In 2007 I became a blogger at Pam’s House Blend, and went on to become what Melissa Harris Perry called “the first national transgender blogger.” In 2008 I became one of the first two transgender reporters who were credentialed to cover the Democratic National Convention.
In 2009 I became the first transgender reporter to cover a transgender hate crime murder trial (Angie Zapata’s murder by Allen Ray Andrade) from the courtroom, the first transgender reporter to live Tweet such a hate crime murder.
In 2010 I handcuffed myself to the White House Fence twice for the repeal of DADT with Get Equal which helped keep the issue in the news cycles, so that the long years of work by organizations such as the HRC and SLDN to repeal the military ban of gays, lesbians and bisexual servicemembers in the news cycles received continued media attention. Congress and the president then acted to repeal DADT, and LGB servicemembers began serving openly in 2011.
In 2010, the Transgender American Veterans Association and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) worked successfully to change the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) policies so that disabled, transgender veterans would receive appropriate health care. The updated policy on the highest level was supposed to make it easier for transgender veterans to change their recorded gender in the VA databases. I was the test case for that particular policy, and it turned out that lower ranking VA employees, at the advice of their in-house lawyers, wouldn’t change a servicemembers sex within the VA databases without surgical intervention. When I applied for that change of recorded gender, I demonstrated it couldn’t be done. NCTE went back to work, and the VA changed their policy in 2011 so that transgender people could change their recorded gender in the VA databases as a result.
In 2012, I worked with SLDN to show that one could legally change one’s recorded gender in the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) databases, which would show that the DoD already recognizes changes of gender. Showing that the DoD already recognizes changes of recorded gender was to be one of the building blocks for the T-subcommunity of the LGBT community’s effort for open service for transgender servicemembers. In April of last year, the DoD recognized my change of gender, and publicly documented it could be accomplished, and DoD already did have a process in place for it.
I don’t think I’m going to be involved with too many more transgender firsts, or be at the center of any change of U.S. veterans or military policy. I’m no longer a national, transgender blogger, and am no longer a leading voice for the trans community’s civil rights. And due to the progression of the disabilities that give me a 100 percent VA disability rating and family obligations, it’s unlikely I’m going to again catapult into that position as a community leader.
I turn 55 this month. In Navy parlance, I can say that my life as an out transgender activist has left a wake: that is to say there are tangible accomplishments for my life of activism. At 55 I mostly look backward at my firsts that blazed trails and my activism for my community, and not very much forward.
There is so much more that needs to be done for transgender people’s ordinary equality, but thankfully there are others who can, and are, now taking the lead.
Laverne Cox, famously known as the trans actor in the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black, was the person on the cover of Time magazine’s June 9 issue. The cover was emblazoned with the header The Transgender Tipping Point. As Time reporter Katy Steinmentz reported, “Nearly a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, another social movement is poised to challenge deeply held cultural beliefs.” I was once a leading face of trans activism, but now we have trans people like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Landon Wilson, Kristen Beck, Jos Truitt, Cassidy Lynn Campbell and Ashton Lee, who are at the forefront.
We are now at a transgender tipping point, both as a social movement and a civil rights movement. I like to think that I played a part in getting us to that place, and for me it’s enough. I think the trans community’s efforts toward greater visibility and civil rights are in capable hands.
