“Readiness and morale of our armed forces will suffer. The impact of a shutdown on the department and the military and civilian families – many of whom live paycheck to paycheck – is simply catastrophic.” – Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young (R-FL) chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, as quoted by the Army Times As…
As the military services are moving each day in the direction of better supporting LGB dependents (spouses, children, etc.), there are Ts in the military family that the DoD is failing to adequately support. We don’t hear much about these Ts in the military family, but within the military family there is no question that…
Marriage equality is currently an issue for military couples with trans spouses, highlighting a Department of Defense (DoD) cultural competence issue. If a spouse changes his or her gender after being married and entered into the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) as a particular gender, then one is that gender until one goes through…
In a somewhat similar way to Pvt. Chelsea Manning’s choice to willfully violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for what she hoped would be for a greater good, I know what it’s like to willfully violate the UCMJ for what I hoped would be for a greater good. Our choices too were similar…
Even though I’m a kind and joy-filled person, I’m always prepared to deal with inappropriate comments or behavior from the government-employed health care services workers. I’m always ready to ask why a medical doctor, nurse or technician’s bigotry is getting in the way of treating a veteran with respect to their service. Yet, I’ve never…
Transprogressive Some people consider Pfc. Bradley Manning a hero; others a whistleblower; others still consider him to be a criminal who endangered the security of the United States. There was a portion of the San Francisco LGBT community who wanted to own Manning as a San Francisco Pride honoree this past June. Others didn’t want…
This year again, the Transgender Law Center organized the California Transgender Advocacy Day (CTAD), and Monday, Aug. 12, approximately 50 trans citizen lobbyists, family members of trans youth and adults and trans allies from across the state lobbied legislators in Sacramento for legislation that positively impacts trans citizens. There were three bills advocated for by…
The Vital Statistics Modernization Act (AB 433) became law Jan. 1, 2012. It alleviated the confusion, anxiety and even danger that trans people in California face when they have identity documents that do not reflect who they are. Authored by Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, the act changed the documentation standard for obtaining a legal gender change…
I often think about the Scripture Luke 6:31 – a statement of the golden rule. That Biblical verse states, “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.” I often think too about the statement made by Martin Luther King Jr. when he said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are…
How do any of us know what our gender is? If one is assigned male at birth and loses one’s genitalia in an IED explosion, is one still male? If one is assigned female at birth and lose one’s external genitalia, breasts or uterus to disease, is one still female? Obviously the answers to those…
