Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Trans (But Were Afraid to Ask) by Brynn Tannehill

Author:Brynn Tannehill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2018-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

MILITARY

A short history of the fight for an open transgender military service

After “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed by Congress in 2010, lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members were finally able to come out in the military. Not so for transgender troops, who remained barred from serving based on Department of Defense (DOD) medical regulations. Most people remained unaware that transgender people were still unable to serve, including many leaders within the LGBT movement. Thus began an effort, led by an organization I belong to, SPARTA, to lift this ban and implement a policy allowing transgender people to not only serve, but to transition while in the service and receive appropriate medical care.1046

Our only viable strategy was to convince the DOD that a new policy needed to be implemented. The Republican-controlled Congress was not going to pass legislation allowing us to serve. The DOD would have pushed back hard if President Obama’s White House had ordered them to do it, but there is a longstanding tradition of the White House not interfering in DOD personnel policy. There was also little belief that the courts would intervene or agree with us in a lawsuit; the legal concept of deference to the military on policy decisions would almost certainly make impact litigation a waste of time.1047

In 2013, we at SPARTA began trying to build awareness of transgender people in the military, first by reaching out to movement leaders and politically active LGBT people. At the same time, we began gathering data and building a body of policy analysis and research that would serve as recommendations to the Pentagon on how to implement an open service policy for transgender people. From there, we began pushing stories of transgender service members into national media outlets. Our first major success was getting a front-page story in The New York Times in February 2014.1048 The next big hit was a Sunday cover story in The Washington Post in April 2014, which featured a member of SPARTA.1049 Shortly thereafter, then-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters he supported the study of changing medical policy on transgender service members, stating that it “continually should be reviewed” and “I’m open to those assessments because, again, I go back to the bottom line: every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it.”1050

By then, it wasn’t just SPARTA working on transgender military service. The Palm Center had received a grant from the Tawani Foundation and was producing a steady stream of research and policy papers examining the issue.1051 National LGBTQ organizations had come around, and now saw transgender military inclusion as an achievable policy goal. They began quietly making it known to allies on the Hill, in the White House, and at the Pentagon that this was a high priority.

SPARTA continued to work with the media to ensure that the issue didn’t drop out of the picture. At the same time, we began circulating research on potential policy solutions to the Pentagon.

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