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The birth of the modern LGBT equal rights movement began in June 1969 in front of Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park. Lawmakers are now looking to make this Greenwich Village site the nation’s first national park honoring LGBT history.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the Human Rights Campaign, city and state elected officials, advocacy groups and community members gathered in front of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street yesterday afternoon to launch the new campaign.

“We urge President Obama to designate the first ever National Park Service site dedicated to the history of the LGBT community, so that this story may be preserved and retold for future generations,” said Nadler.

Stonewall Inn, still a popular gay bar, was lacking its usual colorful flair due to construction, inside near the front door still hangs a framed sign that read,”THIS IS A RAIDED PREMISES.”

As one of the few bars that openly welcomed LGBT people in the 1950s and 1960s, it became a place of acceptance for the poorest and most discriminated against LGBT members. Police raids on gay bars were common and eventually protests and violence erupted at Stonewall Inn after LGBT members fought back.

Stonewall uprising witness, Martha Shelley, told the crowd how proud she was of the campaign.

“We who had to keep the most central part of our souls hidden in shame will now be celebrated as full human beings,” Shelley said.

National parks are created by either congressional legislation or presidential proclamation of a monument under the Antiquities Act. NPCA believes a presidential proclamation is a possibility if the City of New York donates Christopher Park to the National Park Service, since it is not federally owned.

“We must continue to protect and preserve these places, urban and rural, natural and historic, that speak to and represent who we are as a nation,” said Cortney Worrall, the Northeast regional director for NPCA. “And by the best storytellers in the business, the National Park Service.”

According to NPCA, if this happens, the bar would remain privately owned, but the events that happened there in 1969 would be considered part of the historical narrative for the new monument.

“The legacy of the Stonewall Rebellion mirrors that of our nation, a group of individuals standing together against all odds to demand their freedom,” said Nadler.

Two-thirds of America’s more than 400 national park sites are dedicated to cultural and historic significance. Supporters of the new campaign think Stonewall has that historical importance and believe others should be made aware.

Over nine million Americans identify as LGBT, according to the Human Rights Campaign website. Since the Stonewall Rebellion, gay marriage has been legalized, but the LGBT community still seeks more equality and recognition.

Jaron Barney, 24, of Hell’s Kitchen and member of the LGBT community said, the first time he heard about the Stonewall Rebellion was at the University of Utah during a queer theater course. He attended the event to gain more knowledge.

Jaron Barney, 24, said making Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park a national park would be important for LGBT history. Photo by Jordyn Rolling

“For me the stories of everything that happened are still pretty unclear,” said Barney. “There’s not a ton of information I’ve been able to gather other than it’s the birth of the Gay Rights Movement.”

Lawmakers hope to make information and history easily accessible to people like Barney through Stonewall National Park.

“The resounding support for this effort underscores that it is time to have a national park site that tells the story of the LGBT rights movement,” said Worrall.

Barney said he hopes Stonewall National Park could bring changes like more emphasis on LGBT history being taught in public schools.

“I think it’s positive, and I understand the community might be mad about this land being owned federally but, I think the people (speakers) made a good point in saying it’s for our posterity,” Barney said.

NPCA said Christopher Park itself would not undergo very many changes. Over time one to two interpretative exhibits to educate the public could be installed along with a discrete national monument sign and National Park Service Arrowhead at the park entrance.

Community members in attendance were able to sign a petition in support of the campaign.

The list of officials announcing their support includes both U.S. senators form New York, 11 members of Congress, 13 New York State Senators, 37 New York State Assembly Members, five New York City Council members, as well as the New York City Comptroller, Public Advocate, and Manhattan Borough President.

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Band manager and percussionist, Lindsay Becker enjoys performing at city events like the ING New York City Marathon. She says it feels good to motivate the runners with the band’s songs. Photo by Kulsoom Khan

Amid the crowd of spectators attending the ING New York Marathon in Long Island City, Queens, a band decked out in purple and white uniforms and cowboy hats kept both runners and viewers energized with drums and blaring trumpets. A closer look revealed that this was no ordinary band. The Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps Marching Band proudly wore LGBTA ( Lesbian Gay Bisexual, Transgendered and Allies) and the iconic rainbow on their chest.

This is the first time the LGBAC is performing at the marathon. Band manager Lindsay Becker said it had been a very positive experience, with runners passing by waving and blowing kisses to the band members who gave them encouraging yells and fist pumps in return.

