Transgender American
Veterans Association's
revitalized mission |
|
Transgender military service has
naturally existed throughout human and American
history including, among others, highly
respected Two-Spirit Native Americans and
soldiers who served during the war between the
states in both the Confederate and Union armies.
In the current modern era, many of America's
allied nations have included their transgender
citizens among those who may or must serve in
their armed forces along with everyone else,
including Israel, Australia, Belgium, Canada,
the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain,
Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom; both
Canada and the UK provide sex reassignment
surgery for their transgender service members,
according to
S.W.A.N.
While there is no official estimate of
the number of Transgender American veterans or
service members, the S.W.A.N. report notes that
NCTE (National Center for Transgender Equality)
estimates that "transgender individuals are twice
as likely to join the U.S. military compared to
the general population." In interviewing
hundreds of LGBT veterans since 2006, Gay
Military Signal has found proud patriotic
transgender veterans who have served in every
role in our American armed forces, including
submariners, Marines, Special Forces,
intelligence, gunners, and drill instructors.
In other words, as our allies have found, gender
identity and sexual orientation do not detract
from the courage and patriotism needed to
serve and sacrifice for one's country.
And yet, in the United States,
even years after the repeal of DADT, DOD
Instruction 6130.03 and other regulations
regarding conduct still ban the service of
Transgender American patriots. Neither the
DADT law nor its repeal included nor considered
transgender service, thus leaving DOD
regulations concerning it in effect to this day.
Transgender American Veterans
Association (TAVA) began advocating for
competent and relevant VA treatment for transgender
veterans early in the current millennium, around
2002, and shortly thereafter organized a march
on Washington which included a wreath laying at
the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington
National Cemetery. In the span of a few
short years, TAVA conducted the nation's first
comprehensive
survey of transgender
veterans, analyzed by the Palm Center
and achieved its initial goal in the
issuance of a White House directive requiring
respectful, dignified, relevant and competent
treatment of transgender veterans, to include
both counseling and hormone therapy in support
of transition. The
Directive,
issued by the VHA in 2011 and revised in 2013,
included the review and considerable input of
the TAVA board and others; and represented the
achievement of TAVA's original mission and
goals.
In a giant bureaucracy,
unfortunately, even the clearest policy and
procedural guidelines can become ensnared in the
molasses of inertia and distorted and
contradicted by the personal beliefs of minor
bureaucrats. Subsequent training programs
eventually counteract this negative tendency.
In the meantime, TAVA found itself in the role
of monitoring the progress of change, and
collecting the complaints of those affected
veterans still waiting for freedom from
discrimination.
Progress
has come slowly but steadily with a growing list
of VA supportive programs for transgender and
LGBT veterans, and the appointment of national
VHA 'LGBT Program Coordinators for Patient
Care.' One of the current coordinators,
Dr. Jillian Shipherd, was one of the original
authors of the Directive, and has been
instrumental in responding to issues concerning
transgender veterans.
During this same period, the
earthquake of the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't
Tell (DADT) policy made it crystal clear to TAVA
leaders that patriotic transgender volunteers
were left out of the biggest change in military
policy regarding minorities since President
Harry S. Truman racially integrated our armed
forces by Executive Order in 1948.
Transgender service members were, and still
remain, subject to investigation, interrogation,
and involuntary discharge simply because of who
they are.
Angela Brightfeather, TAVA's
current president, was one of the founders of
TAVA and organized the March on Washington in
2004. In an interview, she recounted
TAVA's epiphany which led to the new mission of
advocating for legalizing the service of
transgender patriotic volunteers in our armed
forces, along with continued active vigilance of
VA policy and treatment of veterans. The
provision of sexual reassignment surgery remains
a crucial element of TAVA's goals and is
inherently intertwined with the right and
freedom to serve in our nation's armed forces.
Among the many issues she raised
was the influence of the APA, the American
Psychological Association's Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual (DSM). The removal of
homosexuality as a diagnosable disorder, decades
ago, was one of the factors enabling the
eventual legislation allowing gay, lesbian and
bisexual patriotic volunteers to serve openly in
our armed forces. The recent change
regarding gender identity issues has thus far
not affected the status of transgender service,
however. If transgender people had the
right to serve, on the other hand, TAVA could
tell the APA that its designation did not
reflect reality, according to Ms. Brightfeather.
It was her background as a drill
sergeant, according to Angela, that gave her the
organizational ability and temperament to deal
with all the endless details of the Washington
March during the early days of TAVA's formation.
LGBT rights pioneer Frank Kameny, a gay WWII
veteran, provided encouragement and advice; but
it was the former drill sergeant who worked
through the resistance of Arlington's guard
personnel, and the 'movement of transgender
veteran troops,' around Washington from the
Vietnam Wall, to the Iwo Jima and Arlington
Memorials.
Her activist organizational
experience extends back to at least the 1980s
when she formed a transgender group in New York
and subsequently received a Trinity award for
her ongoing efforts. She summed up her
ongoing lifetime activism saying, "After all
these years I've learned that the activists that
count are the ones who keep the soul of the
community in their minds and hearts.
Gender Equality is the right of every person to
express whatever gender is comfortable to them.
HOPI Indians have 32
genders that a person can express! What we
are about is between your ears, not between
your legs. We are all about our history. We are canary in the mine now, we
are living proof that sexual and gender discrimination
exists in a country that is supposed to be
equal, and it isn't."
"TAVA's mission," according
to Angela, "is continued vigilance of VA
compliance with its own directive, and to
continue to use 'who we are' to further our
cause of free gender expression for all people
without discrimination. And a part
of 'who we are' is veterans -which is a big part
of what we have done in our lives. That
status puts us on a plain where we can walk into
our Congressmen's offices and be listened to and
respected as veterans who have done our duty and
earned the recognition due those who have
contributed to and sacrificed for our nation."
Hence, being heard and being included in
legislation is the current challenge for the
organization which is fighting those who insist
on only a binary definition of gender in our
armed forces and in our American society.
That challenge, according to
Angela, is to gain the organizational strength
to prevent the loss of the gains in acceptance
already achieved within the VA, to have the
strength to be able to move forward to be a part
of America's future and active members of
America's armed forces. "We have to gain
the strength to represent ourselves. Who
better than veterans to do that, who have
already given of their lives in service to our
country," she said. "As American veterans,
we are the antithesis of what other people think
of transgender people. We are veterans who
have laid down our lives for America; who better
to express our demand for equal rights?
That is the current and future mission of TAVA!"
In closing our interview, Angela
stressed that 'heart' and 'humanity' are what
she considers essential beyond what she
considers 'sterile mission statements.'
She wants it understood that "there is a human
behind every bureaucratic decision on
discrimination and the repeal of discriminatory
policies. Our humanity is the essential
element of what we are doing which propels us
and motivates us to achieve our goal of
equality. Without the recognition of our
humanity, achieving change is meaningless."
The new TAVA website may be seen
at
http://www.tavausa.org.