This past week I saw my research manifest into a panel discussion with three women who served in the U.S. military and identify as transgender.
As the president of GradPride, Georgetown University’s queer affinity group, my goal for this past semester was to “queer” veteran spaces and to elevate awareness of the transgender community, specifically those who have served in the military. Our community at Georgetown consists of ~1400 military-connected students, most of which are veterans. And, unsurprisingly, we (veterans) continue some of the hyper-masculine behaviors from the military that reject those who exist outside military-masculinit(ies). As someone who identifies as a gay man, I was often the recipient of verbal homophobic harassment because I wasn’t ascribed any forms of military masculinity.
With my experience in mind, and with this new role as GradPride president, I wanted to define the direction this year of GradPride within the intersection of queer identity and veteran/military identity. Further, given the recent changes in policy, I wanted to contribute to the dispelling of misinformation regarding the discriminatory policy construed as a medical disqualification by providing a stage for transgender veterans and service members to educate the Georgetown community.
We titled the event the Lived experiences of transgender service members and veterans because wanted to emphasize their journey from coming out to advocating for equal rights for other trans individuals. Through their narratives, they not only told us what they were doing, they showed us how they were doing it.
In total, we had over 70 folx in the audience which included 17 midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy.
