[00:00:00] This is Fortress On A Hill with Henry Daddy Kagan, Giovanni Shiloh and Manisha.
[00:00:14] Welcome everyone to Fortress On A Hill, podcast about US foreign policy anti-imperialism,
[00:00:24] skepticism and the American way of war.
[00:00:27] I'm Henry, thank you for being with us today.
[00:00:30] With me are my co-host, Manisha and Shiloh.
[00:00:33] How are you both doing this fine Tuesday evening?
[00:00:36] You're great.
[00:00:37] Thank you, Henry.
[00:00:38] You're one A-Shiloh.
[00:00:39] Hey, Shiloh, we can't read.
[00:00:43] So now I know Shiloh is getting cooked and done there in San Francisco.
[00:00:48] How about you, Manisha?
[00:00:49] How's the weather there?
[00:00:52] Right now we're getting the outer bands of Phileep that's passing through the tropical
[00:00:56] storm.
[00:00:57] I'm thinking of the red kit, so it's good.
[00:01:00] Mostly just certain areas are getting heavily flooded, so hanging in there.
[00:01:06] Well, glad it's not big.
[00:01:10] To become a sometime that directly hits it and hope everything passes by with minimal
[00:01:16] damage to anybody there especially you and yours.
[00:01:20] Thank you.
[00:01:21] And how about yourself?
[00:01:22] How are you?
[00:01:23] I'm doing all right.
[00:01:25] We just had a couple of days of rain, so you know, highs in the 70s which is not bad.
[00:01:32] After the summer we had, I've never been ever since time in Iraq.
[00:01:37] I've never been a fan of the heat.
[00:01:39] If it was 55 degrees all the time, I would be perfectly happy.
[00:01:45] So we're here tonight to talk about trans rights in the military and dealing with the Department
[00:01:55] of Veterans Affairs.
[00:01:56] But we're also here to talk about the culture and the hardships that come for trans folks,
[00:02:10] or queer folks, for non-binary folks.
[00:02:14] And that culture is something that we can't afford to ignore.
[00:02:20] Shailah, I know you mentioned in your notes about that the, you know, are we two?
[00:02:27] Are we two be happy and say, ra ra when queer people and trans people are brought into
[00:02:33] the military when we know that we're bringing them into an organization even without all
[00:02:38] of the other hardships of the military that those are ever present?
[00:02:44] Where are we supposed to, where we best put our energy in those moments?
[00:02:49] I for one, you know, like what in terms of the, you know, doing this podcast is at the
[00:02:54] first and foremost we come into it from anti-war, anti-imperial typeways.
[00:02:59] But and then please, please extend on this if you guys have a different opinion that number
[00:03:06] two, we also have to recognize that the military goes on.
[00:03:11] Even though we have taken this very large step away from it and we advocate for people
[00:03:15] generally to avoid joining the military to look at how the media and how the United States
[00:03:23] government presents those things to people, we have to be real about that is that the military
[00:03:30] does go on at the missions as for as as useless as we might see them continue.
[00:03:36] And I think that that means we have a responsibility to try in that space in some way to advocate
[00:03:43] for those kind of things because we know, we also know that culturally speaking that
[00:03:48] when big changes happen in the military eventually it does change us culturally in the
[00:03:55] US. Sometimes it takes a very long time and sometimes the change is not what we would
[00:03:59] want it to be.
[00:04:01] Yeah, I mean, I think that it's kind of a chicken in the egg thing, you know, like what
[00:04:07] first there's a military change in that society adjust or does society kind of push the military
[00:04:16] through what I would call PR stunt, legitimize itself to meet where society is at.
[00:04:25] We see so many times over and over as they did as the military did with expanding, expanding
[00:04:34] to include women into the military, expanding to include black and brown people into the military.
[00:04:41] And this is the expansion of who they're allowing to be part of the empire.
[00:04:47] And it's it's more as a PR stunt to legitimize an origin that is illegitimate on its face.
[00:04:55] Those are my initial initial thoughts on it here's what you think is function.
[00:05:01] I totally agree with that.
[00:05:04] I think going back to the chicken and the egg concept, if we look at history, the history
[00:05:11] of exploitation, the history of the way that the US government intentionally creates these
[00:05:21] how would you call them tensions between groups right that have been categorized and scapegoat
[00:05:28] and then when that becomes unpopular, then they turn in that PR stunt and then act as if
[00:05:36] they're you know I feel like it's people talk a lot about the white man's burden.
