Quote from: learningtolive on May 18, 2013, 10:04:12 AM
I respectfully disagree. Not everyone is going to go through SRS and it is unfair to label them as male because of that fact.
Oh, I get that, and that thought occurred to me as soon as I hit the "post" button. But here's my question: Where's the discrimination?
As I said earlier, as far as the military's treatment of veterans goes if you identify as female you get called female. The correct pronouns are used; they call me "ma'am" and use my proper name, which does get changed in records at my request, as it should. I still get my retirement pay sent to my bank under my proper name. My medical care is correct; nobody denies me anything because there's still an "M" in a data field somewhere.
And this extends to the VA. All that stuff I just said holds there, AND my gender marker is correct. I get my hormone treatments, psychotherapy and even voice therapy.
And all of this happened without any sort of surgery on my part.
I'm a retired Army officer. I just left the service a year ago. Making my transition to a life as a retired veteran really hasn't been the struggle depicted in this article. Let's break this down:
"Advocates claim the move is a 'symbolic' step in the fight for transgender people to be allowed to serve openly in the military"
Hardly. Military medical regulations don't permit trans folks to serve. THAT is the struggle that needs to be fought!
"The Pentagon for the first time has officially recognized transgender service members in a significant step being hailed by the LGBT community."
Nonsense. This is hardly the first time; they do it all the time when people get the proper forms filled out. They did it for me a year ago.
"The acknowledgement came in the form of a letter to veteran and transgender activist Autumn Sandeen confirming that the Navy had updated its records to show she is a woman."
. . . and the article goes on to say
"The letter from the Navy official, dated May 2, read: 'Per your request the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) has been updated to show your gender as female effective April 12, 2013.'"
They updated a data field in her pay records. Big deal. This isn't any sort of civil rights victory. She merely got some paperwork done.
"Sandeen's military identification card now reflects the change."
I just looked at my ID card. There is no gender marker on it.
Whether we like it or not, transition involves lots of paperwork to make things legal. Some paperwork tasks are more time consuming than others. But "finally" getting this done isn't anything newsworthy.
I'm all for progress on trans issues but we have real problems, such as employment and housing discrimination, violence towards trans people that is practically sanctioned when authorities fail to prosecute, even the inability to safely use a public bathroom. It might be helpful to celebrate real victories in these areas. Getting some paperwork done just doesn't matter enough to count as a victory, especially when failure to do so has no negative consequences.
