Pentagon Pride: Reflections from a Trans Vet
Brynn Tannehill Trans — 28 July 2012
http://outservemag.com/2012/07/pentagon-pride-reflections-from-a-trans-vet/As a transgender veteran who is involved with OutServe and SLDN, the anniversary of the end of DADT is a bittersweet occasion. It represents progress, and hope for the future of other transgender vets. It is tinged with the fear of being forgotten and left behind. I left the service behind several years before I transitioned, and now spend my life as a well air-conditioned DoD contractor designing the systems that people behind me will take with them to war. I am working on base, but out here in the flyover country of Ohio events at the Pentagon and the White House seem far and distant. All I have to go by is what I read all over the internet, and my interactions with people who reside in more interesting places than me.
I marveled at the official event at the Pentagon and at the military and leaders willing to go on record supporting lesbian and gay troops. There is a world of difference between now and my plebe year at the academy in 1993-1994 when DADT was instituted. I remember the universal wave of anger that surrounded me at the mere thought that President Clinton was inching his way towards letting "those" people serve with slightly less fear of persecution. I remember folks swearing up and down they would quit if "those people" might be sitting there next to them. Yet here, today, they are officially celebrating LGBT pride at the Pentagon. We have a seat at the table, and everything is marching towards a level playing field.