[00:05:41] And I feel like there's also like this is head patriarchal burden that they put on themselves
[00:05:46] of you know.
[00:05:48] And I think also it becomes kind of a useful tool in their propaganda that they use to bolster
[00:05:55] support for their invasions and neocolonialism that they're doing because when you look at
[00:06:03] what's happening in some of the spaces that are being invaded, what are they using as excuses?
[00:06:10] Women's rides, LGBTQ plus rides, etc.
[00:06:15] So yeah, I agree.
[00:06:18] And I do think though to what you were saying Henry about how changes in the military
[00:06:24] can end up creating changes in society, I think in a way that can also be true because
[00:06:35] look at how we were changed by our experiences in the military not necessarily that there's
[00:06:40] an example set by the US military and of course with the heroic ideal and the hero worship
[00:06:46] and all that nonsense.
[00:06:47] Certainly people emulate things, but I think the way that we have been exposed to certain
[00:06:55] types of behaviors, the way that the hypermasculinity, the toxic masculinity exists there.
[00:07:01] And that is a space where people are pushing back against it, which ultimately pushes back
[00:07:06] against the very fabric of the nature of the US government, the US empire and the military
[00:07:12] itself.
[00:07:15] So I think it's kind of like a both land situation there.
[00:07:20] Yeah, Shaila, I definitely acknowledge the queerwashing that is done by the empire to try
[00:07:29] to, like you said, Von Asia that we're trying to put these ideals out front and center.
[00:07:36] And those ideals that end up pushing someone to support a military endeavor, to support right
[00:07:43] now what's happening with you, great in Russia to support pushing against Russia when
[00:07:49] they, when the answers about that conflict that they, if you only listen to the US ones
[00:07:55] are only going to see one side of it.
[00:07:59] But I will acknowledge and I think this is, I don't know that this is people really grabbing
[00:08:03] for the morality of it or just because they've heard enough times but that you do see people
[00:08:11] sometimes in online spaces who have through the experience of being in the military or maybe
[00:08:16] being out of it that they, because they saw how the military created spaces for people to
[00:08:22] be demonized and seen as less than.
[00:08:28] And I think you saw a lot of that while Trump was in office, you know, that the idea of living
[00:08:36] in a multiracial society was much easier to be grabbed onto.
[00:08:41] But of course, we're talking about, you know, 70, 75 years since the military was integrated.
[00:08:47] You know, is that a result of people saying that they genuinely believe that everybody should
[00:08:53] be treated respectfully and attempt to yet be understood in their own space or is it just
[00:08:59] that the idea has been hammered into a much like if we were to look at, you know, like
[00:09:05] Martin Luther King, junior day that it creates a very small compartmentalized memory that
[00:09:14] tries to replace what the reality is and the reality is never purely black and white.
[00:09:19] But you know, so many aspects of the military are like that.
[00:09:23] This person got this medal for this thing and it's the compartmentalized nature of
[00:09:27] it gets grabbed onto by people and they attach it with meaning to things that should have
[00:09:33] that meaning.
[00:09:34] And I look when we talk a bit about the history of queer and trans people in the military,
[00:09:43] you know, what's what were some of the some of the hardships that those folks with are
[00:09:48] way back when especially during a time like you had made a note in here about that many
[00:09:53] women dressed as men to participate in the revolutionary war.
[00:09:58] And certainly I'm serving many other conflict.
[00:10:00] Please let's let's let's talk about that a bit.
[00:10:03] Yeah, I'm going to give like a very brief small history.
[00:10:07] Maybe not many to remember is any time we're talking about like queer and trans history
[00:10:16] in any sector is to just always remember like queer and trans people have always been
[00:10:22] a part of that sector because queer and trans people have always existed.
[00:10:27] So a lot of people will say that being queer, being trans is a new thing blah, blah,
[00:10:35] whatever.
[00:10:36] But we just yeah, we need to remember that queer and trans people have always existed.
[00:10:41] And so with that, you know, queer and trans people have always been a part of US military
[00:10:47] and militaries around the world.
[00:10:50] And so yeah, in the revolutionary war, we saw a lot of women dressing dresses men to participate.
[00:10:58] You know, the term trans wasn't was isn't used and so we don't know if trans or not.
[00:11:06] The first first known trans man in the Union Army during the Civil War was Albert Cashier.
