Article on crossdressers in the military

Wendae · Post by **Wendae** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:43 pm

I have mixed emotions on the subject as a retiree. This article poses some interesting questions about folks with GID serving.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=266865

MissBrooke · Post by **MissBrooke** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:52 pm

Very informative! Thanks! Doesn't apply to me as I'm not n the military but can deff. see where this stuff would be good to know.

Lydia · Post by **Lydia** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:54 pm

What is distressing about that article is the labelling of all who do not conform as sick, "disordered", diseased, unclean. It's like we are all afflicted with some malevolent leprosy.
That is exactly the attitude we should be fighting.
Arise, ye prisoners of discrimination!

Lydia

Joan · Post by **Joan** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 4:55 pm

I never before considered my gift a mental disorder. That seems trivialise our activity to what could be cured by a few sessions with a shrink or mental therapist!

Joan

Post by **DonnaT** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 4:56 pm

The Intersexed and Crossdressers already serve. I know I did, and a number here did as well. Based on statistics, there are quite a number of CDs currently serving.

As for transitioning individuals, they serve in other militaries with no, or little, problem.

Davita · Post by **Davita** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 10:21 pm

Transsexuals have been labeled as having a mental disorder. Getting that label also means you are protected by the Disabilities Act. Some folks don't want the stigma of the mentally disabled label and so can't be protected by the Act.

Michelle M · Post by **Michelle M** » Thu Feb 24, 2011 2:48 pm

I'm currently a CD serving although I'll be getting out here soon. It would be nice if the military was open to CD/TG, but I kind of doubt that will happen any time soon.

Ralitsa · Post by **Ralitsa** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:17 am

well I'm going to say "don't be too hasty to condemn the military". First, you have to remember that their first, primary, and only consideration is to always win. They are not just joking when they say the people are trying to kill them, it's the absolute reality.
So they necessarily choose only those select people who are in better physical, emotional, and psychological condition than everyone else.
It's really a shame that we select the "best" people to go and die, but that's another issue.
The military is not about being politically correct, and inclusive, and understanding, and accepting. It's only about winning. They have very many strict criteria, and it all boils down to "battle readiness" which isn't just a buzzword, but really does mean "when the bullets start flying, who will win and who will die?"
I don't want the military to just accept any random person that comes along, they absolutely need very strict standards. I also don't think that the standards for the military should be applied everywhere else. They have specific roles and responsibilities, and a very limited scope.
And I myself also question how effective some of my friends here would be in the military. Are you really willing to look the enemy in the eye, and then shoot him? That is what soldiers have to do. I don't want to do that. I know people (my brother) who have done it, and they have my infinite respect for that. At the same time, it's best that they are limited to their defined scope.

Wendae · Post by **Wendae** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 11:54 am

Ralitsa
I'm not sure you meant to come across as believing those of us in the TG community are not physically or psycologically able to serve in the military. Many of us here served and even retired from various branches of the service and went to war. The problem would be presenting as TG while in uniform. I think those that desired to go thru SRS could be given medical leave or assigned to a Casual Company until able to return to duty.
All of us that served understood how coming out would affect our careers and kept our passion to off duty hours. The thought of breaking a finger nail, sleeping in the mud and rain, physically being able to keep up, perform under fire or to kill never entered my mind. I served in an elite branch for 20 years and did 2 tours in Nam.

Post by **DonnaT** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 1:05 pm

Ralitsa, no offense taken. I can guarantee that many of us that served were some of the best the military had.

I joined to fight, during Nam, but the fighting ended before I could get there.

I trained some of the best field communications teams at Ft. Hood, TX. My team was always chosen to be assigned to support one of the division's generals during maneuvers.

It's the military's loss, since some of the best minds turned out to be transgender.

Diane Schroer, for example, was a Army Special Forces colonel. She completed over 450 parachute jumps, received numerous decorations including the Defense Superior Service Medal, and was hand-picked to head up a classified national security operation.

Absaroka · Post by **Absaroka** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 2:52 pm

Ralitsa I didn't serve but a lot of folks here did. And actually crossdressers are supposed to be somewhat over represented in the military, as an attempt to deal with feelings they have about their feminine side.

I know I've said this a number of times here. Remember that in native American society torturing and killing captives was considered womans work.

Kandis · Post by **Kandis** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 6:23 pm

Having served, and being closeted at the time, I am definitely NOT for them allowing our community to openly serve. Now before you bite my head off, allow me to explain.

Many of us who are crossdressers with no intention of transitioning, but live full time identify ourselves as females. HOWEVER, we are still genetically male, and therefore the question becomes do they now create a specific platoon or flight for transgendered people as the males will NOT want to stay in the barracks with a TG, just as they don't want to stay with someone who is openly gay.

While I am all for being accepted openly in public as a transgendered individual, my own personal thought is that when one is in the military there is a certain image that must be adhered to, the question becomes whether you make the male to female CD wear the male uniform, or do you allow them to wear the female uniform? (I would have LOVED wearing the female uniform myself).

I was against the repeal of DADT because it is not a good thing for our military at all. Yes, I know that other countries allow gay and transgendered individuals to serve, but in THIS country, people are not as open minded as those in Europe.

There will come a time when WE as a community are accepted more freely in society, but this is NOT the way to get that accomplished.

Martina · Post by **Martina** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:00 am

I remember seeing a documentary movie many years ago about a woman in London who opened her house in the sixties to people who enjoyed "deviant" sexual activities. The authorities were trying to accuse her of running a brothel and arrested everyone in the house during a party. One man who was arrested serving drinks and dressed in a French maids uniform said that he had been a spitfire pilot and escorted many bombing raids into Germany in WW2 and on every one he wore panties. (I think that shows exceptional bravery. Imagine been underdressed and taken as a POW). But the police said he was a disgrace and flung him into a cell. It amazed me that a person who was among the "few" and risked so much for so many could loose his entitlement to respect just because he prefered lace trimming on his underware. There was a very serious loss of perspective in that pilots case.
However I could see how it could cause problems in a dorm or dressing room in a baracks if some individuals choose to wear lingerie and walk around in ruffle bum panties before bed. It would also probably cause a lot of stress for a CDer living in a military world to be not able to wind down by changing into something soft and pretty at the end of a hard day.
In the past I worked from time to time with the military as a civilian engineer and I nearly always underdressed just to feel even more different from the people I was working with. When I got home I couldn't wait to get into a skirt or dress.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:22 am

Thank god we have moved on from those times, Alan Turing who lead the team at Bletchley Park to break the German Enigma code in WWII was persecuted by Manchester Police for homosexuality so much that in the end he committed suicide in June 1954. Turing was responsible for much of the early work that went into what we now call computers.

There is a statue to him in Sackville Gardens in Manchester - half way between Manchester University (where he worked after the war) and the so called Gay Village where each Wednesday we take over en masse.

Wendae · Post by **Wendae** » Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:07 am

Kandis
Yes! I agree completely!