Military

[roseyfox]

I am 17 graduating high school this year and plan on joining the u.s. air force. I am transgender and would love to start actually go and do everything i need to do to start hormones. But should i wait till i have sign up and gone through basic training or start before i ever sign up.

As of now being trans can still disqualify. But there a lot of talk that they are rewriting there medical definition that are out dated. So that trans can openly serve.

[Lebedinaja]

17? how comes you want to join the army at this age?

[roseyfox]

Simply for the medical care, To cover school, Free on base living and time to save up money if i ever want to do any surgery's such as ffs, breast implants, and or voice surgery. I plan on joining the air force as avionics or general mechanics and hopefully will not see combat.

[Lebedinaja]

wow, interesting way for the military to get new recruits... but I see its necessary.
I wish you good luck with that, lets hope you wont see combat

[Valwen]

It is actually very common in the US for people to join the millitary to get a education and save money.

I sorta did the opposite I was signed up, realized what a mistake it was for me due to my transness and saw a therapist to get a letter to get out of it. then again that was 15 years ago where they may have arrested me for lieing on my intake forms by not telling them and would have gotten rid of me the second they found out.

today things are diffrent. It depends on when you plan on entering, if its still a ways away you may consider starting HRT and making it all known to the recruiters when you sign up. Its possible you might end up one of the first openly trans women in the millitary to go through basic and other requirements as a woman or they could freak out and have you arrested or something. this is the us government its impossible to know how they will react to trans related issues.

Serena

[KittyKat]

I was on HRT while in the Army. What I would recommend is that you wait until all of your training is over and you're at your first duty station. Once you're there you have 2 options. You can talk to your primary care doctor about being transgender and it'll be in your military record. The other option, when you have personal time see a provider outside of the military and pay out of pocket to begin HRT. I paid out of pocket to begin HRT while I was still in the Army, later on I did inform my doctor that I was on hormones, but I was already being medically retired. They can't remove you for being transgender right now, but I know the Army could remove a solider early on under a failure to adapt chapter. It may be safer to pay for hormones out of pocket until they clarify the laws on them, you're also going to want to wait until you get to your duty station because they run a lot of blood work on new service members up until that point.