[00:11:16] In 1892, like the policy, there was a policy explicitly banning queer and trans people.
[00:11:23] I believe they use the term cross stressing at the time.
[00:11:29] And folks are being discharged often with penalties.
[00:11:35] Maybe they had to pay back anything that they had received for their service.
[00:11:43] And in that in World War II, we saw not just a military but for militaries to say
[00:11:53] they started classifying being queer trans as a mental illness.
[00:11:59] And that mental illness would automatically disqualify you for serving in the military.
[00:12:08] So it's kind of, this is where it gets kind of interesting.
[00:12:11] Right? It's like there's a military influence of society, the society influence military
[00:12:16] because we also see that during the time, you know, World War II were being queer and trans
[00:12:24] was seen as a mental illness. We're seeing that garbage being spewed by a lot of ultra conservative
[00:12:32] people now. And then in 1993, we had the infamous Don't Ask Don't Tell policy which lasted
[00:12:42] until 2011. Actually, I served my entire time in the rank war under Don't Ask Don't Tell.
[00:12:52] And as many people know, like, you know, that policy kind of forced people to be back in the closet.
[00:12:59] You weren't allowed to ask anyone if they were queer trans. And you also weren't allowed
[00:13:07] to tell anyone that you're queer trans because then you could be forced out, forced payback,
[00:13:13] any benefits that you acquired. It was a really, really nasty, awful time
[00:13:21] to be queer, be trans in the military. I don't know, at the time like me personally,
[00:13:28] I wasn't really out to myself. So I certainly wasn't like out to anyone else as far as being trans.
[00:13:37] So yeah, firstly, I just kind of flew under the radar but I saw a lot of people really being
[00:13:44] harmed by that policy and it was a really nasty time. I wanted to take a little more time with
[00:13:51] that, with Don't Ask Don't Tell. You know, I knew a few people who were gay during my time in the
[00:14:01] service. And I was already a very quiet person to begin with so they were people that I didn't,
[00:14:07] I didn't necessarily know very well but because we went in the same social circle being in the
[00:14:13] same unit that you understood that that one was happening. And sometimes the great links,
[00:14:20] someone would have to go if there was a accusation to try to clear it up or try to,
[00:14:28] to bring it back to zero for a second. Can you tell us about what that was like? Not just
[00:14:37] necessarily for you but the, you know, anybody else that you saw in service in a similar spot.
[00:14:46] You know, there's so many different things throughout the history of the military where
[00:14:50] specific groups are targeted with either that they have a mental illness, possibly a personality
[00:14:57] disorder. That's the one that we saw, you know, big time during the beginning of Iraq and everything,
[00:15:02] folks coming home with horrible PTSD or they may be dealing with undiagnosed TBI's and then they
[00:15:09] are just out and depending on how they left, they may or may not have gotten VA benefits to help
[00:15:16] them with whatever injuries were going on there. But it was if I, it was during my time in,
[00:15:26] you know, didn't realize how deeply disturbing and damaging the policy was because it was that
[00:15:36] hands-off policy. We're just not going to talk about it. We're just going to pretend that it
[00:15:39] doesn't exist. You'll pretend it doesn't exist. The Army pretends it doesn't exist and we try
[00:15:44] to move forward. And that did, it did nothing other than like you said, the two forced people on
[00:15:53] penalty of losing their career or to be ostracized by their unit. Tell us a little bit more about
[00:16:03] that time, as you could. Yeah, and for me, like as soon as I caught wind that my benefits could be
[00:16:14] taken away, I just yeah, went like so far into the closet and just because I had very much been
[00:16:28] lied to by Mary Cruder saying that I wouldn't be deployed. And you know, six months after bootcamp
[00:16:35] that was deployed. And so I had access to benefits at that point, you know, after. And so I was like
[00:16:44] oh my god, like you know the things that I went through could be just taken away. And that was
[00:16:50] enough to just scare the whatever out of me and just yeah, I had a boy grant. And it was just like
[00:16:59] king, you're not going to catch me. Yeah, I think anything there's like an organizational or
[00:17:08] exercise. It'll like, willful ignorance of something it just changes the
[00:17:20] what do you call it? Like I have just the whole outlook of the organization like
[00:17:26] humanized things that that aren't out in the open, you know, it's queer and trans people became
[00:17:32] like you know, like the boogie man. It was just this like because they because we weren't we weren't
[00:17:38] represented at all. We weren't seen at all. And so when when that you know when things are ignored,
[00:17:43] they sometimes become bigger than what whatever you see them as I just remember it being a very
[00:17:52] scary time. There were there were people I think he was actually a little bit maybe a year or two
[00:18:02] before me in my unit who had orders to deploy and came out and he was he was thrown in a brick
[00:18:11] and treated very unfairly. I've kept up with him a bit. He's just like accessing
[00:18:20] his benefits and care. I think that that ostracizing within organization causes its own trauma
[00:18:31] and yeah, and it's it's trauma that you couldn't seek care for because if you sought care for
[00:18:39] it, you would out yourself or you know, if you did out yourself then you don't have access to care.
