If I were to tell you that the repeal of DADT was flawed you would probably give me a funny look and ask why. Considering I identify as a queer transwoman you would think that I would be all for the repeal. Though, it's not about what happened with the repeal but what didn't happen. From
December 21, 1993 until September 20, 2011 gays, lesbians, and
bisexuals were explicitly
not allowed to openly serve in the military. The
arguments that were used to keep gays out were flaky and based on bigoted and dated views from uptight ignorant conservatives. Thankfully, this
institutional discrimination pertaining to sexual orientation has
been stopped at least officially. However, transgender people are
still restricted from military service due to other Department of
Defense restrictions
on gender identity. What was thought of as a
legislative victory that would allow everyone to serve in the
military, and likely labeled as an LGBT legislative victory, was
really just an LGB victory. This is now viewed as an issue over and
done with by too many activists.
Stories like Morgan
Wade’s beg to differ. She came into the Navy
presenting as male. Later on, she discovered she was a transgender
female and also began dating. She came out to her girlfriend who
ended up being very supportive, and got married in 2007. Afterwords
Morgan began taking hormones to transition; she went to therapists
and doctors outside the military’s network so as not to be caught
on to. This was however risky due to it being against the rules and
punishable by administrative discharge. After being on hormones she
started struggling to deal with the misogynistic jokes in the
locker-room, Morgan left the Navy and the sense of pride that came
with the job she loved, along with a possibility of a large
promotion. She later after Don’t Ask Don’t Tells’ repeal Morgan
applied to be let back in and resume doing what she loved, diving.
After many tests to test her psychologically and mentally, they all
came back giving her a clean bill of mental health. She was however
denied acceptance into the Navy, the reason for being denied was left
blank. As I mentioned earlier, there are restrictions on gender identity. I would love to get into what these are so I could pick away at what exactly is a problem however these regulations seem to be ambiguous (though they are explicitly mentioned in Wikipedia) yet enforced. It is likely due to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders) classifying non-cis identified people as having Gender Identity Disorder. Yet this does not explain Why Morgan was still denied acceptance into the military after numerous tests pertaining to her psychological well-being turned out just fine. As mentioned earlier this is seen as a case of
discrimination that is over and done with. Trans* acceptance in our
military, as well as other LGBT civil rights laws (employment
discrimination comes to mind) requires more attention. We can’t
disingenuously slap a T on LGB and call it good, we need real
language in legislation to stop discrimination based on gender
identity in our military.
