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‘So. Tell Me. Are You Transgender?’ — After DADT: Transgender Life In The US Military

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 Charlotte, a transwoman, is outed as a transgender soldier to her chain-of-command, but for the moment survives because a senior non-commissioned officer ignores the antiquated medical regulation that excludes transgender persons from serving

Virtually every lesbian and gay service member remembers the terror of being discovered. Many had the experience of thinking they may have been outed, and sweating through days, weeks, or months dreading that moment when the hammer might fall. During those months many experienced all the physiological side effects of prolonged and extreme stress. A few even had those fears realized when they got called into the office of their superiors and asked the question that meant the end of everything they had fought to achieve in their career.

“Close the door.”

“Have a seat.”

“So. Tell me. Are you gay?”

For those who have had that experience, you remember the blood rushing in your ears, the panic, time grinding to a halt and your field of vision narrowing as your blood pressure spikes with adrenaline.  Pure fight or flight, and yet, there you stood or sat, motionless and fighting every instinct written into your biology.

This is where Charlotte was several weeks ago, with one small change.

“Close the door.”

“Have a seat.”

“So. Tell me. Are you transgender?”

Charlotte, a transwoman

Charlotte was born male. Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) says she is male.  She is listed as male on all her documentation. However, she has self identified as female for much longer than she has been in the system.

Charlotte is an enlisted soldier who has established herself as one of the most solid and reliable people in her company. “I have never gotten any counseling, or adverse marks against me, much less legal. I’m well known for being a self-sufficient, reliable worker. When I get one of my rare a days off, I usually come back to find it seems like my unit is incapable of functioning without me. I’m not the stereotypical Army stud though; I don’t have a 300 PT or qualify as expert shot, but I always meet and exceed the Army standards in these areas. My evals are always well above average and I am on track to get my E5 sooner than most people.”

This maturity and reliability hasn’t gone unnoticed. Her chain of command had been urging her to put in a “Green-to-Gold” package, and she had been working on it up until that moment of hell came.

Being transgender hadn’t stopped Charlotte from making strong and meaningful connections with others in her unit. In fact, it was this bond that ultimately was her undoing.

Charlotte’s best friend in the unit got married after they were already close. However, meeting this woman allowed Charlotte’s friend to make some astute guesses. “His wife has trans friends, so he quickly put together that I might be trans. He actually approached me about it one day while we were in the field. I was honest, and he was fairly accepting on face value. I actually think he may be entirely accepting as a whole.”

Unfortunately, marital issues led Charlotte’s friend to start drinking heavily, and that’s when it all started to unravel. “He compensates by drinking with some pretty stupid dudes these days. He told one of them about me during a Saturday drinking binge. He may have told them because he felt the only way he could take some of the heat off of himself for some of his work performance issues was by outing me. The person he told then told my First Sergeant. I had no idea what was coming for me Monday morning.”

First thing that morning, the First Sergeant found Charlotte, and set events of that day in motion.

“Hey, you, come see me in my office.”

Charlotte felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It always did when she got this kind of request. She was invited into his office almost every day since she handles most of the company’s paperwork. “Whenever I was called into the First Sergeant’s office, it always made me nervous, because there was always that 2 percent chance it could be about me being trans. It’s the first thought that goes through my head anytime I go in his office and I don’t have an inkling as to why I’m there.”

“Close the door.”

“Have a seat.”

“My heart about stops when he tells me to close the door and take a seat. I knew this was bad.”

“So. Tell me. Are you transgender?”

“Shitshitshitshit. I’m about to get chaptered. He’s going to pull out one of the green legal packets I see on a daily basis and I’m going to get counseled that they’re recommending chapter.”

“Yes, First Sergeant.”

“You planning on doing anything to your junk?”

“No, First Sergeant.”

“You going to keep your hair in regs and show up in the right uniform?”

“Yes, First Sergeant.”

“Good. I don’t give a damn about this trans business as long as you hold to dude standards at work and aren’t getting surgery on your junk. Now, when are you going to have that Green-to-Gold packet done?”

“Before the end of the month. How did you know, though?”

“Someone outed you to someone, and he came to me about it. That’s all you need to know. I’ve made it clear that I don’t want to hear anything about this kind of stuff if the soldier doesn’t want people knowing about it. Anyone that goes against this will be considered to be disobeying an order. I’ve got no problem with you. Now run to legal and pick up SGT So-and-So’s packet.”

“Yes First Sergeant,” she replied, and left.

And that was it.

Since then, “I haven’t gotten any hazing, harassment, or anything else. A major part of this is that I keep my hair fairly tight. I’ve yet to experience any negative backlash.”

“A big part of why is because there are only few that know. My First Sergeant also made it clear that same day to the platoon sergeants that outing soldiers that don’t want to be outed is not kosher with him. People that do it will be considered violating orders from a senior NCO. That pretty much put a stop to the rumor mill on not only me, but also a number of other soldiers often accused of queerness.”

I asked Charlotte how things have been with the First Sergeant since, and what she took away from the experience. “There have been other conversations in passing since then. I’ve explained a little more about transgender issues and transitioning in the civilian world.  However, the bigger picture is that even (military) people who know nothing of transgender issues are able to handle the idea of trans soldiers as long as those soldiers can do their jobs well.”

It took 20 years under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to recognize this as truth for LGB people in military. We can only hope that it doesn’t take nearly as long for them to realize the same is true for the service members who are transgender.


Editor’s note: The New Civil Rights Movement is publishing a week-long series of articles about transgender people who are serving or have served in the United States military despite the present ban. All week we will be sharing the stories of real people’s lives in a considerable effort to expose the unnecessary barriers that obstruct transgender open service in military, and show why the transgender medical exclusion is antiquated and must be removed. You can read all the articles as they are published here.

 

Brynn at work cropped adjusted (1)Brynn Tannehill is originally from Phoenix, Ariz. She graduated from the Naval Academy with a B.S. in computer science in 1997. She earned her Naval Aviator wings in 1999 and flew SH-60B helicopters and P-3C maritime patrol aircraft during three deployments between 2000 and 2004. She served as a campaign analyst while deployed overseas to 5th Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain from 2005 to 2006. In 2008 Brynn earned a M.S. in Operations Research from the Air Force Institute of Technology and transferred from active duty to the Naval Reserves. In 2008 Brynn began working as a senior defense research scientist in private industry. She left the drilling reserves and began transition in 2010. Since then she has written for OutServe magazine, The Huffington Post, and Queer Mental Health as a blogger and featured columnist. Currently, she is on the board at SPART*A. Brynn and her partner currently live in Xenia, Ohio, with their three children.

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News

Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs

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12 hours ago

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April 18, 2025

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In the days leading up to Easter, President Donald Trump has repeatedly—and falsely—claimed that egg prices have plummeted to the point of being “too low,” baselessly citing steep double-digit declines—even as Americans face record-high prices at the grocery store.

“The egg prices are down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that,” the President said on Friday. “You can have all the eggs you want, we have too many eggs, in fact, if anything the prices are getting too low.”

Trump campaigned on the promise he would lower the price of groceries “on day one,” a promise that three months later is not only unfulfilled, but in some cases reversed: overall grocery prices have risen.

READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

On Thursday, Trump claimed the price of eggs had dropped 92%, while berating a reporter and his Federal Reserve Chairman.

“The price of groceries are substantially down,” the president falsely claimed.

The price of eggs, you know, when I came in, they hit me with eggs. I just got there, I was here for one week, and they started screaming, ‘Eggs have gone through the roof.’ I said, ‘I just got here.’

“They went up 87%, and you couldn’t get them,” Trump told reporters. “They said, ‘You won’t have eggs for Easter,’ which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody.You won’t have eggs for Easter.”

“And we did an unbelievable job, and now eggs are all over the place and the price went down 92 percent,” he claimed.

READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

Last week on Monday, Trump had claimed, falsely, that egg prices had dropped 79%.

Egg prices, Newsweek reported on Wednesday, “continued to climb despite recent efforts by the Trump administration to combat the shortage brought about by the ongoing bird flu with imports of Turkish eggs. The CPI egg index jumped by 5.9 percent from February and was up 60.4 percent compared to March 2024, and the average price for a dozen grade A large eggs climbed 5.6 percent to a record $6.23.”

Moe Davis, the well-known retired U.S. Air Force colonel, attorney, and former administrative law judge, posted to social media a federal government chart of egg prices.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Davis wrote, “the price of a dozen eggs in March was $6.23, the highest price ever recorded and 26% higher than in January when Trump took office. Of course if Trump says egg prices are down then the MAGA cult is obliged to say egg prices are down.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

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15 hours ago

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April 18, 2025

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The Trump White House is coming under fire for what appears to be an attempt to mock the U.S. Supreme Court, the facts in the case of a Maryland man wrongly deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and The New York Times.

The White House’s official account on the social media platform X posted a “corrected” version of a New York Times story—corrections that have drawn concern and scorn from the legal community and political commentators.

“Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador,” read a screenshot of the Times’ headline.

But the White House’s version (below), complete with red ink and cross outs, reads: “Senator Meets With MS-13 Illegal Alien in El Salvador Who Is Never Coming Back.”

The White House added remarks saying, “Fixed it for you, @NYTimes. Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen — he’s NOT coming back.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) traveled to El Salvador this week and, after several days, was finally permitted to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the legal U.S. resident whom the Trump administration has admitted in court it wrongly deported. Multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, have ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. Yet the Trump administration appears to be refusing.

Friday’s claim that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back” was taken as a serious statement of intent by some.

Attorney Aaron Regunberg wrote: “The White House is saying he’s ‘never coming back’ — they are explicitly declaring they will violate a unanimous Supreme Court order.” Calling out Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Regunberg wrote: “you said this was your red line that would trigger ‘extraordinary action.’ So…where the f— are you?”

“2 telling things here,” offered The Washington Post’s senior political reporter Aaron Blake. “1) White House crosses out ‘wrongly,’ despite repeatedly acknowledging its error in court. 2) ‘who’s never coming back’ is basically taunting SCOTUS. Signals the opposite of any intent to ‘facilitate’ his return.”