[00:18:46] This so it's kind of this circular problem. So then we come to
[00:18:55] both the end of Donast Hotel and the Trump ban and abiding repealing of the policy did what do
[00:19:05] you think and you don't have to touch on each of them, but just just whatever whatever sticks out to
[00:19:10] you about the in terms of really advocating and allowing spaces for queer folk versus more of
[00:19:20] that window dressing. What would you say? Where did you see those policies and lean? Did you feel
[00:19:28] that there was some brave moments that people actually stood up and it did something or despite
[00:19:35] words was it just an anti-spiric campaign for the military? Was it just queerwashing?
[00:19:43] That's a very important question and topic to talk about. I think obviously with
[00:19:53] so-called trans ban from Trump in 2017 that that you know, that could only cause harm to the
[00:20:01] queer and trans community and that was its purpose, right? The ostracized and demonized
[00:20:09] already demonized group of people. And then we had yeah we abiding in 2021 I think in his first
[00:20:18] five days of office like Reverb to the veteran ban and all of a sudden like the community is
[00:20:27] supposed to be celebrating but I very much wasn't celebrating like it just stays
[00:20:35] got rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell and I had just got out of the Marine Corps like four or five
[00:20:41] months before that. And so I was in San Francisco when that happened, when the Don't Ask Don't Tell
[00:20:48] was repealed and people were celebrating and I felt like a party of what celebrating like why
[00:20:56] are people excited that that our community gets to involve themselves in the empire? I just was
[00:21:04] really really awestruck by that. Yeah I think that we have to so more on like your question about
[00:21:14] did Biden reversing that like did that further anything for the queer and trans community?
[00:21:21] The answer is in my opinion is very much no. I think it's just important to remember that
[00:21:29] inclusion into any like any sector mainstream society is going to be pushed through
[00:21:38] mainstream media through like the most milk toast version possible. So another
[00:21:44] to make the argument of queer and trans people being included in the military to make that
[00:21:49] palatable. The story is going to be pushed through the most acceptable quotes narratives and identities
[00:21:57] like white trans men or white trans women who are like gung ho and just want to serve their country
[00:22:07] you know live up to all that nonsense. So the narratives are always going to push
[00:22:15] expanding the idea of like who's deemed acceptable to work for the empire and like mainstreaming
[00:22:22] specifically in the context of US military is the idea that like there's there's subgroups of
[00:22:29] people who are seeking liberation and so they can be include in the institution so long as like
[00:22:39] all of their politics and actual needs are just totally vapid and like you know don't exist.
[00:22:47] The mainstreaming of that subgroup like queer and trans people it just all it does is legitimize
[00:22:54] the institutions so it legitimizes the military because society by and large is said you know queer
[00:23:01] and trans people exist be have a right to exist and and so the militaries like all right cool then
[00:23:08] will include you and we'll be seen as this like liberatory place and place of opportunity.
