For Chris Beck, now Kristin Beck, the journey from childhood to war-decorated Navy Seal to gender reassignment is the basis of her forthcoming memoir Princess Warrior: A U.S. Navy Seal’s Journey To Coming Out Transgender (written with Anne Speckhard Ph.D.). It’s an improbable tale of one man’s struggles to adapt to conventional notions of masculinity all the while knowing that Chris was born into the wrong gender. But that Chris would pursue a military career for 20 years with SEAL Team Six (the team responsible for Osama Bin Laden’s death) and with it all the trappings of a very acute hypermasculine culture seems all the more breathtaking. According to a report in the Daily Mail, a former SEAL who was in a different unit than Beck, said that Beck had a stellar reputation as a “consummate guy’s guy.” For Chris, the other SEALs were his brothers while they lived together in the “man’s man warrior lifestyle.” Chris retired six months before the bin Laden raid, but nonetheless still went on 13 different deployments during his military career — seven of which sent him to combat areas — ultimately earning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He eventually retired in 2011, liberating him from a life that was as foreign to him as the life of a Navy Seal would be for most of us. Kristin, as she is now known, lives in Florida, dresses as a woman, goes to gay bars and has begun the hormonal treatments necessary to complete her transition. Currently, the U.S. Military bars those who identify with or dress as members of another gender. The book was published June 1 and is currently available as an e-book.
Transgender Navy Seal comes out in new book
