When the Department of Defense lifted its ban on open transgender service in the military just before Independence Day, local transgender veterans cheered the move.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced the inclusion at a June 30 news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
“I’m confident that we have reason to be proud today of what this will mean for our military,” Carter told reporters. “It’s the right thing to do and it’s another step in ensuring that we continue to recruit and retain the most qualified people. Good people are the key to the best military in the world. Our military, and the nation it defends, will be stronger.”
His full comments are available by visiting www.defense.gov.
PGN checked in with four transgender veterans — from the U.S. Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force and Army — to share their stories of personal patriotism and self-discovery.
Some said they would still be in the military today if they could’ve served openly, while others focused on hope for future transgender service members.
Nick Greiner, Philadelphia, U.S. Coast Guard, 1995-98
Greiner, a Center City veteran, first enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1995. He served during “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which was repealed in 2010. Greiner thought the secret he was keeping was that he was a lesbian. But a few years ago, the 40-year-old came out as transgender.
“As far as the transgender aspect, it was easier for me,” he said of his service, which concluded in 1998. “There was no expectation of femininity. The culture was more masculine or unisex.”
Still, Greiner was excited to hear that the Pentagon decided to lift its ban on open transgender service in the military.
“It’s a different world now and it’s fantastic,” he said. “It allows people to focus on what they’re doing and what they’re good at doing.”
Greiner remembered once working on a “tie-down team” charged with tying a landing helicopter to the deck of a ship. Someone had complained that there were no women on the team. Greiner recalled a bit of confusion regarding his involvement.
He noted servicemembers would stay active longer if they felt they could contribute without having to hide any aspect of themselves. Greiner said he hopes that transgender people who are undergoing hormone-replacement therapy could easily access medical resources in the field. He anticipated an adjustment period followed by a return to business as usual.
“Now that you’ve got women in combat and gay and transgender people serving openly, all the concerns that people had will just start to go away,” he said.
Robin Brzezinska, Philadelphia, U.S. Navy and Army National Guard, 2002-10
Brzezinska had just returned from a stint in the Peace Corps when terrorist attacks struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. She felt compelled to enlist and joined the U.S. Navy the following year.
“I went into the service not only to serve my country, but to try to see if I could man up,” Brzezinska said. “That didn’t work so well. I had to learn to accept myself.”
Despite the patriotism she shared with her colleagues, Brzezinska said some found her an easy target. She worried about how much of herself to hide and what to wear. At one point, a petty officer first class assaulted her.
Brzezinska said she never reported the incident. She felt her attacker was too well-connected. He was being groomed for a promotion at the time. Instead, she took advantage of the Blue to Green program, which enabled commissioned officers from the Navy or U.S. Air Force to switch into the U.S. Army.
Brzezinska joined the Army National Guard in December 2004. She found more opportunity to serve and worked on data analysis largely at Fort Dix in Trenton, N.J. She developed stronger relationships with her colleagues and found them more accepting.
A stress breakdown, stemming from some unpaid medical bills and her mother’s heart attack, led to Brzezinska being medically processed out of the military in 2010. But she didn’t want to cut ties completely with the service.
Brzezinska now works as a civilian employee for the Navy in Northeast Philadelphia. She is out at work and has also joined the region’s chapter of Outserve-SLDN, an advocacy organization for LGBT servicemembers. Her primary focus is helping veterans find jobs when they leave the military.
Brzezinska said coming out “opened up a lot of doors.”
“It was a lifting of a burden,” she said.
Joanne M. Carroll, Lancaster, U.S. Air Force, 1960-80
Carroll graduated high school in 1958 when the draft still dictated the lives of many young people.
She said anyone who was fit for service often got turned away from jobs. The best employment she could find was to work as the clerk of a grocery store, and she knew she wanted more.
Carroll also wanted to blend in after struggling with her gender identity since she was about 4 years old.
“When I was younger, I was bullied so much that I had to become a good actor,” she said. “I wanted to do as many macho things as I could. I tried as best as I could to live up to the role I was assigned.”
In the U.S. Air Force, she served in special operations with the air commandos in Southeast Asia. She said she didn’t receive any flak from her colleagues, calling her tenure “a matter of suffering in silence.”
Carroll remembered feeling a kinship to Christine Jorgensen, a World War II veteran who sought gender-confirmation surgery in Denmark.
“Developing a language to describe myself took quite a while,” she said. “But I don’t lament a single thing that’s happened in my life. My time in the service taught me how to be a team member, build strong bonds and rely on others. I had a sense of duty and honor.”
When Carroll retired from the Air Force in 1980, leaving with the rank of master sergeant, she started gender counseling. She began hormone-replacement therapy in 1995 and fully transitioned by 2001.
Carroll called her transition relatively uneventful. Her mother and kids accepted her. Her health care through the Department of Defense, TRICARE, covered her hormone therapy over the years, and she found affirming physicians.
On the new policy of open transgender service, Carroll was cautiously optimistic.
“Obviously, I’m excited that the military has taken this stance,” she said. “But absent nondiscrimination legislation in all 50 states, what are those people supposed to do when they have to live in local communities where they’re stationed?
“Perhaps with the military taking this step, people will realize it’s not the aberration they thought it was.”
Carroll works to promote transgender rights in Lancaster as president of TransCentralPA. She also serves on the board of Equality Pennsylvania.
Jennifer Marie Long, North Jersey, U.S. Army, 1983-2012
Long happened to be delivering the keynote address at the first Pride Day at Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, N.J., when the Pentagon announced it would allow open transgender service in the military.
The U.S. Army veteran said it lent weight to her words when she shared statistics from the Palm Center, a California-based public-policy research firm, that count 15,500 active transgender servicemembers and 130,000 transgender veterans.
Long said she’d still be in uniform today if the policy were in place during her nearly 30-year tenure.
“My career just got good,” she said. “I made top-enlisted rank. That’s no easy feat to make it to the decision-making level. I enjoyed the military. It was my world.”
Long enlisted in April 1983 and retired in August 2012, soon after becoming an infantry sergeant major. She said she enlisted because most people in her family had joined the military, “but moreover, it was to take on a tough-guy job.”
She recognized her gender was different than what had been assigned at birth, but tried to suppress it for fear of losing her career. By 2005, she presented as male at work, and then changed into civilian clothes to live as Jennifer at home.
Long legally changed her name in May 2012. She didn’t worry about losing benefits or facing a dishonorable discharge for coming out. Long said the Army knew her plan, at that point, was to retire.
She said active transgender servicemembers could focus on their jobs with the new policy in place.
“There will be no more anxiety,” Long said. “I think you’ll see better performance from those soldiers who are transgender.”
Implementation
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said gender identity would be added to the Military Equal Opportunity Program and medically necessary transition-related care would be provided, though the timing would depend on deployment schedules.
American officials studied Fortune 500 companies with inclusive policies, in addition to allied military with open transgender service like the United Kingdom, Australia and Israel.
Guidance for commanders and medical professionals will be developed over the next 90 days, followed by training for the entire force. At that point, transgender servicemembers can begin the process to change their gender in the personnel-management system.
After no more than a year, the military will begin recruiting transgender individuals who meet all other physical and mental standards for service, Carter said. New recruits will have to “have been stable in their identified gender for 18 months, as certified by their doctor,” before they can enter the military.
The implementation plan will be reviewed in two years to make sure it’s going well. Carter said the timing mirrors that for the reversal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which had prevented gay people from serving openly, and admitting women to combat roles.