[00:23:16] We have to be better at being critical of that um not just in the military but in any ask
[00:23:23] directorate and so um have to be critical and see on its faces just a PR stunt and yeah
[00:23:32] um all the while right like they're just completely ignoring that actual real needs of
[00:23:39] of communities. And we know that despite despite the right wings um pension for talking about
[00:23:48] the woke military you know that the this idea that the military is such an accepting place and such
[00:23:57] a a uh place with their welcome that it makes it it would demonstrate the militaries being woke
[00:24:04] but we all know that like even if we went to something um somewhat separate but but definitely
[00:24:12] has a bigger platform within the military about talking about sexual assault we know that the amount
[00:24:18] of briefings or teaching or training that anybody is going to get is going to be minimal
[00:24:24] if if not just to check the box situation but this idea of it being presented as as something
[00:24:32] that it's entirely not just for that political demonization factor you know that that you know
[00:24:38] trans folks are at right now and you know at an incredible level of danger for our in living
[00:24:46] in our society just living this day-to-day normal stuff normal neighbors normal things it it's uh
[00:24:52] it is a really really hard time for it and yet people like Trump keep reaching for it as a easy
[00:24:58] demonization because there are going to be right leading people who have okay we we've accepted
[00:25:03] people of color in the military or we've accepted accepted when advocate for that in some small
[00:25:10] simple thing kind of way but it's much easier to demonize the trans folks and for
[00:25:17] queer folks and for them to become a temporary stand-in for where people of color might have been
[00:25:24] or even side by side because you don't know what the dynamics of the people in that particular
[00:25:29] unit might be it may just be a horrifying place for anybody that is not a straight white cisgender
[00:25:35] male um especially if you're dealing with combat units and and people that are you know
[00:25:41] that have to get the point together um do you think uh child do you do you think that there is
[00:25:50] any redeeming aspect to trying to reform the military from within not knowing I mean specifically
[00:25:58] about this but also also in general if you have any thoughts i want to say no with the with a small
[00:26:04] asterisk of like but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't that we should stop fighting for the queer
[00:26:11] and trans people who are already in the military right i think that kind of scene is like uh nothing
[00:26:18] you know if you're if you're wanting to get rid of the military then like you're just kind of
[00:26:23] writing off the people already in the military it's like no that's not the case so you want to keep
[00:26:28] making sure that there is as safe as possible um and able to access benefits while they're in the
[00:26:37] military um yeah you can't you just can't ignore the big reasons that queer and trans people
[00:26:45] disproportionately join the military also and so um no i think it's a it's uh what what i can't
[00:26:55] remember the euphemism it's like going upstream without a paddle to try to reform the military
[00:27:04] from within i think it's uh gosh it's a honorable leg to stand on but i don't think it's it's
[00:27:12] gonna get you very far um it's just a culture right it's a you'd have to undo the entirety of the
[00:27:20] military culture to make it a viable place for people to to to thrive like it's just it's just not
[00:27:30] gonna happen yeah i think what do you think i completely agree um and i think too if we go back to
[00:27:40] why the US military even exists in the first place it's a southern colonial mechanism and when we go
[00:27:48] back like all the way back before the US created itself before all of the other um colonizers came
[00:27:58] and you have the original people so existed here first and then you had the absence of that settler
[00:28:04] colonial binary imposed upon them um so i i'm all for the abolition of the US military i'm all for
[00:28:16] the abolition of the settler colonial state um that deploys said military that created
[00:28:22] the military specifically to to kill indigenous black queer trans people in other places that it
[00:28:33] just wants to dominate you know um had i been out to myself at 17 years old and earlier actually
[00:28:44] when then they started recruiting me in high school as a child um had i been aware of the nature
[00:28:52] of the country i was born into um and what the implications of that are for people i don't think
[00:29:01] i would have joined um and so now like hindsight is 2020 as they say and being out being queer being
[00:29:11] uh a survivor of military sexual violence being Puerto Rican you know being from a colonized
[00:29:18] community um where we also live with the environmental damage just like communities in the US too
[00:29:24] um like i'm thinking of a one of the towns in california actually that's a super fun site
[00:29:32] um and it's a predominantly black populated town um so and thinking about can the US
[00:29:42] mill is it worth reforming no um i don't think for any of us in targeted existences targeted identities
[00:29:52] um if i can be just frank i don't i don't think that we should be taking that date you know
[00:30:00] and thinking that oh as long as we only make our own personal conditions better and we make our own
[00:30:07] personal lives a little bit easier the rest is fine and we just ignore or don't allow ourselves to
