Transgender Veterans And The Benefits They Can't Use.

Two months ago, WNYC--a local public radio station--aired this segment about the troubles transgender veterans face in using their benefits:

Veterans' Day

To me, this day--Veteran's Day--is one of the most important.  I honestly would give up Christmas to celebrate this day.

Mind you, I think the most important thing the human race could do is to end war.  A good part of our income inequalities and problems with environmental degradation have to do with preparation for, not to mention the fighting of, wars.  And the culture of violence, I believe, contributes to the oppression of (and, naturally, violence against) women and men who don't fit into this culture's concept of masculinity.

That said, this country should honor its veterans--but not in that chest-thumping, rah-rah kind of way we see in parades and exhibitions of military might.  Such celebrations are all predicated on a mythology about this country's military history:  that all of our wars were just, and we never lost any of them. (Korea was a "stalemate" and we got out of Vietnam before the Vietcong could claim victory over American forces.)  But, I believe the veterans should be honored, not celebrated, for their sacrifices--including, in some cases, their lives--for conflicts to which they were conscripted or in which they joined without realizing how misguided (or simply mendacious) the motives were of those who led us into war.

At the same time, we need to remember that even though "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has been repealed, transgender people still cannot serve in the Armed Forces.  

DD 214: An ID Problem For Transgender Veterans

During the Presidential campaign, I wrote about how Voter ID laws were a hindrance to transgender people.  This is particularly true for those who are in the early stages of their transition:  They may be living completely or part-time in the gender of their minds and spirits but do not yet have ID to reflect their identities.  Some haven't yet changed their names; others live in places where they can't change their names, let alone the gender designation on their drivers' licenses or passports, without having gender-reassignment surgery.

For all the attention I paid to the issue, I still can't believe I missed another, related, issue.  It also has to do with identification and vital records.

Since Veteran's Day is being commemorated today, you might have guessed that it has something to do with military records.  If you did, you're right. Specifically, it has to do with form DD 214:  the document uniformed members of the Armed Forces receive upon their discharge or retirement from the military.

"You have to produce it for almost everything you do in life," says Bridget Wilson.  She is an attorney who has been representing transgender people in military and civilian matters for two decades.  She explained that that veterans have to show their DD 214s when they apply for college or to take the exams for law or other professions.  They also need it when they apply for jobs with large employers, some of whom get benefits (or simply "brownie points") for hiring veterans.  Military retirees also must have the form in order to provide their dependents with medical benefits or to access some of the privileges, such as shopping on military bases, the had when they were on active duty.

Nearly all of the 300,000 transgender veterans underwent their gender transitions after leaving the military.  This means their DD 214s show the names and genders by which they were identified when they were in uniform.  The Department of Defense treats the form, and other documents as "historical records," which means that military officials aren't allowed to change the information of them.

The result is that transgender veterans are routinely turned down for services and, of course, can't use their status as veterans when they apply for jobs and colleges.  According to Wilson, it would take only Defense Secretary Leon Panneta's signature to change the situation.     

As Wilson said, the issue may exist simply because "it wasn't on the radar" of Defense Department officials.  One reason for that is that most transgender veterans have transitioned in recent years and, even a decade ago, the numbers of trans veterans weren't as great as they are now.  However, as the situation of transgender veterans becomes better-known, there may be reluctance to change among those same officials--in part because transgenders still can't serve in the military, even after the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

After all, isn't everyone who served entitled to the same benefits?

Transgender Veterans

Today is the real Veterans' (Armistice) Day.  So I thought it would be interesting to share something I found on You Tube.

Monica F. Helms--who, interestingly, created the Transgender Pride Flag--is a transsexual Navy veteran who began her transition at about the same age that I began mine.  She made two videos tracing the history and contributions of transgender" and "transgender-like" people who served in the Armed Forces, from the American Revolution to the Gulf Wars.  

She uses the term "transgender-like" because, as she points out, the term "transgender" wasn't invented until the mid-20th Century.  While there are accounts of people who crossed gender lines and served in the military, the records and details of their lives are often sketchy, particularly about their lives after the military.  Some "transgender-like" people may have crossed gender lines (as you might expect, from female to male) in order to enlist and returned to living in their birth genders after taking off their uniforms for the last time.

I suspect that in some of the earlier wars, gender-crossing might have been more common than people realized:  a Union Army nurse during the Civil War estimated that she had seen 400 cross-dressing women in blue uniforms.  There are accounts of women who lived as men, both in and out of the military, whose "secret" wasn't revealed until they went for medical treatment, or even until they died (as happened to the jazz musician Billy Tipton). However, by 20th Century, records and medical tests had become more accurate, so there are fewer accounts of female-to-male soldiers and sailors in the two World Wars than there were even in the Spanish-American war.

Anyway, Ms. Helms did a great job, I think, especially when one considers how much difficulty she must have had in getting the material for her documentary.    For one thing,  military and medical records from, say, the War of 1812 are  far from complete.  (Even in more recent times, records were destroyed in fires, floods and such.)  Also, many families--and, I am sure, the Army and Navy--managed to keep secret the identities of many who served, particularly as spies.  And, of course, one has to wonder whether very many people who were in a position to help--let alone the Armed Forces--were helpful.

Part 1:




Part 2: