First, thank you to all the Veterans out there who have served this country with honor and courage.
Second, the results of the survey TAVA (Transgender American Veterans’ Association) conducted are available on their website. From their press release:
The Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara has released the findings of a survey, conducted by Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA), that shows that transgender veterans are being turned away and being mistreated in high numbers by Veterans Administration medical facilities. The survey of 827 U.S. military veterans and active-duty personnel mark the first major empirical findings on transgender people in the military. This represents a strong sampling from what is estimated to be approximately 300,000 veterans in the US who identify as being transgender.
Or, to paraphrase the way Monica Helms put it on a recent call, ‘Trans veterans want at least the same bad benefits other veterans get.’ Do check it out.
Thankyou for remembering the remembering veterans on this holiday. I was one of those who chose to participate in the recent survey and the results only validate much of my own feelings and my greatest fears.
Living, working and serving in that enviornment leads to a sense of isolation and depression that is hard to overcome. After reading the survey for the first time it gave me a greater understanding of just how large of a community there is and a small hope that the numbers represented can someday lend hope to greater tolerance.
I know that, the hope may be without merit but just knowing that im not alone in my own thoughts makes me feel a little better.
The one thing that, the survey also made me realize was that the military is not alone in how they see and treat those who are transgendered and may in fact be some what representative of society on a whole, it kind of made me feel a little shallow to think that the military was alone in discrimination and the survey taught me a valuable lesson.
Again thankyou for not forgetting Americas veterans. OPEN