[00:30:14] be confronted by um the realities of what our supposed liberation means for others it means
[00:30:24] that to make ourselves more liberated in airquodes we are taking the liberation of others away
[00:30:30] them we're harming other queer people consistently and for what so that's how i feel about it now um
[00:30:40] and i do agree with with you shy low that that doesn't mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater
[00:30:46] and and just assume that the lives currently trapped inside the US military are not worth trying to
[00:30:55] to rescue and you know like i was mentioning before you know we have come into the awareness
[00:31:03] that we have now because in large part of our experience as well in the in the military so i think
[00:31:10] that that can be true for others too and there has to be a way for us to reach in um and try to
[00:31:18] to bring them along to to try and expose them to realities that maybe they haven't been exposed
[00:31:26] to before um and then when we get out and then we're in the next level of the struggle with
[00:31:33] BA care and healing ourselves and and and all of that you know that's another potential net
[00:31:41] that that we can uh cast you know and try to catch people and and bring them into a more um
[00:31:50] honest and critical reflection of what it means to be queer in the US military i it's
[00:31:58] important to also talk about like why are there so many queer and trans people in the military
[00:32:08] and there are so many reasons uh you know where we are disproportionately represented in the US
[00:32:16] military um uh and we're targeted by military recruiters largely because of the you know there's
[00:32:27] not those societal meat our our needs aren't being met by society um and so i just wanted to
[00:32:36] to give a little bit of statistics around that 28% of LGBTQ youth experience homelessness
[00:32:45] or being unhoused on uh housing instability uh 30% of queer youth experience food insecurity
[00:32:55] uh one in three only one in three queer youth um have affirming
[00:33:02] better family aborigin support and then once you know once so there's all these yeah need
[00:33:12] just basic human needs not being met food shelter clothing valuable income etc etc
[00:33:22] and then once once the queer trans youths uh you know they see the militaries like a
[00:33:30] a source to meet those needs um i know i did then they're in the they're in the rapture of
[00:33:40] the US military and you know it doesn't get better at that point um more i think it's oh i can't
[00:33:50] remember the statistic right now at holidays but the more disproportionately queer and trans people
[00:33:58] experience military sexual trauma and military sexual violence than other groups um one percent
[00:34:07] oh that's what it is 71% of LGBTQ service members report experiencing military sexual trauma
[00:34:15] um and then once you get out of the military trans and gender not conforming veterans experience
[00:34:23] homelessness at a much higher rate almost 21% um so yeah it's just the military just exacerbates any
[00:34:35] harm that you are already experiencing before you join the military and yeah i mean you can't really
[00:34:43] you can't yeah you can't really put like a statistic or number on just the trauma that is
[00:34:48] the military the trauma that is putting on that God forsaken uniform every specific um so uh last
[00:34:59] thing i wanted to to mention for today talking about the VA talking about what it really looks like
[00:35:05] for someone you know queer trans people to try to get care to try to ensure that they feel like
[00:35:14] they actually can go to these places that they're welcome in these places to get an appointment see a
[00:35:19] doctor um deal with all those those things and and i don't have any statistics in front of me but
[00:35:26] you know veterans we we all of us um we always it end up getting so much more from our time in the
[00:35:34] military in terms of not and not necessarily like injuries or disability for everybody but that
[00:35:40] you know that someone might come out and just have a high blood pressure so when might come out and
[00:35:45] have a bad back not a horrible bad back but a bad back and they still have to live with it
[00:35:51] but then in addition for the folks we're talking about today there's a whole host of other aspects
[00:35:59] and it's only been recently that some of those policies have changed um i'm curious what you
[00:36:06] thought about the the recent changes that the Biden administration made for queer and trans people with
[00:36:13] the VA um and how does it make you feel how does it how when you know when you're trying to get
[00:36:20] care when you're trying to have a genuine discussion with the staff there do you feel
[00:36:29] accepted and safe um and or is is it just a slightly more padded landing spot for military
[00:36:42] trauma of different kinds yeah thanks for that question um well first first i want
[00:36:50] yeah i just talked a little about the policy or active duty members because that flip flaps a lot
[00:36:58] depending on often depending on who's yeah who's in office um but it also like flip flaps on
[00:37:06] the surface level so what i mean is like uh it's a little muddled in day limited um on the surface
[00:37:15] level about like what care is actually provided um right now well as of the memo in 2021
[00:37:24] uh the department of defense was to start providing gender affirming care to active duty service
[00:37:30] members um of course you know with everything there's caveats to that um the care provided would only
