Living as Myself, at Last

From TSgt Alexandria Holder

"I lived a lie because I had to. For decades, transgender people had been forbidden to serve in the United States military. Executive Order 10450, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953, was used to deny federal employment to the L.G.B.T. community (among other groups) on the grounds that we were guilty of “sexual perversion.” It was put into place during a time when gay people in government positions were being rooted out and fired — a byproduct of the anti-Communist campaign led by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in Washington. This was despite people like Christine Jorgensen, the first American publicly known to have received gender-reassignment surgery. Jorgensen was an Army veteran who became a very public transgender advocate in the 1950s. Transgender people were further targeted by Army Regulation 40-501 in 1963, declaring us mentally unfit for service".