Warrior Princess, retired Navy SEAL Kristen Beck-formerly Chris
By Sabrina Samone
In 2011, as the ban
on gays and lesbians was lifted to serve openly in the military, the
transgender ban remains to this day, largely in part due to the psychiatric
manuals continuing to list gender identity issues as a mental disorder,
thankfully that all changed this year in May. The issue of transgender people having
the right to serve openly in the military is heating up, but with a Republican
controlled Congress, I doubt anything in our favor, much less anyone not in the
top 1% wealthiest Americans, will see them act on anything, unless we as a
community practice our right of freedom
and vote them out.
Many Trans-men and
Women have risked and given their lives for a freedom that is denied them in
this country, as so many in history has done. In the forties, African-American
men fought alongside every other American, only to come back to this country
and be told to use the back door. For
years openly gay men and women were mistreated by the military, kicked out with
dishonorable discharges, spied on or worse, faced physical discrimination within
the military and lost their lives at the hands of…one of our own. Barry Winchell lost his
life at the hands of another American Marine on July, 6 1999, during the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” era, for openly dating a transgender
woman.
We have been serving,
under cover mostly, in a body that does not match our own Identity for years. A
Trans-male friend has told me, after serving our country heroically in 3 combat
tours in Bosnia and Iraq, served his time, yet stood up for everyone else’s
freedom and re-enlisted, but this time in the National Guard. He was expecting to
spend one weekend a month on duty. He had already begun to transition from female
to male, when he was activated and sent to Iraq, for 19 months he fought two
battles one for his country and the other within himself as he was forced to
returned to identifying as a female for
19 more months of his life, after nearly tasting his own personal freedom for
the first time. His freedom by the military and many Americans (who claim to
support our troops) denied him of his own freedom, while he risked his life, physically
and mentally for ours. Unfortunately as so many soldiers come home and
discover, they now suffer from PTSD.
A close trans-female
friend of mine also spent an entire career in the military as a Navy SEAL. She
raised a family and took upon herself one of the toughest military jobs
possible to suppress her feminine spirit. As many of us know how impossible that is to
do, eventually could no longer and would come to also embrace her feminine
spirit in her early 40’s. It would cost her, her marriage, a strained
relationship with her two daughters to this day and mistreatment within the VA
hospital system because of her gender identity.
Last month, Autumn Sandeen, became the first transgender veteran to have
their military documents changed. The struggle has begun for Transgender
awareness in the US military. Slowly we are seeing new topics being placed on
the table for discussion, for the acceptance, of Transgender Military Personnel
as we’ve seen for LGB people. There are hopes that the U.S. will join seven
other countries in allowing transgender troops. One of those topics on the
table is the new highly publicized new memoir by Kristin Beck & Anne Speckhard PhD,
“Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming out Transgender
Chris Beck played
high school football, he bought motor cycles, he served our country for twenty
years in thirteen deployments, including seven of those in heavy combat. By all
measures of American society, he was as red blooded and American as apple pie
and Friday night football, but underneath a feminine spirit wept to be free.
The novel details Chris now Kristin Beck, as an all American Christian boy who
grew up on a farm in Middle America. In her world as a boy, she was viewed as a
hero…warrior…a man. She spent decades hiding the wholeness of who she was.
After her retirement in 2011 she transitioned and felt as she describes in the
novel, a weight was lifted from her. She dedicates her book to all those who
identify as transgender but who might have difficulty revealing their true
selves. Her hope is to bring about change.
Earlier this year, on
her LinkedIn profile, she put up a new profile picture for the first time as
her whole self, standing in front of the American Flag. She has received praise
from fellow SEAL’s stationed around the world for her courage. If these
honorable, self sacrificing men and women can acknowledge her, what is wrong
with the leaders of our country? How many more Kristin Beck’s are there holding
a riffle, an American flag and crying themselves to sleep at night.
If we are a country
that supports our troops, and Conservative Republicans act as if they have a
monopoly on supporting our troops, then why aren’t we? Letting our troops fight
with dignity and self respect, being who they are, loving whom they choose
would give a human being more courage and bravery than not, we may be the most
powerful nation in the history of
mankind but we could be even more, if we could only let our own people
be, free.
PREVIOUS BOOKS OF THE MONTH ON TRANSMUSEPLANET
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