A Life of Service

Eagle Scout with Silver Palm

Air Force medical Service Technician

Trauma Nurse

Member of FEMA’s Disaster Medical Response Team, deployed after hurricanes Allison, Katrina and Rita

Coast Guard Auxiliary Volunteer

Medical services officer on Navy ships deployed six times in eight years

Trans woman

Some people seem born for service, moving through life at the tip of the spear while managing to support the ones around them who need it most. Nicole Shounder is one of those people. Read More

Love and Marriage: What About Transgender Military Partners?

In the past few months, same sex military partners have been part of the collective American conversation. When the Fort Bragg Spouse’s Club resorted to naked discrimination and active condescension to keep Ashley Broadway out, it was splashed all over the news. When Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta extended as many benefits as possible to married same sex partners under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the LGB community celebrated. When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of Article III of DOMA, the plight of same sex military couples was front and center in the reasons for striking the law down. Read More

Deployed While Trans: The Rachel Bolyard Story

Rachel Bolyard looks pretty much like most of the other contractors who have spent most of the past decade living and working in the CENTCOM AOR. She’s prior military, having spent seven years in the Army from 1988 through 1995 … Read More

Navy Couple Recounts Tough Decisions

Reserve recruiters dream of people like Morgan Wade walking into their office. She had a sterling service record, was on the fast track to chief petty officer, and qualified in a field where the demand for skilled individuals is high. Top it off with a clear background check and a clean bill of health, and it should be easy, right?Read More

Hormone Replacement Therapy + A Tale of Two Islands

Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and Vanuatu, in the South Pacific, are a literally a world apart from each other. What do these places have in common? In short, the answer is drugs, the kind transgender people desperately need for transitions but often are unable to obtain through normal channels. Read about the difficulty in legally obtaining Hormone Replacement Therepy and the ease of it through these two countries.Read More

For Old Acquaintance

For whatever reason, this song has become traditional to the New Year. The Scottish phrase “auld lang syne” best translates as “for old times’ sake.” It asks us to reflect on friendship, and times past. After the most tumultuous year of my life I have had the opportunity to take stock of old acquaintances, and consider what has come and gone.Read More

TransParent: Families, Gender, and Transition

“There are no right or wrong answers. Just your own.” Trans families face a unique set of challenges but one thing is for sure: they are fathers, mothers, daughters and sons, husbands and wives – facing challenges together and doing their best to love and care for each other, just like any family. Read More

TDOR: Remembrance and Inspiration

In the late fall of 2001 I got back from my second deployment with HSL-46. The post-deployment period gave me a lot more free time.  As always, this gave my dysphoria a chance to manifest itself.  I didn’t know what to do; it was more palpable than ever before. Read More

The Cross-Dressing Straw Man

The military has accepted cross-dressers, drag performers, and genetic women who dress like guys for a long time… in fact, it’s something of a tradition. They aren’t being kicked out for it, don’t have hard time figuring out what uniform to wear, how to wear it, or what personal grooming standards apply. And for people who are permanently transitioning between genders, there are many ways to comply with the standards of care, while maintaining uniform and grooming standards.Read More

Trans is not a Mental Illness

If the U.S. government was and is willing to trust Lynn and Amanda with the highest levels of decision making and responsibility for national security, why is it also unwilling to trust a gender dysphoric culinary specialist third class with making sloppy joes?Read More