“Everyone running is just so inspiring and it’s thrilling to stand here and give them a little pep right here in the middle,” said Becker.

Dyanne Irby, a self-admitted “rookie”, joined the band only a few months ago when her roommate encouraged her to look into it.

“The cool thing about the Big Apple LGBTA band is that they allow anybody to come in at any level with no auditioning, “ she said. “You don’t even have to be gay.”

Irby, a sousaphone player in the group, is originally from Maryland and has lived in San Francisco as well, but feels more at home in New York City after moving here in 2001. She enjoys big city events like the marathon.

“I love New York,” she said. “You come to a marathon and think everybody’s going to be wearing running clothes, but then you see people that are dressed up as characters and it’s a lot of fun.”

Band member, Leslie Becker offers words of encouragement to a runner in between songs. Photo by Kulsoom Khan

The marathon draws thousands of runners from all over the world.

“It’s cool to see people from different countries,” Irby said, “It brings people together.”

The Lesbian and Gay Big Apple Corps, which is made up of 85 members, was formed back in 1979, ten years after the Stonewall Riots said Leslie Becker, percussionist and band resource coordinator.

Becker said the LGBAC plays at many events in New York City throughout the year including the New York City Gay Pride Parade, the Fourth of July Parade, and the Washington Market Children’s Halloween Parade. But one event in particular stands out in Becker’s memory.

“We marched as part of the National Lesbian and Gay Band Association for President Obama’s inauguration,” she said with a big smile, “That was amazing.”

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Ariel Guerrera, 28, of East Harlem is a volunteer for Organizing for Action. He has asthma and no health insurance. Photo by Lea Bouchoucha

As the U.S. government shutdown entered its second week, a handful of President Barack Obama’s campaign volunteers came out on Thursday to handout information on the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare at Union Square in Manhattan.

The event was part of a national day of action promoting Obamacare organized by Organizing For Action (O.F.A.), a nonprofit successor of Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. The advocacy group was designed to mobilize supporters and promote President Barack Obama’s second term agenda including healthcare, climate change, gun control and immigration reform.

Ariel Guerrera, 28, carried a large blue banner and distributed flyers with contact information to register for federal health insurance. For the past year, the East Harlem resident has volunteered with Organizing For Action.

“It is important for us to let people know where they can get registered [for healthcare],” said Guerrera, “Too many people in this country do not have health insurance and if something happened, it can ruin a life.”

Guerrera has asthma. Since he left his job in February, he doesn’t have health insurance.

“My prescriptions for asthma are very expensive and I can’t afford it right now,” he said. He planned to sign up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act in a few weeks, “I feel lucky for not being sick,” he said.

New York is one of the biggest markets for the new insurance plan. Last Tuesday, the New York State of Health (NYSOH) announced that over 40,000 New Yorkers have signed up for the Affordable Care Act, more than any other state.

“We are one of the few countries in the world that does not have universal health care,” said Guerrera, ”Obamacare changed that.”

Yael Jacoleson-Zieff, 57, an O.F.A. volunteer, lost her job and her health insurance. Photo by Lea Bouchoucha

Yael Jacoleson-Zieff, 57, a volunteer with O.F.A., lost her job and her health insurance during the recession in 2008. Since then, like Guerrera, she has not been able to afford health insurance, until now.

“The system was slow but I think that losing two hours in order to get health insurance, it is not a great sacrifice,” said Jacoleson-Zieff, of the Upper East Side in Manhattan.

Jacoleson-Zieff advocated for Obamacare since the first battles on Capitol Hill, four years ago.

“I believe that health insurance should not be only for rich people,” she said. Nobody should go bankrupt, stay sick or die because they are sick.”

Volunteers promote signing up for insurance through Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) in Union Square, Photo by Lea Bouchoucha

Sitting in Union Square next to O.F.A. volunteers, three workers from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York were also helping residents through the process of applying for health insurance.

Called  “navigators”, these workers are hired under federal grants to assist individuals, families, small businesses, and their employees at no cost in the health insurance application and enrollment process.

In July New York state awarded $27 million in grants to 50 diverse organizations like the LGBT Community Center for healthcare outreach.

Janice Cruz, 30, of Bushwick, Brooklyn has worked at the LGBT Community Center’s healthcare outreach for the past month.

“There is a lot of misinformation about healthcare, so it is great to talk to people and make them feel more comfortable,” said Cruz.

According to a report from the liberal think tank Center For American Progress, LGBT people are more likely than the general population to lack health insurance coverage.

