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Monica Helms, the president of the Transgender Veterans Of America, posted a video entitled Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of America – Part 2. The video features some notable transgender and/or transsexual veterans, including Christine Jorgenson, Diane Schroer, Jan Fee, Sir Jesse McNulty, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, and Calpernia Addams.
The text for the video’s naration is below the fold.The prepared text for the video’s naration:
Hello. My name is Monica Helms and I’m the President of the Transgender American Veterans Association. This is Part 2 in a series of documentary videos on Transgender and Transgender-Like Veterans. We changed the name for Part 2 to “Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of America,” because the women and men featured in this segment actually identify or identified as being transgender, crossdresser or transsexual. The one exception was the movie director Ed Wood, who referred to himself as a “transvestite.” That was the common term in the 1950s and 1960s.Since the making of Part 1, a major event took place when Congress passed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and President Obama signed it on December 22, 2010. The repeal will soon allow gay, lesbian and bisexual people to serve openly in the military.
However, the repeal did not address transgender and transsexual people serving in the military. They still cannot serve openly in the military, making them the Last Minority that the Department of Defense can discriminate against.
Various rules and regulations still prevent transgender and transsexual people to join and to admit they are trans to anyone. Telling a fellow service member, a chaplain, a doctor or a commander will get them kicked out.
It is our hope that this new video will show the public and the Department of Defense that transgender and transsexual people have already served this country and are still doing so this very day.
It may make it easier for the DoD to change their mind and allow transgender and transsexual people to serve openly like they do in several of our allied nations around the world.
On top of all of that, Congress does not need to be involved.
After the release of Part 1, we received an E-mail from a trans man, Ox Freeman, pointing out that we missed an important individual from the Civil War, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. After reading about her life, we knew we had to include her in Part 2.
Dr. Walker became the first and only woman in American history to receive the Congressional Medal Honor. Her father believed women should not be required to wear restrictive clothing, so all through Mary’s life, she supported clothing reform for women. Many times in her life, she dressed as a man and was even arrested several times for “impersonating a man.”
Dr. Walker graduated from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. During the Civil War, she became an unpaid field surgeon for the Union Army front lines, carrying two pistols with her. In 1863, she was awarded a commission as a “Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon.” On April 10, 1864, she was captured by Confederate troops and arrested as a spy, then was exchanged with other Union doctors for Confederate doctors.
President Andrew Johnson awarded Dr. Walker the Congressional Medal Honor in 1865, but in 1917, Congress changed the requirements to earn a CMH and asked Dr. Walker to return hers. She never did and kept it until she died in 1919. In 1977, President Carter reinstated Dr. Walker’s CMH and in 1982, the US Post Office issued a stamp with her picture on it … wearing a dress.
In Part 1, we saw women who dressed and acted like men so they could serve in the military. In Part 2, we’ll introduce you to both men and women who – for the most part – lived their lives as the opposite of their birth gender AFTER they finished their military service.
The first 20th century person we are featuring was mentioned earlier, Ed Wood. Wood joined then Marines during WWII and in later life, stated he wore a bra and panties into battle under his uniform.
However, Wood’s real claim to fame came after the war when he made a career of directing movies. His movies were so bad that in later years, they became cult classics. Those movies earned him the title of “Worst Director of All Times,” long after his death in 1978.
This clip out of Wood’s movie “Glen or Glenda” will probably seem eerily familiar to many transgender and transsexual veterans. (clip) Wood was speaking from experience.
One of the most famous transsexual veterans was Christine Jorgenson. Jorgenson was drafted into the Army in November 1945 and even though that was after the Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945, the VA considers anyone who entered the military before December 31, 1946 as World War 2 veterans.
Jorgenson made headlines in December 1952 when she arrived in New York after her “sex change operation” in Denmark, now know as “sex reassignment surgery” or “genital reconstruction surgery.” She became the first publicly-known transsexual and even knocked the testing of the first hydrogen bomb off the front page. One headlines read, “Ex-GI Becomes Blonde Beauty.”
Jorgenson spent time in the entertainment business after she came back from Denmark and became an icon in the trans community. She wrote a book of her experiences called, “Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Biography,” and she died in 1989, just shy of her 63rd birthday.
