LGBT Battle Buddies

It’s been a uphill battle to say the least when it comes to LGBT rights, especially in the military department. Though great strides have been made in the military in the last ten years that I found to be great. Little known fact, the military was first federal leveled organization that recognize gay marriage. Which I believe is huge. Coming just a decade from the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ to recognizing gay marriage I believe is an amazing thing. I enlisted into the army in 2014, during of course the Obama Administration. Before I left the military the issue of transgender soldiers was starting become a major conversation piece during briefings. Primarily with the notirity of Chelsea Manning, the military’s first transgender member who started her transition while serving her sentence of imprisonment for violating the espionage act. Chelsea, who was born Bradley had started to transition while incarcerated. One thing people don’t know about the military is that, if you break the law while serving, you stay legally a soldier until the military gives you the pink slip known as a DD-214. So Chelsea was still a soldier while she was incarcerated, she started her transition, which forced the military to create new regulations for people whom were transitioning. As of Jan 1 2018, a transgender person can now openly joined the armed forces. Which is a huge victory. It’s another blow to our ‘Dumb-Ass-In-Chief’ who publicly tweeted disrespectfully about trans soldiers. When I was serving I knew trans battle buddies, and when they got wind of our new president's comments it was grounds for termination of loyalty. I personally had an emotional breakdown the night the election results came in. I can tell you that the day we had to go into work to change out President Obama’s photo, let's just say it was a hard day to swallow. I am excited that the government has made this decision, anything otherwise would have been discrimination. Not to even think about those who have already been serving that are transitioning. Hopefully this year brings way more strides for the LGBT community.