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Thanu Yakupitiyage, 27, is a queer immigrant living in Brooklyn, New York on a work visa and says she supports political candidates based on actions not identity. Photo by Leticia Miranda

Just after the Supreme Court released their decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, Christine Quinn gathered supporters outside of the Stonewall Inn. The case’s lead plaintiff, Edie Windsor, made an appearance and announced her proud support for Quinn. It was a symbolic moment where Quinn placed herself as the second in line to make gay and lesbian history as the next mayoral hopeful.

This moment was not her first and would not be her last even as her mayoral campaign gave way to Bill de Blasio as the leading Democratic candidate. Over the last two months Quinn has made bold attempts to court the LGBT vote by framing herself as the first lesbian woman mayor in New York City history and a symbol for gay rights nationally. Indeed her election would be historic, but her campaign strategy to pander to the LGBT vote as a bright symbol of progress alienated some queer people of color who say that policies and actions matter more than identity. Now on primary day, Quinn’s campaigning is languishing in the third place with hopes of at least participating in a run off fading fast.

“There was so much excitement about Christine Quinn because New York has never had a female mayor let alone a gay mayor,” said Thanu Yakupitiyage, a 27 year-old queer Sri Lankan activist who lives in Brooklyn, New York on a work visa. “At the same time, I don’t think it’s enough to vote for Christine Quinn because she’s a lesbian woman.”

Yakupitiyage has been closely following the mayoral campaigns though she is ineligible to vote because of her immigration status. She is especially critical of Quinn’s track record on paid sick leave, hospital closures and raising the minimum wage.

Two years ago, Quinn refused to let a paid sick leave bill come to a vote at the City Council in an attempt to cater to New York’s business community. When the Council finally voted and passed the bill, Quinn marked it a victory for New York while glossing over her attempts to stop the bill from a vote. But most importantly, Yakupitiyage is critical of Quinn’s support for Ray Kelly and her failure to vote against the Stop and Frisk bill, a part of the Community Safety Act which would prohibit police officers from profiling people based on race, gender, age or homelessness.

For some queer voters of color, Quinn’s vote on the Community Safety Act showed them that she is an unsurprising moderate candidate who manages to tap into her identity as a lesbian while also failing to concretely address the issues facing those communities.

“In some ways she challenges the gender norms,” said Chelsea Johnson-Long, a program coordinator at the Audre Lorde Project, a LGBTQ rights advocacy organization based in New York City that has been a fierce opponent of the city’s Stop-and-Frisk policy.

“But as a black lesbian who comes from a working class community, I have bigger concerns than getting married.” Johnson-Long said every time she walks in the subway with her girlfriend, police stop her to check her bag.

“I would be excited to see her address the intersections of race and sexuality and how that affects New Yorkers,” said Johnson-Long who has worked with trans and queer communities of color in New York for five years. For others, Quinn’s identity platform is hardly a beacon of hope. Instead it confirms their cynicism about the possibility of electoral politics to bring equality.

“It would be unprecedented to have people of certain identities in high offices,” said Julian Padilla, a 27 year-old queer Latino in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn who casted his vote today for Bill Di Blasio. “But if they’re going to just use that to continue the disenfranchisement of those communities, we have to rethink electoral politics as the solution for social justice.”

Padilla learned about Quinn’s campaign mostly through Facebook where his friends showed their disapproval of the candidate after she failed to vote to ban profiling as part of the Community Safety Act. Quinn only voted for the provision of the Act that established an inspector general.

“She put herself at odds with communities of color and LGBT communities of color,” said Padilla. “ I would love for the city to have a lesbian mayor but before I want a lesbian mayor I want a mayor who is actually going to back policies and bills that support lesbians in general.”

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Five years ago, Joy Ladin, 51 was Jay Ladin, an English professor at Yeshiva University, in Washington Heights.

“I am what we would now call transgender,” she said.

Married with three children, she  planned her suicide to escape this feeling of “being in the wrong body.

When she started to transition in 2006, Ladin was placed on indefinite leave by the Orthdox Jewish university’s administration. After regaining her status through legal channels she became the first trans person to teach at a Jewish Orthodox institute.

Now she feels more alive than ever.

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After fleeing Peru in 2001 because he was persecuted for being gay, Jair Izquierdo settled in New Jersey, met his future husband, and started a life with him. But that life was brought to an abrupt halt last year when Izquierdo was deported for being in the country illegally.