Another World War 2 transgender veteran is Jane Fee. Born in 1927, “GI Jane,” as she likes to call herself, first enlisted in the Pennsylvania Reserve Defense Corps in 1943. After moving to Maryland in 1944, she enlisted in the State Guard Brigade.
Fee enlisted into the regular Army in 1946, just under the deadline to be considered a World War 2 veteran. Being one of the last people to become a WW2 veteran, Fee has made a goal to be the last living WW2 veteran.
Jane Fee has been very active in the community throughout her life. She fought for LGBT rights in Minnesota in the 1990s, helping the state to create one of the country’s first fully inclusive non-discrimination laws.
She was on the Board of the International Foundation for Gender Education, won the Transgender Law Conference’s Pioneer Award in 1994 and the Trinity Award in 1995. She became the first trans person to be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2000 and won the Virginia Prince Award in 2001. She is also the oldest member of the Transgender American Veterans Association.
Transgender veterans have served during the Korean War and one of them was Linda Bedore. She joined Navy in 1950 and served on the USS Rodman, (DMS 21) until she was Honorably Discharged in 1954. In just under 4 years, she reached the rank of Pipe fitter 1st Class.
After the Navy, Bedore worked in construction, then owned a dune buggy shop in Arizona for 27 years and retired in 2004 at the age of 73. She raised six children.A Vietnam War transgender veteran, Tasi Zuriack, served in the Air Force from 1964 to 1975 and got out as a Captain.
I came from a long line of military people, including my grandfather, father, uncles, brother, his son and my son. Serving eight years in the Navy, I was trained in Naval Nuclear Power, stationed on two submarines and got out as a Submarine Qualified Machinist Mate 1st Class with an Honorable Discharge. I helped raise two sons.
Shortly after starting my transition, I was thrust into activism in Arizona, then moved to Georgia in 2000. In Georgia, I became active locally and nationally and co-founded the Transgender American Veterans Association in early 2003. I created the Transgender Pride Flag in 1998 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. During all of this, I have worked for the same telecommunications company for 21 years.
One of the most interesting transsexual veterans is Diane Schroer, a highly-decorated Army veteran. Diane spent 25 years in the Army and served in Special Forces as an officer. After 9/11, she was hand picked to operate a secret unit of 120 people, dedicated to stopping terrorist activities. The job was intense and occasionally she had to report to Vice President Dick Chaney on their activities.
What makes Schroer notable in our community was the law suit she and the ACLU filed against the Library of Congress in 2005. The Library of Congress created a position to study terrorism in the world and needed someone to fill that position. The job was tailored made for Schroer’s extensive experience, and after several months of interviews, they offered her the job. However, when she told them she would be starting her transition from male to female, they rescinded the offer. The ACLU filed a law suit under Title 7 sex discrimination and won the case in 2008.
In 2008, Schroer also appeared before the House Committee on Education and Labor to speak on LGBT job discrimination base on her experience with the Library of Congress.
Autumn Sandeen spent 20 years in the Navy and retired in 2000 as a Fire Controlman 1st Class. During her 20 years, she served on four ships. In the last few years of her service, she was sexually harassed by men because she appeared to them too effeminate. Her Executive Officer tried to investigate her under Don’t Ask, Don’t tell, but she successfully fought it and won.
Since retiring, Autumn has become one of the most respected bloggers in the LGBT community, writing for the award-winning blog, Pam’s House Blend. In 2010, she decided to take her activism to another level by chaining herself to the White House fence, twice, with other LGB veterans in protest of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, even though its repeal would do nothing for transgender and transsexual people. She was arrested both times. Now that DADT has been repealed, she has become a strong advocate for allowing transgender and transsexual people to serve openly in the military.
Even though we know of many male-to-female transgender and transsexual veterans, for the most part, a lot of them decided not to participate in this video.
One trans man who gave us permission to feature him in this video is Sir Jesse McNulty. McNulty joined the Army in 1985 and was trained as a Military Police Officer. However, his photojournalistic talents were quickly recognized by his command.
McNulty ended up writing and editing for the military community newspaper, The Town Crier and the 18th Engineer Brigade’s Sword and Castle. In 1987, he was named 21st Support Command’s Journalist of the Year.
