The Trump administration gave transgender troops an ultimatum this spring when it announced that it wanted them all out of the military. Leave voluntarily and get an honorable discharge and extra separation pay, or wait to be forced out and potentially face negative repercussions.
Now, the deadline for making that choice is here, and many trans troops say they will stay and fight.
Katie Benn is a captain in an Army air defense battalion at Fort Campbell, Ky. This spring, she briefly considered giving in and taking the separation pay — worth about $60,000 for her. But then she remembered a part of the Soldier’s Creed that she had repeated many times in her career: “I will always put mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit.”
Captain Benn decided to stay. She plans to apply for a waiver that would allow her to keep serving. If she is turned down, she said she would demand to go in front of an Army review board and have it explain why a decorated officer and a top graduate of the captains’ career course should be thrown out.
A Pentagon spokesman said in May that 1,000 trans troops had put in for voluntary separation. The department refused to provide updated figures this week.
For those who are staying on, the cost can be high. Sgt. First Class Julia Becraft, who deployed to Afghanistan three times, led an Army infantry squad until the ban was announced. Since then, she has been sidelined by her battalion, because it expects her to soon be gone.
Sergeant Becraft was hospitalized this spring for thoughts of suicide and was put in an Defense Department inpatient program for depression. She said four of the 20 patients she met in the program were transgender people dealing with the trauma of the new policy.
Cmdr. Emily Shilling, a Navy fighter pilot who is president of the transgender military advocacy group SPARTA, said that about half the trans troops in the military appeared to be opting to leave voluntarily.
Posted by John3262005