Deployed soldier begins sex change

By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 15, 2012 7:18:05 EDT

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/10/PRIME-military-deployed-to-war-zone-soldier-begins-sex-change-101512w/

She's a lesbian, and almost everyone in her unit knows it. She wears her hair cropped short and has a distinctly boyish appearance. And she's becoming manlier by the day, now that she's started taking male hormones.

Call her Keith. That's the name this 26-year-old specialist, now deployed to Afghanistan, plans to take when she completes a transition begun several months ago when she started giving herself testosterone injections every other week, under the direction of a civilian doctor who specializes in gender changes.

"It's going well. My voice is deeper, I'm getting more muscle. I feel more energy. I feel more like myself," she told Military Times in a recent interview via Skype from her containerized housing unit in Afghanistan.

Keith declined to be identified by her real name because under military policy, troops diagnosed with "gender identity disorder" are deemed medically unfit for service and face administrative separation.