21% of Trans Join Military; Only 10% of General Population Join

[Guest DesiB]

Stripes: "Why do transgender people join the military in such high numbers?"

"The latest analysis, published last year by UCLA researchers, estimated that nearly 150,000 transgender people have served in the military, or about 21% of all transgender adults in the U.S. By comparison, 10% of the general population has served."

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/why-do-transgender-people-join-the-military-in-such-high-numbers-1.366477

[Charlize]

That is a very interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

Hugs,

Charlize

[wishing to be kim]

I cannot say for everyone but it was because I was trying to prove I was a man I would take the most dangers jobs all because I was told to be a man now am all broken up so much and am back were I started from but am happy am here

[Guest DesiB]

In my view this defeats the asinine arguments that people will suddenly start enlisting just to get surgery paid for or assertions by vets that they never served with any trans people in the past and that this is some new agenda to bring the downfall of Western Civilization. We have always served in higher proportions and we have done so without bragging about it or even being treated with decency, let alone receiving 'special' benefits.

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

From my understanding, many male to female transgender individuals seek ultra-masculine routes to try and convince themselves they're male and continue living in denial of their real selves. This includes military, for obvious reasons. While I'm not aware of any specifics about what branches have/had the most transgender individuals in denial, I'd assume it's the Army or the Marines because of the super-macho air about them.

[Guest LesleyAnne]

That's quite an eye opener!

I joined and then volunteered to be an aerial gunner. Just trying to fit into a man's world, or die trying. I almost succeeded. Even while serving as gunner I was always the first to raise my hand to fly the most dangerous missions as they came up.

Thank you DesiB.....I read this article to my wife who has been with me since returning from Viet Nam. She is starting to put pieces of the puzzle together.

She just couldn't believe it from someone who hid it so well by my actions. When I first came out to her at age 65 she called me a liar. She was there when I started riding bulls in the rodeo, she was there when I volunteered to fly on B-52's for high altitude drops over China Lake. In private every time I indulged myself to let the woman in me out, I felt shame, and guilt, and that always prompted me to do something stupidly dangerous just to deny that I had indulged in dress-up, or make-up, something that had made me feel so wonderful inside.

Sorry I didn't mean to highjack this, it just made me reflect on my very long history of knowing, yet denying, and it verifies it to me what I thought all along.... I was mistakenly trying to do.... "flight into hyper masculinity." Thank you Dr Brown.

[Guest DesiB]

I've always had an affinity toward tuff chicks. My older sister once had a girlfriend over who was helping her "babysit" and yelled out, "I need a kiss!" So she ended up coming over and giving me a big kiss Anyway . . . I never really bought into the gender stereotypes so much as I just flat out saw my life as a mistake and didn't care if I died. But I wanted it to be worth something. So I got myself into high risk professions, including the Marine Corps and then I became a firefighter. In both professions I worked with females who were in the minority. But my reasons were not to prove anything about masculinity--they had more to do with putting my life at risk in hopes of making it finally worth something because I felt it was such a mistake previously.

[Drea]

So does that stat perhaps mean that trans people tend to be overly concerned about conforming to gender expectations? To have, as many assert, overcompensate, flee to masculinity (MTF) to conform to birth gender role?

Or does it mean that there is another link to trans such as the supposed stronger link of very high testosterone to identifying as gay?

[Guest DesiB]

So does that stat perhaps mean that trans people tend to be overly concerned about conforming to gender expectations? To have, as many assert, overcompensate, flee to masculinity (MTF) to conform to birth gender role?

Or does it mean that there is another link to trans such as the supposed stronger link of very high testosterone to identifying as gay?

No. What the article refers to as Brown's theory, "flight into hypermasculinity" is actually just an untested hypothesis. My own experience/view is different. I never fit into the 41% who attempted suicide, but I did put myself in high risk positions because I wanted opportunities to sacrifice my life for anything that would have given it value. And even though I joined the Marines like my uncle and my cousin, I had a guaranteed MOS (military occupational skill) to do ground radio repair (MOS 2841), which was, and is, an MOS open to Women Marines whom I've always admired and secretly wanted to be at the time. So there are many reasons to question Brown's theory/hypothesis--a few others from the article I'll copy here:

"Though Brown developed his theory around male-to-female transgender service members, the draw of a hypermasculine environment may also help explain why female-to-male transgender people join the military. The theory has been a topic of debate among activists and researchers. Although most say it has validity, some worry that its simplicity undermines the full humanity of transgender people. "It dehumanizes the community and reduces it to this narrative," said Jake Eleazer, a transgender veteran and doctoral student in psychology at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. He and others point out that there are many reasons transgender people join the military: adventure, money for college, family tradition and other factors that attract all recruits. They also say it is possible that transgender people are more likely to have certain traits or skills that draw them to service, or that on the whole they are socioeconomically disadvantaged, discriminated against or rejected by their families in a way that leaves them fewer other options. But there is not enough data to test those ideas."

[Guest LesleyAnne]

Just like gender can not be pigeon holed into the binary neither can any one reason for joining the military by transgender people.

Like any hypothesis it's just that a "Hypothesis".

Maybe someday they'll have more evidence to elevate it to something more concrete.

For some of us, that hypothesis fits more than any other. In my case it was how to get away from my dysphoria. Keep in mind this was back in the 60's when gay wasn't accepted or tolerated by society, much less transgender, and that word hadn't hit Webster's yet. As far as society in general back then, any deviation from heterosexual was all under one label... queer, or gay, and worse sweetheart (those words were all meant to be hurtful). We are slowly getting away from that...thank goodness, but it's hard to break old prejudices. Those misconceptions muddy the water when we try to explain gender dysphoria, and sexual orientation are independent of one another, it's very hard for society to wrap it's head around that concept.

Suffice it to say that there are plenty of hypotheses' to go around, and I'm sure lots of them fit.

Being an ex-combat veteran I naturally communicate with other combat vets on other sites , as well as here, most identify with Brown's hypothesis, and since Brown is a gender specialist at The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Mountain home Tenn. I'm sure he hears all the reasons in the world as to the "why?", and found most fell under his theory.

There is a great quote by a Marine Corp officer......

"I and my fellow combat veterans stand on one side of a great impassable divide, with the rest of the world on the other."

"There's a great Marine Corps saying," said Webb. "'If you were there, I don't need to explain it to you, and if you weren't there, I can't explain it to you.' That's the divide."

[Guest LesleyAnne]

The filter caught one of my deragatory descriptions of gay, and queer, and it wasn't sweetheart. It was another word meant to be mean and hurtful. You can guess.

[Nicole W]

I joined back in 99, but not to hide anything i just wanted to serve my country and i did, yet at the time i knew nothing about who i was but i knew i was different.

[Guest Ashley40]

Even more interesting is the fact that people from the SE part of the US join the military in higher numbers, proportionally , than any other part of the country.

The answer , partly, lies in the warlike heritage of the Scots-Irish. ( James Webb, former NASA administrator has written several very illuminating books about the Scots-Irish).

[Guest Ashley40]

" Statistics are like a Bikini: What it reveals is interesting, what it conceals is vital" ( Attribution: Unsure)

[Ravin]

I joined the military to be like my dad. And respectably put off college. And patriotism.