Captain Hannah Winterbourne is no stranger to conflict. In addition to her service in Afghanistan, all her life she fought an even greater conflict within herself – that of her gender identity. Not only has her transition been wildly successful – thanks to the British Army having a good policy in place since 1999 – but she is now the transgender representative for the British Army, helping with education, welfare, and issues transgender soldiers may have.
Which of course all begs the question: why is the United States military completely unable to handle the issue of openly transgender soldiers? Why can the UK do it, and not us? The reason, dear readers, is almost certainly not due to a problem with our military, but more with our society. And transgender acceptance within our society is a battle which is still very much underway.
It certainly is a problem with our military as it mirrors the same sexism that pervades our society. You can’t have Transgender women in a social order that tolerates, even glorifies rape. Have you seen a soldiers story?
I am embarrassed to say that many if the U.S. Military senior leaders think this is too difficult to implement. 18 other countries figured this out and many if them are not nearly as progressive as one may think. What does it say when our military can’t figure out how to Integrate the 15-25 thousand trans service members in its ranks while Estonia has a fully integrated solution?
Good luck to the pair of them and it’s a great shame that the USA doesn’t have the same outlook as the UK. I find that this is the same with certain religions that don’t understand transsexual people or should I say Transgender and that it is a medical fact. I found the article used unfortunate words like ‘decided’ and ‘became a woman’ as it’s not a lifestyle choice as some believe but a real medical condition where a person is ‘born in the wrong body’ (for want of a better description). I do wish people would understand this and not try to make out that TS/TG people suddenly decide that they’d like to be a woman or man (Transwoman/Transman) out of choice. They are are born this way and I see it as another intersex condition not a lifestyle choice. In the UK TS people had to fight to have their medical condition recognised as a real midical condition. Please remember that these are people, human beings not freaks or sexual/mental perverts as I have heard it described.