“The White House press shop lies and claims Mr. Abrego was not wrongfully deported, despite having acknowledged that fact at every single stage of the court process; at the district court, the circuit court, and the Supreme Court,” noted attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “They are openly contemptuous of the truth.”

Civil rights attorney Patrick Jaicomo, replying to the White House, wrote: “There is a mistake in the headline. You didn’t wrongly deport Garcia. You wrongly imprisoned him without due process. So, fix your mistake, as the courts have ordered. You don’t have to keep doubling down on bad decisions.”

Attorney Dilan Esper added, “I’ll remind you that the federal judges issuing orders see this.”

Veteran journalist John Harwoood called it, “disgusting fascism,” and wrote that “the Trump WH is garbage from top to bottom.”

Opinion writer Magdi Jacobs noted, “They’re moving from evading the judiciary to openly mocking it. This is very dangerous territory.”

Some others addressed what they appeared to suggest was the juvenile nature of the White House’s post.

“When you graduate from 4chan and land your first job at the White House,” wrote Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall.

“The Trump admin really wants to distract people from the fact that it illegally sent someone to El Salvador in violation of a court order & binding law, either out of malice or sheer incompetence. No amount of s—posting will change that,” said Reason magazine’s Billy Binion.

“This is the evil of the Trump White House,” remarked Fred Wellman, an Army veteran, political consultant, and the host of the podcast “On Democracy.”

Journalist and author Robert Lusetich observed: “The White House, an ever-lasting symbol of the power, dignity and greatness of the United States. Now, a trolling meme account.”

Anti-gun-violence activist Fred Guttenberg declared the White House is “staffed by pathetic punk 2nd grade pre pubescent children.”

Journalist James Surowiecki commented, “Your tax dollars are paying for this childish cr–.”

See the White House’s social media post above or at this link.

 

Image via Reuters

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Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

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17 hours ago

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April 18, 2025

By

From the outset of his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump signaled that a central focus of his presidency would be targeting and exacting retribution against his critics.

“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump told attendees at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

In keeping his retribution vow, Trump in just three months—often with the use of the power of his executive orders—has targeted for retribution numerous top law firms, revoked the security clearances of dozens of top national security experts, former government officials, and former political opponents. He has targeted top universities, threaten to defund millions of dollars or more in critical research grants, and declared top news outlets CNN and MSNBC “corrupt” and “illegal.”

Just days after the 2024 election, NPR reported that during the campaign, “Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens.”

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

On Thursday, Trump threatened to go after one of his top legal critics: CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal and ethics watchdog that has been working for years to hold him (and others) to account, often by suing.

Asked by a reporter what group he would like to see have their tax exempt status removed, Trump replied, “Well, we’ll be making some statements, but it’s a big deal.”

“They’re so rich and so strong, and then they go so bad, they’ve earned so much by being a member of this country, you know, a member of this group, this beautiful group of people in this country, and then they go and they abuse their power like that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon. “I think it’s, you know, I think it’s very sad.”

“I have a group named CREW,” he continued. “CREW. You ever hear of it? I think it’s CREW, and they have a guy that heads CREW. It’s supposed to be a charitable organization. The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that.”

“We’re looking at a lot of things, but if you take a look at CREW, what they’ve done, and I think it was a very big abuse, but we’re going to be finding out pretty soon.”

During Trump’s first and second terms, CREW sued Trump or his administration for alleged emoluments clause violations, alleged Presidential Records Act noncompliance, and challenged some of his executive orders. It also represented voters in a lawsuit attempting to use the 14th Amendment to remove him from the ballot, claiming his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection was constitutionally disqualifying.

READ MORE: ‘Full Time Babysitter’: Treasury Secretary Urges Caution After Trump Fed Chair Threat

In January, CREW was part of a lawsuit suing to “block Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers,” and in February, CREW sued the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “to compel transparency.”

CREW, in a statement to NCRM, vowed to continue its work.

“For more than 20 years, CREW has exposed government corruption from politicians of both parties who violate the public trust and has worked to promote an ethical, transparent government,” CREW Vice President of Communications Jordan Libowitz said. “Good governance groups are the heart of a healthy democracy. We will continue to do our work to ensure Americans have an ethical and accountable government.”

Legal experts are blasting Trump’s threat.

“It is literally a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, VP, or any senior White House employee, to ‘request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the IRS to conduct … an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer,'” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“The Trump administration has gone after law firms, they’ve gone after universities, and they’re now going after civil society, including groups like @CREWcrew. They want to silence any opposition to their extreme agenda,” added the National Women’s Law Center.

“President Trump is now threatening to weaponize the IRS against nonprofit organizations like @CREWcrew,” wrote Public Citizen. “He is attacking our most basic right: to say what we believe without fear of government prosecution. We proudly stand in solidarity with our friends at CREW.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Admission’: GOP Senator Says Colleagues ‘Are All Afraid’ of ‘Retaliation’

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