Sir Jesse has a Masters Degree in Education and teaches in the DeKalb County school system, in Georgia. He has contributed on many levels in the community. McNulty facilitates a weekly support group called Trans and Friends and is a member of the Feminist Outlawz since 2003. On several occasions, McNulty has participated in the Atlanta Pride Color Guard. He is one of the founding members of the Georgia Safe Schools Coalition and each year speaks and plays taps at the Atlanta Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Calpernia Addams is probably one of the most well-known transsexuals in the world. In the late 1980s, she enlisted in the Navy to escape a strict fundamentalist household. She served four years as a field medical combat specialist, first stationed in the Middle East during the Gulf War, and then later at Adak, Alaska.After Addams was discharged, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee to eventually work as an entertainer in the city’s largest drag club. In 1999, she fell in love with a young solider stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY, by the name of Barry Winchell. On the 4th of July weekend of that year, Winchell was brutally beaten to death by a fellow solider who was egged on by another solider. Their love story and Winchell’s murder was the subject of the 2003 award-winning movie, “Soldier’s Girl.”
Today, Addams is one of the trans community’s most respected spokeswoman for equality. She has won countless awards for her positive image of our community and her work to help others in becoming who they are.
This is the end of Part 2 of “Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of America.” In Part 3, we will see more stories of Transgender and Transsexual Veterans and some of the issues they face in the VA. Thank you.
11 Comments
I’m a member, too!Although I enlisted in the Ohio Army National Guard and lasted all of two weeks in boot camp, I’m somehow considered a veteran.
It’s great to see TAVA put more info like this out, primarily so all of the LGBT community know of our history.
Thanks, Monica and Autumn!
I’ve mentioned this before……but for whatever reason, you have chosen to ignore it. Whether you realize it or not, you have a wealth of information available to you in the form of transsexual members of the military forces of other countries, and some of them, like myself, are very willing to stand up and offer their experiences. I joined the Canadian Forces in 1987, transitioned in uniform in 2003, and still serve proudly today, standing up to help those who follow. I have no idea why you do not see my experiences as a possible resource. Your loss, I guess…
um, RG…The focus of the group is about *American” veterans — our contributions and our service to the American armed forces.
We’re not forgetting the fact there are many countries who have lesbians and gays openly within their ranks, and now like our Canadian and English cousins, have transgenders in the ranks as well.
Perhaps it is……but Autumn has taken on the next campaign, to allow trans people to serve in the US military, but she doesn’t seem to want to avail herself of the experience at hand. It’s not only me, although I’ve become known as one of the more visible trans CF members, but more than a few others.
We are AwareI also got your FB comment on this, so I’ll answer it here as well. We are totally and completely aware of the service of trans people in other countries. How those countries handle this issue is the primary centerpiece in how we are approaching this issue here in the US. TAVA could use your help if you would please send us the written policy of the Canadian Military on how they approach the issue of transgender service members.
Also, even though I have spoken with several trans veterans from other countries, many of them don’t see what the big deal is. They can serve, or they don’t, and they are considered equal with everyone else who has served. They don’t have organizations representing them. They don’t gather on a regular basis. You don’t see trans veterans handcuffing themselves to the fence of the Prime Minister’s residence. Our country is backward and bigoted, and what seems common place in Canada, is a very big deal here.
Now, having said that, I can easily title Part 3 as: “Transgender and Transsexual Veterans of the US and Canada,” assuming you and some of your Canadian trans veteran friends wish to participate. I consider it the natural progression of this series, and an honor to include you. It’s up to you. Write to me at: monicahelms@earthlink.net and I’ll let you know what I need.
I’ll do that, but for now…There actually is no policy. It’s viewed purely and simply as a medical issue that is easily treated, so that’s what they do. There was no law that needed to be passed…or repealed…to accommodate trans people. There were no regulations that needed to be put into place to ensure equal treatment. There were certainly no new uniforms brought in for trans members.
Medically, it’s treated on a case by case basis, so no policy there either. There’s only a set of guidelines that was released late last year that outlines everything that needs to be dealt with concerning administration. It’s not perfect, and I think there are still issues that need to be looked at, things like what they consider to be ‘transitioned’, especially in the case of FtM, so perhaps a work still in progress. I know of several trans guys that have been refused entry to the CF because they haven’t had bottom surgery.
