A long road for transgender vetPosted: 07/06/2012 11:55 PM
http://m.timesunion.com/tu/db_39921/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=BHMnuZDW&detailindex=1&pn=0&ps=6&full=true#display
ALBANY —The Department of Veterans Affairs I.D. card was issued to Ricky Anderson and shows a picture of a strong-jawed, heavyset person appearing as a woman with eye shadow, mascara, dangly earrings and feathered shoulder-length hair.
Long after leaving Army service in 1980, Ricky Anderson identified as being a transgender woman, began hormone replacement therapy, took the name of Rebecca and began transitioning to life as a woman.
When Anderson visited the Stratton VA Hospital this week for a follow-up visit after recent minor surgery, she wore a long floral print sundress over a large, mannish body and prominent stomach.
"I had people ask me if I'm pregnant," Anderson, 52, said with a giggle. She struggled to speak in a soft, high-pitched feminine tone as her voice occasionally broke and dropped into a lower masculine register.
Although she faced ridicule in the past for her transgender status amid the macho culture of the Army, Anderson said the VA staff has become accommodating.
"They call me Rebecca now and treat me nicely," she said. That wasn't always the case. The situation started getting better about a year ago, she said, around the time that the military repealed its long-standing "don't ask, don't tell" policy that barred openly gay, lesbian or bisexual people from military service.
