Active duty United States Airman Logan Ireland and his fiancée, U.S. Soldier Laila Villanueva came out publicly today as being transgender in an exclusive New York Times Op-Doc,Transgender, at War and in Love.
The Op-Doc, produced by Fiona Dawson, creator of “TransMilitary,” a platform for transgender service members, profiles the transgender airman, who recently completed a deployment in Afghanistan serving as male, the gender he knows himself to be. Remarkably, after telling his leaders and some peers that his sex was assigned female at birth, he received their support—despite military policy that prevents transgender people from serving openly. Meanwhile, his fiancée, Laila Villanueva, who was assigned male at birth, has a similar scenario, but works without the support of her command.
Logan and Laila are aware that by coming out publicly in this film, they could be discharged.
Watch the short documentary above.
