LGBTQ Military Roundup: Transgender soldier kicked out…9th Circuit leaves DADT door open..Soldier comes out to Mom

A little over a week after the country celebrated the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the policy has reared its head again. A Louisville Transgender woman was  discharged  earlier this month from the Kentucky National Guard after serving her country for over a decade. Reports say she did tours of duty overseas,  including Bosnia and Iraq.

WFPL reports that “In 2009, a fellow soldier revealed that Staff Sergeant Rebecca Grant is transgender, and she was officially kicked out of the military two weeks before the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Grant tells WFPL that “..getting rid of the policy was a step in the right direction for gay, lesbian and bisexual service members, but that transgender individuals are still unprotected…

“With education this could change, people being informed on the different issues, not being closed-minded, not being ultra-conservative. Allowing us to have the rights that we should have had as a United State citizen, we need change,” she says.

Meanwhile, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a Log Cabin Republican case against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The court in effect said that because the policy has already been overturned there is no need for the LCR’s case to go forward.  Except, as Daniel Villarreal over at Queerty points out, “The LCRs wanted a federal court to declare the law unconstitutional so that a future administration could not come back and reinstate DADT or a similar anti-gay law. They also hoped a decision against DADT would help pave the way so the thousands of soldiers discharged under the law could “get reinstatement, back pay, or other compensation for having their careers cut short.” Thanks, Ninth Circuit for nothing really.

Finally, remember the soldier who came out to his father live on Youtube the day DADT ended?  Well he’s back again, this time he came out to his mom.

The response he received is a sad one, though not unlike the response a lot of us have received from a parent or loved one. I guess the big point here is that he came out and he’s free to live his life out in the open.  The rest is up to her…