[00:37:38] be for active duty members and could include hormones psychotherapy with their referring to as
[00:37:46] real life experiences and surgical intervention um these are home terms that are not used in like
[00:37:55] general care settings this is very military for a binge uh so what they're referring to with like
[00:38:04] real life experiences is like your gender expression so like what uniform do you wear what bathroom
[00:38:12] do you use that kind of stuff um the memo outlines uh that in order to access hormones and gender
[00:38:21] affirming surgery which they're calling uh surgical intervention um this one must first demonstrate
[00:38:32] this is a quote demonstrate 18 months of stability in their gender um they must also seek psychotherapy
[00:38:43] through the military that demonstrates um that one they have gender dysphoria which is a term that
[00:38:50] I find a little repulsive um and two that they can demonstrate for 18 months that they are stable
[00:39:01] um I'm curious after after I go off in uh monies she like what your thoughts as someone yeah
[00:39:08] what your thoughts on those psychotherapy outlines are um and then you know because it's an
[00:39:16] military like all this until is shared up the chain of command under the guise of ensuring
[00:39:24] military readiness so it's not in any other any other setting outside of the military like that's
[00:39:32] between you and your doctor and like should not include anyone else's input especially the military
[00:39:40] which we know is like just vengeful and just terrible vengeful you know we'll find any reason to give
[00:39:48] you shit duty you know and so um so that says it stands now um but in in February of this year
[00:40:00] senator Marco Rubio with four other complete goons submitted uh SB 435 which outlines
[00:40:09] what they're calling the requirements for eligibility into the armed forces and it's us
[00:40:14] sensibly a ban on transgender people um there's a few exceptions um that are outlined that are
[00:40:22] I won't go into so ridiculous um but the bill was twice read in front of congress and is now
[00:40:30] referred to the committee on armed services um hard to say but seemingly not gonna go anywhere
[00:40:39] um as of right now um but yeah we're seeing you know just the general uh general i don't
[00:40:48] want to say cultural shift because it's very very much of small population that's just very
[00:40:54] lack active duty numbers go um so far as your question hanging around like VA care I can speak on my
[00:41:03] personal experience and I it i go to one of the newer larger
[00:41:13] VA facilities in Palo Alto which is in the Bay Area of California and it's supposed to be you know
[00:41:20] it's like heralded as the most inclusive in the Bay Area blah blah blah one waves the rainbow flags
[00:41:28] in June places but once you get through the doors it's not that big and it's not that place at all
[00:41:38] I'm trans and non-binary I have requested a million times over to have my pronouns changed
[00:41:50] and their their response for years is just like yeah we don't have a place in our system to do that
[00:41:55] so every every uh medication with the VA I'm misgendered um there's lots of
[00:42:06] somewhat like from i can find humor in it like i'm on i'm on hormone treatment and
[00:42:14] there's lots of like you know just automated communications that get sent to me because my testosterone
[00:42:20] levels are not in the normal range is how the VACs me which is as a as a woman right so that triggers
[00:42:28] like automatic communication to me uh that sent in the mail um anytime I get blood work done
[00:42:35] which yeah like i said i can find humor in that um uh i still have to go to the women's health clinic
[00:42:43] to seek primary care even though i am not a woman um they provide hormone replacement therapy
[00:42:54] HRT but that is really the only trans health care that they provide there there is no
[00:43:02] uh no gender affirming surgeries surgeries that are covered through the VA
[00:43:08] um i had top surgery that i had to pay out a pocket from a private
[00:43:15] private surgeon uh there's a pretty penny and i've been denied three times for a hysterectomy
[00:43:24] um yeah just i mean any any other uh you know Kaiser any private health care they provide
[00:43:34] hysterectomies for trans people you know under trans care because that's trans health care um but the
[00:43:42] VA does not provide that care so there's there's this you know as as we're hopefully is becoming
[00:43:51] becoming um clear like there's a lot of window dressing there's a lot of
[00:43:56] what's referred to as pinkwashing or queerwashing that happens you know especially amongst um
[00:44:04] liberal politicians and liberal people where they want to say that they're being inclusive
[00:44:10] but then you just you know go one layer deeper and you see that there's actually no tangible
[00:44:18] uh shifts happening it's all just lip service that's what i'll say about the VA uh
[00:44:27] i was yeah being clear but trying not to try not to drag them through the light it's just like
[00:44:33] weird you know like i want to be thankful that i have the VA for health care um and at the same time
[00:44:40] like y'all need to do better then step it up they've been saying since Obama was in office that
[00:44:47] they are going to quote look into you know the cost benefit analysis of providing gender affirming
[00:44:55] surgeries and you know apparently they haven't figured it out yet so yeah when we were last week
[00:45:04] when we were discussing one ton of mabe and specific about the medical care that the detainees
