Hi guys and girls!
I know that I'm new here, but I just wanted to tell you guys a unique experience I've had in the military. For those here that do not know, trans people are currently banned from serving openly in the United States military. When I started transitioning in March, I grew my hair out and quickly came under fire since my hair no longer met the male grooming standards, it's hard for radio operators to skirt under the radar because we always work near officers, that's when I came out to my company commander. My company commander was pretty supportive, but said that regardless of how he felt, he had to pass this up the chain of command and that he wasn't sure what would happen, I was really worried that I would be facing an administrative discharge. Now, I love serving in the military, there are more bigots here than other places, sure, but I still feel like I could stay in till they kick me out for old age. So naturally, I decided to fight any proceedings that could have been brought against me and immediately contacted the American Civil Liberties Union.
Now, my particular outfit is called the New York Guard, and it works a little different than normal forces in that, like the national guard, the force belongs to the state government. Unlike the National Guard however, the State Guards, as these units are called, can never be brought up for federal service. The idea behind them goes back to WW1, the federal government took all the states national guards and everything pretty much got sent to France, leaving states with no troops under their own command for homeland missions like disaster relief. So a backup force was created that could never be federally activated. So the national guard troops are like hybrid state/federal employees and follow federal laws regulations, but the state guard is totally controlled by just the state government.
New York Guard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_GuardOkay, got that? So my unit doesn't answer to federal military law, we answer to New York State law, and the ACLU found this little known state executive order signed a couple years ago that prohibits discrimination in a government workplace on the basis of gender identity, that includes all branches of the government even the State Guard. So the ACLU wrote the Governor's office to inform them of the situation. The next drill a colonel I'd never met before came to our office and pulled me to the side, and told me that the official instruction from headquarters was that I was to be supported entirely.
So yay! Even if it's just the state guard, there's at least ONE branch of the military in the U.S. that has allowed trans people to put on army boots. All it would take for every other branch to allow it is an executive order by the president, just like what my governor did. Since then, things have been pretty chill in my unit, no issues at all. I just went on a quick deployment for the snow storm in Buffalo and there were a couple of jerks who commented on my hair, but all in all it was pretty normal. I was assigned my own room at the base so I didn't have to bunk with guys and the girls didn't have to bunk with me (I don't pass yet and didn't want to freak anyone out) and even had my own bathroom. Eventually I hope to be able to just blend right in with the other females when on mission, but for the moment all my expectations were pretty much met or exceeded.
Thanks for reading this book of a post
