Trans-Military Servicemembers

If you think that no transgender military personnel are currently serving in the U.S. military you would be wrong. It seems like need makes exceptions,

Pentagon hasn't lifted ban on transgender service
By Sandhya Somashekhar
The Washington Post
October 27, 2014

Capt. Sage Fox had come to terms with the end of her military career when she said she got a stunning phone call. It was her commanding officer, telling her that despite the military's ban on transgender service members, she would be welcome to return_ as a female, her preferred gender.

So Fox, 41, a U.S. Army Reserve officer who had served in the military for 14 years, returned to post in Sacramento, Calif., as a new person. Her voice was higher with the help of vocal training and her features softer as a result of hormone therapy. She had grown out her hair. She got permission to use the female latrine and be addressed as "ma'am."

But a short time later, her orders were reversed without explanation, and she was told not to come back, she said.

And she is not alone; the article goes on to say,

Capt. Jacob Eleazer, 29, of the Kentucky Army National Guard, who joined the military as a woman, said he came out to his commanding officer as transgender man in February, when the weight of keeping it secret became too much. He was told to turn in his gear and bade emotional goodbyes to his unit — only to have the order rescinded a month later without explanation.

However (you know there has to be a “however”), Captain Fox has since been put on the inactive

reserve list. It seems like her notoriety was too much for the military to bear and Captain Eleazer is still being referred to as ma'am.

That lasted two weeks, she said. She was not discharged but put on inactive status without the routine, thorough medical review that would help her qualify for disability payments for injuries not related to her transition, she said. Her superiors stopped returning her phone calls and e-mails.

She is now facing homelessness because like many trans-people she cannot find a job.

It is pass time for the military to become fully integrated and allow trans-people to server. This is the same backlash that blacks and women faced when they became integrated in to the military after World War II.