Now, I can’t speak for any other organization but the Canadian Forces. I have no idea what has happened with the UK military or those in Australia or New Zealand, (and I understand that the Australian Defence Force hasn’t even had any idea that there have been trans members in the CF since 1998.
I know several people from these other groups, and I can put this to them to see what they want to do with it, but it’s each person’s decision as to how much of their own stories they want to tell, if any at all.
All I’ve been trying to do with FC2(Ret) Sandeen is to provide a possible way for her to show the powers that be in the States that service for trans folk is not only possible, it’s practical and easily accomplished. If Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and others can do this, there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever for the US military to hold back.
That was enlighteningSo, what you are saying is that there is no specific policy stating that trans people can serve in Canada, they’re simply allowed to do so. What I hear from others is that there is no specific policy saying trans people can’t serve in the US, they simply aren’t allowed to do so. When trans people are discovered, they use other policies and excuses to remove them.
So, in the end, this isn’t a difference of policies between these two militaries. It’s a difference of culture between these two nations. That actually makes the task much more daunting in the US. Culture is much harder to change than policy. To allow trans people to serve in the US, we have to put in place a policy Canada doesn’t have, which means we have to push the US military establishment even further than they had to in Canada. We’re not only further behind, we’re also have much further to go than Canada ever did.
I’m afraid the Canadian model might not be very applicable to our situation.
As I have said before…I also served honorably in the USAF for six years.There is a reason there is so much valid mental illness in this country although they think we who are in gender transition are “ill”. Most citizens have proven to be delusional and beyond stupid relating to gender issues when objectively and fairly compared to other countries. Canada has it exactly right.
Gender transition is a MEDICAL issue diagnosed by a PSYCHIATRIST to rule out a valid mental disorder to include multiple-personality disorders. It is then treated by a MEDICAL doctor with MEDICALLY-PRESCRIBED hormones. Just as a same-sex preference was ruled a preference and not a mental disorder, so too must gender transition be ruled as a gender-preference and not a mental disorder. It speaks for itself that we who identify internally as the gender opposite our birth gender are not treated by a psychiatrist for this “sickness of the mind” but by a Medical doctor for the “imperfection of our body”.
There is NO transgender “gender”….only male and female. (yes I know about all the derivatives but this is about gender(s) in general).
So, the necessity to seek legal protection on otherwise non-prohibited behavior speaks volumes about the phobic nature of mainstream America. Normally, if something is not legally punitive it is ok….except for gender transition.
In the end there is only GENDER and a GENDER TRANSITION. This is why I state over and over “we are fighting for the rights of equality promised by our founding fathers” which is basically an unnecessary gauntlet. Whereas “normal” people get to start at the starting line of life, we who are the “freaks” must go through this fight simply to earn the right to run the race of life to begin with.
The African-Americans had to do it. The Gays are still doing it. We who are gender transitioning are also still doing it. Shame on our “great country” for having disenfranchised vast amounts of its citizenry to such an extent that this fight even need take place.
Correcting myselfAs it turns out, it is a matter of military policy (at least Army policy, I haven’t found the other branches yet). This is from Army Regulation 40-501, Standards of Medical Fitness:
In other words, you can’t be recruited if you have any transgender history.
I’m assuming the “administratively unfit” distinction is important because it supercedes this policy:
Meaning, a doctor can’t make a decision as to if your gender identity makes you unable to perform your duties. ”Administratively unfit” leaves little room for argument as to whether you can do your job or not.
The thing I haven’t found out yet is just what “administratively unfit” means? Does this mean you muck up their neatly arranged administrative paperwork?
Perhaps I need to clarify too.As far as I know, there isn’t any policy that was created to accommodate transsexual CF members. If there was, I have yet to find it.
In 1992, Michelle Douglas challenged the regulation that banned LGB people from the CF and won, and that regulation was stripped from CFAO’s, our admin orders that pertained to that. I’m trying to fing out if there ever was a directive that allowed Sylvia Durand to blaze the trail and become the first CF member to transition in uniform. The way I remember her describing it, it was all done by staffing up appropriate memoranda.
I can also tell you that I personally know two people who transitioned as civilians, then joined the Forces, so there may not have been any regulations forbidding service by transsexual people.
Message on the wayMonica, I have replied to you, offering my help.
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