Transgender vets a hidden population
Men with gender struggles drawn to macho military
By Carol Ann Alaimo
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.22.2009
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/281260 (http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/281260)
Officially, the Pentagon bans transsexuals — those who believe they were born with the wrong male or female parts — from serving.
Yet some research suggests there may be a higher prevalence in the military than in society at large. That's because some young men, conflicted over their feminine feelings, enlist to try to escape them, the research found.
Advocates refer to these former troops as "invisible" veterans.
"This is something I think nobody wants to talk about," said Russ, 52. "Transgender veterans basically make other people rethink their preconceived ideas of what a veteran is. We don't just push the envelope — we crumple it up and throw it away."
I agree with much in the article. I enlisted in the Air Force in 1969 in part to suppress my feminine desires and to try to be the man everyone said I was. I tried to be the best man I could, it worked for awhile, but here I am on the path to transition after being on the verge of suicide. It didn't work out too well for me. There is a trans veteran group, Transgender American Veteran's Association (TAVA) that works to educate the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense for improved treatment and understanding of trans veteran issues. There a lots of trans veterans although for the most part were not recongnized or acknowledged.
Maya
Men with gender struggles drawn to macho military
By Carol Ann Alaimo
Arizona Daily Star
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.azstarnet.com%2Fimages2%2Fsn_mastlogo.gif&hash=687b713fd4542face251a5613961b53a528cc367) (http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/281260)
QuoteTranssexuality is an issue "believed by many not to exist" in the armed forces, he noted. Yet each veteran told him nearly the same thing: He had enlisted hoping to "become a real man."
Brown also noted that late adolescence — the stage when cross-gender feelings can become so confusing that some feel an urgent need to escape them — coincides with the prime recruiting age for the predominantly male U.S. military.
Because of that, he said, the "prevalence of transsexualism in the armed forces may actually be much higher than in the civilian population."
Brown's findings ring true for Dr. Jennifer Vanderleest, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine — one of the few in the country where future doctors are trained on the medical needs of transgender patients.
(pdf) Transsexuals in the Military: Flight Into Hypermasculinity (http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/pdf/pdfs/447.pdf)