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| Subject: Does Billy Beck stand behind them? LOL: Transgender military members Tue Oct 28, 2014 6:36 pm | |
| Capt. Sage Fox had come to terms with the end of her military career when she said she got a stunning phone call. It was her commanding officer, telling her that despite the military’s ban on transgender service members, she would be welcome to return— as a female, her preferred gender.
So Fox, 41, a U.S. Army Reserve officer who had served in the military for 14 years, returned to post in Sacramento as a new person. Her voice was higher with the help of vocal training and her features softer as a result of hormone therapy. She had grown out her hair. She got permission to use the female latrine and be addressed as “ma’am.”
But a short time later, her orders were reversed without explanation, and she was told not to come back, she said.
Thousands of men and women serving in the U.S. military are in such precarious positions, caught in the gap between shifting cultural mores and military regulations that still require the immediate dismissal of any service member found to be transgender.
This confusing situation results in part from a widespread expectation that the Pentagon will lift the ban on transgender service, just as Congress three years ago repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy that barred gays from serving openly.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel indicated this year that he is open to studying the transgender ban, which could be eliminated administratively, and the White House expressed support for such an examination. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently called for the prohibition to be lifted.
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transgender-military-members-are-in-a-precarious-position/2014/10/27/38204fd6-5870-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop |
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