The Transgender Military Experience

Abstract

Although there have been studies that focus on the experiences of the gay and lesbian population serving in the United States military, few have focused on the experience of active duty transgender service members. Transgender individuals transgress the binary conception of gender by deviating from societal gender norms associated with assigned sex at birth. The Department of Defense has set policies and standards that reflect a binary conception of gender, with a focus on conformity. We argue that able-bodied gender variant service personnel are just as capable of serving their country as anyone else. Because of the repercussions associated with active duty transgender military personnel, our sample is small and involves nine clandestine service members and two international service members who wanted to share their stories from a different perspective. Snowball sampling was aimed at finding current active duty and reserve transgender service members. Using a combination of telephone interviews and questionnaires, data were collected from active duty transgender service personnel throughout the United States and two from international militaries that allow transgender people to serve. Data collection focused on the overall experiences of the participants along with questions regarding workplace discrimination, suggestions for policy changes, and their views about the overturn of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Our findings add to a growing source of information about the transgender military experience in the U.S. armed forces and the importance of overturning discriminatory workplace policies that negatively impact transgender service members.

Military Sexual Assault in Transgender Veterans: Results From a Nationwide Survey

“…This report also highlighted the discrimination and stigma faced by transgender service members who were required to present in the military as the gender to which they were assigned at birth (Bryant & Schilt, 2008). This was further illustrated in a recent study by Dietert and Dentice (2015) that examined the work-place experience for transgender active-duty military members, in which a common theme was the struggle to endure the stigma and stress of hiding a true identity in order to maintain employment or preserve access to retirement benefits. In another study, Harrison-Quintana and Herman (2013) qualitatively described negative aspects of the military experience for 74 transgender veterans, including instances of gender identity-related physical and sexual violence committed by military peers.…”

Meeting the healthcare needs of transgender people within the armed forces: putting UK military policy into practice

“…Research included within this paper suggests that organisational policies that exclude transgender personnel from the military may have impacted adversely on serving personnel who identify themselves as transgender (Dietert & Dentice, 2015;Yerke & Mitchell, 2013). The UK AF has been identified as one nation that has a progressive, inclusive policy towards transgender military personnel (Yerke & Mitchell, 2013).…”

“…This is in keeping with a general momentum towards greater equality within the UK AF, for example females serving at sea for the last 20 years and recently on board submarines for the first time in the submarine ser i e s ear histor (MOD, 2014b). The policy offers a robust defence of transgender personnel against any form of discrimination, which seems to be effective in practice (Dietert & Dentice, 2015). Indeed, the UK poli also re og ises the i di idual s right to hoose their gender and then to be treated according to that confirmed gender, for example using the ablutions and accommodation that is consistent with their gender choice.…”

“…Both were American publications that suggested transgender personnel within the US forces were discriminated against because the organisational policy precluded them from openly serving within the forces (Dietert & Dentice, 2015;Yerke & Mitchell, …”

“…The first of these papers was a qualitative study about the experience of transgender personnel, where personnel from the American, Canadian and British forces participated in a 20-60 minute structured interview (Dietert & Dentice, 2015). The paper was not explicit as to how the thematic analysis was conducted and lacked reflexivity about the resear her s values and perspective upon the main issues, which means that it is difficult to be certain what influence the researcher had on the findings.…”