If I were still actively serving in the military today, I would lose my career, health insurance, and other benefits, and so would my family.
The Trump administration is wrong about transgender service members. The Pentagon memo declares that being transgender is “incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service”. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
There are at least 15,000 transgender individuals in the military, and they serve everywhere. They are pilots, submariners and infantry; they are in command positions; they are trusted in the highest-skilled military jobs and the riskiest; they hold top secret clearances (as I did). The cumulative loss of institutional and career knowledge across the spectrum that will come from this decision is devastating, as is the personal loss to these service members and their families.
This new order is reckless and counter-productive to military preparedness. When we face threats worldwide, we need a strong and resilient military. We don’t need to leave 15,000 skilled positions vacant.
Furthermore, what precedent does this set? We already know that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, does not believe women should serve in combat. Many people don’t realize that equal African American military service is not codified by law – only by President Truman’s Executive Order #9981. This means it can be reversed at any time. I use this as an example because when policies are allowed to ping-pong between executive orders instead of law, it puts people’s lives at risk.
I was fortunate to have found an online arts organization during my lowest moment in Missouri. Community Building Art offers creative writing and art workshops for female and non-binary veterans. Participating in a community like this saved my life and has proven to reduce suicidality among participants.
But I worry now for all those suddenly forced out of the careers and communities they’ve known. We should support their service to our nation, and should they be dismissed, we must offer them safe spaces. Yet, instead of focusing on crises like veteran suicide, the administration is endangering veterans’ care. We will need the private sector to support service members and veterans in this dangerous time.
Having retired from the military, I recently discovered a disheartening change in my Veterans Affairs (VA) profile. My medical records now mark me as “male”, a stark reminder of the personal impact of policies like the transgender military ban. While I have weathered storms like these, I worry about those with much more to lose.
Alleria Stanley is a retired United States army service member, advocate, and member of the LGBTQ+ community. She is a board member of Transgender American Veterans Association
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
