After yet another attempt by President Trump to ban transgender people from serving in the military, I decided to interview an active duty trans woman in the process of transitioning while serving in the army. I wanted to get to know what it was like to serve as a trans person, and what struggles or barriers they might face.
Text in bold is my words. Text in "quotes" is Catherine.
Care to introduce yourself?
"My name is Cathrine Schmid, but I normally go by Katie. I use she/her pronouns."
Can you tell me a little about your current situation in the military?
"I'm an Army Staff Sergeant, currently stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington (just outside of Tacoma). I've been serving for 13 years, including US postings in Kansas, Florida, Texas, and Arizona, and overseas tours in Germany, Korea, and Iraq."
Wow. Impressive. Now let's address the elephant in the room. Did you know you were trans when you joined the Army?
"I knew that I was trans, though I didn't have the word for it, from a young age. But I spent most of my life doing everything in my power to deny and suppress it. The military is a very masculine environment, and I thought that being part of that would take away the distress I felt from dysphoria.
I never intended to serve as a trans person in the military. I intended to serve as whatever the military made me into.
Clearly, that didn't work.
After 10 years of service, I found myself contemplating suicide. I sought help instead, and eventually came to understand that transition was the only reliable treatment for dysphoria."
Right. Well, it seems to me like you're doing a great service to your country, and that your identity has nothing to do with your ability to serve. So uh... hm... I guess that's it?
I originally wanted to write a huge expose on how trans folks in the military are bravely suffering in silence while putting their lives on the line. And they are. But I forgot that they're also just... people. Doing their jobs. All the sensationalizing the media has done on trans folks in general, especially those serving in the military, isn't actually helping them.
"Should trans folks be allowed to serve" is an argument we've had many times, in many ways. Before that it was "should gay people serve openly" and before THAT it was "should gay people serve at ALL". Then we had the argument of women serving, and if POC should be integrated with the white troops or made to serve in segregated factions.
I don't think anyone said it better and more concisely than the tv show "The West Wing". For any Gen Z-ers who might not know the show, it's about the senior staff of the White House's day to day lives. In this particular scene, they've been arguing with two representatives from the military about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The episode came out before it was repealed, and the two military representatives seem to be firmly against repealing it, so the discussion seems to be going nowhere. Just when the senior staff is about to give up, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Fitzwallace, stops by to put in his two cents.