[00:45:13] received there and how under the you know the guise of of of general and specialized care that
[00:45:22] there's enough euphemisms in there to make the uninformed reader think
[00:45:28] that the u.s. would do more for those folks in there and immediately upon when that when i was
[00:45:36] reading through that and making notes i immediately thought about how that euphemism
[00:45:43] all shit plays into the lives of of queer and trans folks that you know that that again someone who's
[00:45:52] the tiniest bit informed could read you know that they helped treat denders dysphoria and they do
[00:45:59] this and they do that and come away with the idea that trans folks are legitimately getting
[00:46:07] the care that they need the care that they would receive if they were dealing with civilian providers
[00:46:15] um and that's one of the reasons that we we live in this euphemism bullshit parade of the of
[00:46:20] the military is because you know by changing the word just a little bit and then going somewhere
[00:46:27] deep deep in regulations and saying what it really means that you can convince lots of people
[00:46:33] that something is happening when it really legitimately isn't um if somebody in
[00:46:43] um if somebody in your unit chialo you know how to they threw out their back or blew out in me and
[00:46:49] had to have major medical surgery none of those things would be gone through in a very personal
[00:46:57] and invasive way to say about unit readiness they would just let whatever needed happen happened
[00:47:05] but because we live in a society that's so devalues queer and trans people or just pretends that
[00:47:12] they don't exist that those horribly ineffective steps are seen as as they have legitimacy they have
[00:47:22] they have power in that way and i think it's one of the to me is one of the most frustrating things
[00:47:29] about the military but they in order to hide because there we we all know that the military does
[00:47:36] hide so many of these cultural destruction spheres within itself um women LGBTQ people people of color
[00:47:48] um you know there are so many different areas where the only thing that you can do if you
[00:47:56] want to be a part of it is you have to let go of those parts of yourself you can't be someone who
[00:48:03] you know a black person in the military could not be part of a black liberation struggle
[00:48:09] they would be told that that's that's not part of unit readiness or kicked out for some other
[00:48:14] bullshit thing um and so i i i hope that everyone listening that we all take the time to
[00:48:25] go through what what what these things are the fees these window dressings that they fall
[00:48:32] down almost immediately on the slightest bit of context americans don't do context it's not
[00:48:39] it's just we're taught that in intellectual people where people learning new things is
[00:48:46] it's certainly not masculine is it even a did american you know um but i think uh i think we've
[00:48:56] found a good place to uh to stop for today um silo moisha um thank you for joining me if you guys
[00:49:03] have any final thoughts anything that you want to uh bring up before we stop please uh please let me
[00:49:09] know um but thank you so much for taking this time and i i uh shylo i especially want to thank you
[00:49:16] going through personal shit from time in the military and and really having to delve in it
[00:49:23] it's difficult it's it's a hard hard day and so thank you for being willing to do that it's something
[00:49:30] that that i think everybody on the podcast tries to do as much as we can it's because we want people to
[00:49:37] know that there are those other perspectives and they need to keep looking for them that no matter what
[00:49:45] be willing to see things at a different point of view so anyways i'm done pontificating anything you
[00:49:50] guys want to add uh yeah look a couple things as yeah thank you for thank you Henry for for highlighting
[00:50:00] this i think um uh yeah i mean you got you got to come out of the closet if you and the times
[00:50:10] that you feel safe too um and the times that you feel held and cared and uh this podcast is definitely
[00:50:18] you know a time that i can be loud and be myself being uh like yeah there's a lot of window
[00:50:27] dressings um a lot of uh what i would call breadcrumbs that get left for queer and trans people in our
[00:50:36] community and we're supposed to be happy with with breadcrumbs and um you know i'm i'm more of the
[00:50:44] mindset of like give my people a fucking loaf and something and we want our roses too and like i think
[00:50:54] i'm so tired of the breadcrumbs you can't survive off breadcrumbs and uh yeah i just
[00:51:02] if nothing else i think i hope people just get a little bit more critical um and be more
[00:51:09] critical when they see see something that's uh within the military or in uh US institution i've seen
[00:51:16] as liberatory and and just get a little more critical about it and think a little bit harder about
[00:51:21] it absolutely well um thank you everyone for uh for listening today i hope you enjoyed the episode
[00:51:30] and hope it was uh was informative um keep looking for uh these kind of shows because you guys know
[00:51:39] this is the this is the bread and butter or fortress on a hill is that we want to get into real
[00:51:44] people's experiences and the experiences that are so often left out so shyly thank you
[00:51:50] bodysha thank you and uh everybody listening we'll see you next time take care
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