Transgender officer who spent $50,000 to become a woman slams US Army rules that force soldiers to keep calling her 'sir'

From Daily Mail:

A transgender soldier in the U.S. Army has hit out at military rules which mean her subordinates still have to refer to her as 'sir'.

Captain Jennifer Peace, an intelligence specialist, started transitioning into a woman in early 2014 after a decade of military service that saw her fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But, despite the 30-year-old undergoing surgeries to make her look more feminine and being recognized as a woman by the federal government, military officials insist on treating her as a man.

Captain Peace, from Spanaway, Washington, revealed her new identity to her commanders after having surgery between deployments, the Tacoma News-Tribune reported. In total she has spent some $50,000 on the transition.
And though she says they began being supportive, high-ranking officers later put her through psychiatric tests and medical evaluations, with one even suggesting she leave the military altogether.
Before she returned to duty with her new identity, commanders even issued orders to troops she was in charge of, insisting they continue to refer to her as a man, because the Army does not officially recognise the possibility that soldiers can change gender.

An official statement from her unit said: 'The current policy on the service of transgender individuals has not changed.
'Current Army policy is that the Army will only recognize soldiers by the gender they held when they entered the Army'.
The policy is under review, and a revamped set of rules for the U.S. military's estimated 15,000 transgender members is due to be announced within months.
But waiting for the changes, Captain Peace said, is 'excruciating'. In the mean time, so far as the army is concerned, she is a man named Jennifer, whose official military photograph shows a male.
Captain Peace, who married at the age of 19, is still with her wife, who now considers herself a lesbian. She and Deborah Peace have two sons, aged seven and nine, and a young daughter.

Though the transition was difficult, Captain Peace said, her family has been accepting - and it is only the Army who continue to present her with difficulties, which she believes impoverishes the army as a whole.
She said: 'I really believe this is my Army as much as anyone else’s. I deserve to be here, to serve in the organization and make it better.
'I think that everyone now recognizes we need this diversity, and the discrimination that's currently taking place is baseless. And we're losing qualified soldiers because of it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3263746/Transgender-officer-spent-50-000-woman-slams-U-S-Army-rules-force-soldiers-calling-sir.html