TransMilitary

TransMilitary, dir. Fiona Dawson & Gabriel Silverman, 2018 USA, 93 minutes 💖
Thursday, June 14, 7:00 p.m. Castro (opening night) WEST COAST PREMIERE

TransMilitary: off to see the brass

The largest employer of transgender people in this country, and possibly in the world, is the U.S. military, bizarre as that may seem at first glance. The repeal of the U.S. military’s so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy in 2010, ef­fec­­tive 2011-09-20, was a boon for LGB service members, but did nothing to help trans­gen­der troops. Until the ban on trans­gender military service was finally lifted in 2016, any transperson serving in the military could be bounced out, with an honorable dis­charge if they were lucky. A handful of transgender active-duty service members comple­mented their physical bravery with daunt­less personal fortitude and actively challenged the policy. In this documentary, we meet four of those individuals and follow them through meet­ings with officials all the way up to Sec­re­tary of Defense Ash Carter, to the jubilation over the end to the transgender ban, but then onward to the uncer­tainty created by our so-called President’s efforts to court his benighted base by reinstating the ban in a tweet. (So far, the courts have foiled his efforts, but the uncer­tainty remains to this day.)

Of course, anyone who even gives a cursory glance at the news knows the skeleton of the story, but meeting these individuals, seeing them deployed in places like Afghanistan, going into some private moments with them and their families, and watching them pursue the changes to policies and procedures — down to such granular issues as bathrooms, uniforms, and hairstyles — serves to humanize the issues. Even when I was in my peak physical condition, I doubt I could’ve made it through a week of basic training, and I might very well have been kicked out before lunchtime. When I see people like Senior Airman Logan Ireland, Corporal Laila Villanueva, Captain Jennifer Peace, and First Lieutenant El Cook, these are exactly the kind of people I want out there defending our country, and I think you will agree when you see this film.

With the United States fast approaching the day when we have military enlistees who were born after the start of the Afghanistan war, our country needs to come to terms with the irrationality of discharging qualified, capable, dedicated people just because they’re trans­gender. This documentary needs to be seen widely, to underpin this important national con­versation. It’s definitely a MUST SEE.

• IMDb • Official web • Facebook: @TransMilitaryDoc • Twitter & Instagram: @TransMilitary #TransMilitaryDoc #OpenTransService • Palm Center (studies policy issues about LGBT members of the US armed services) •