This morning, I woke up to a piece of news that I had been dreading since the night of the election. Having known that it was likely coming did not make it any easier to bear. I am a semi-closeted trans-man serving in the U.S. Army Reserve and the president just announced on Twitter that he does not want people like me serving in the military any longer. I am incredibly tempted right now to run screeching all the way back into the closet, scrubbing my social media of any mention that I am trans. But I won’t.
Twitter is not policy, which takes time to change. There are trans people in the military. We have been here since the beginning, and we aren’t going anywhere. I love being in the military. I love serving my country. I want to put my name on this and own who I am, but Articles 88 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice are holding me back.
What I want you all to know is that you have probably met a transgender servicemember or veteran before. Trans people serve in the military at higher rates than cis people do, and that is only counting the trans people we know about who transitioned after they got out. So please, if you are in favor of the ban being put back into place, please reconsider. Please call and encourage our senators and representatives to oppose this change and allow transgender soldiers to serve openly and with dignity.
—A southern Utah soldier
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