Quote from: learningtolive on August 17, 2013, 10:27:30 PM
Sexual orientation is a bit different than transitioning or changing your gender presentation. I believe the military still discriminates against transgender soldiers who are in the process of transitioning. I'm not trying to scare you, but I want you to be aware. There are some people on this site with personal experience with the military and may be able to help you further. However, I'm pretty sure they can still discharge you for this. It sucks and it's stupid, but I believe that's still in practice.
If I were to start changing my gender appearance in uniform than yes I could get in trouble because I wouldn't be "in the proper uniform." That's why I have done very little with my body as far as transitioning goes. I do understand why the military would have a problem though with a person transitioning while still in service. It creates a whole new pile of problems such as; which shower do they use, which barracks do they bunk in, etc. It could easily disrupt an entire unit's cohesion.
I mean, I've been doing my thing off duty for four years and when I'm in uniform or on post, I do what's expected of me and in accordance with Army Regulation. There's nothing anymore in regulation about sexual orientation and to my knowledge there has never been anything specifically towards gender orientation and has always been paired with sexual orientation. I've spent many nights and countless hours panning through Army Regulations and as I stand now nothing I am doing is against regulation except the hormonal breast growth supplements I was taking for a few months which so far has given me what look like pecs but certainly aren't lol. If I were to continue those supplements to the point I had obvious breasts then yeah I would have problems, but what's another few years of waiting?
As much as I want to go full board into this, I fully understand the impacts on my life if I were to take it too far while under contract. A few more years and I'll be able to do it at my whim, and I know it'll feel like forever, but on the other hand it'll give me more time to do more research, reach a psychiatrist who will be able to give me the papers to legally pursue my transitioning when I'm out, and in all make %110 sure this is what I want. Sure I can say yeah I'd give my life for it and many times I've thought just that, why suffer a life as a man when I could just end this misery now and start over hell I have guns it'd be quick and easy right? But maybe just maybe there's a slight chance I might regret doing it if I just drop everything and rush into it. In a way the military is saving me and making me think it over absolutely thorough inside and out that this is what I truly am and what I desire in the deepest fathoms of my heart.
I know I'm young, and I have many years in front of me to enjoy as a woman after I'm out of the military. I also know that at my age I can be prone to quick and/or irrational decisions. I almost neutered myself at one point and the only thing that stopped me was realizing that almost every part of what's between my legs now is used to make me what I should be and if I damage what I have now I'll be extremely limiting what the professionals can do to make me as much of a physical woman as they can or worse (and I know this isn't a deciding factor but it's important to me) not being able to be sexually functional because I hurt myself that bad.
The potential repricussions of being found out that I'm trans in the military are very slim. There is the extreme of getting a "general discharge" but that's worst case scenario and highly unlikely. Our new commander who took command of our unit at the start of the year has been quite a bit more strict as far as attendance and uniform appearance goes, but when she did our briefing...and take a moment here she went section by section herself to do it in small groups to have a more personal discussion....she told us herself she has had both girlfriends and boyfriends. She's happily married and has kids, but also fully understands and accepts these such differences at least from what I can tell. If someone found out about me and was so bold as to tell her, I'm quite certain she'd give 'em a perverbial boot in the but.
Now there's always the potential that what she did was just for show to try and get everyone more comfortable with the idea, and in a way I respect that as well because it does make people like myself a little more comfortable at least thinking that at least someone would partially understand and not discriminate against me.
......holy crap I'm on a self justification rant......