Izquierdo and his partner, American citizen Richard Dennis of Jersey City, N.J., are one of thousands of binational same-sex couples in the United States that struggle with deportation. They were joined together by a civil union, but Izquierdo was an illegal immigrant, and because immigration law is federal, rather than state, Dennis was unable to sponsor him for citizenship.

“Most people don’t even realize how screwed up it is,” Dennis said of the current immigration law and how it applies to gay couples. “There’s so much subjectivity and fear and misinformation.”

The Defense of Marriage Act

The problem for couples like Dennis and Izquierdo is the Defense of Marriage Act, which ruled in 1996 that marriage is a legal union between a man and a woman. Because of DOMA, the federal government and its agencies, including those responsible for immigration benefits, are prohibited from recognizing same-sex marriages and civil unions.

“It’s very hard to explain to the many people who call us every day because it’s so patently unjust,” said Victoria Neilson, the legal director at Immigration Equality, a national organization that advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered immigrants.

In February, the Obama administration announced that it would no longer continue to defend DOMA in the courts. However, it will be enforced until Congress or the Supreme Court votes to strike it down. In the meantime, the administration claims to be focusing on immigrants with criminal records.

This makes sense, Neilson said, because the backlog of immigration cases in each state would ease up, and many immigrants with clean records and ties to the community would have their cases closed. But whether this theory is being put into practice is a source of contention.

“It doesn’t really seem like the word has reached the field of the actual attorneys and ICE agents who are charged with deciding whether to put people in removal proceedings or not,” Neilson said, referring to the people working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Dennis echoes Neilson’s concerns.

“They talk tough about secure communities and weeding out criminals, but I think that they just want to deport as many people as possible,” he said. “So the rhetoric doesn’t match the actions and it doesn’t match reality.”

Fighting for “Traditional” Marriage

Immigration Equality advocates for same-sex marriage so couples like Dennis and Izquierdo can be together. On the other side of the issue are the signers of the Manhattan Declaration, who believe in the traditional marriage view that DOMA reinforces.

Helen Alvare, a professor at the George Mason University School of Law, signed the declaration because she believes that maintaining traditional marriage protects children. She wants the government to consider new reforms that scholars and legislators have come up with that would result in what she calls “equal recognition.”

Then she heard the story of Dennis and Izquierdo. She called their separation “a huge tragedy in their lives,” but was left unconvinced that the laws of marriage should be changed.

“Is this situation really enough to overturn the argument that we really need to make something special of opposite sex unions?” Alvare asked. She said that traditional marriage still needs to be honored above all.

For couples like Dennis and Izquierdo, she suggested going some other way than “the marriage route.”

“Changing marriage as a tool for [immigration benefits] is not enough.”

Other Options

According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, there are an estimated 28,500 binational same-sex couples living in the United States. The options are limited if the foreign partner is in the country illegally, especially if it has been for longer than a year, like it was for Izquierdo.

“If someone’s here with a visa and they overstay, under current immigration law, it’s almost impossible to change from being here illegally to being here legally within the United States,” said Neilson. “And if a person leaves the country to try and legalize their status, if they have been here over a year, they can’t come back for ten years.”

Izquierdo applied for asylum after having been in the country for five years, and was denied. A series of appeals and requests to reopen the case have led to a court sending the decision back to the immigration judge, claiming the reasoning to not reopen were invalid.

Dennis said that they will move to Canada or Europe if Izquierdo cannot come back to the U.S., a common remedy among binational couples.

“We do see a fair amount of couples who end up giving up on the U.S. entirely and starting a new life in Canada,” Neilson said.

Ending DOMA

Since the current Congress has not passed much legislation, Immigration Equality is looking to the Supreme Court to repeal DOMA. Neilson suspects that the earliest this could happen is 2013, so Immigration Equality is pursuing other legislative actions in the meantime.

The Uniting American Families Act is pending, a bill that would amend immigration law to say “permanent partner” where “spouse” exists, so an American can sponsor his or her partner for immigration benefits.

There’s also the Respect for Marriage Act, which would legislatively appeal DOMA. Immigration Equality also encourages its clients to call their political representatives and ask for their help.

“When you work with lesbian and gay immigrant families, you see that it’s not an abstract right,” Neilson said. “It’s a fundamental desire to just be with the person you love. And that’s just such a heart-wrenching situation to talk to someone who finally found the person they want to be with, and they can’t be with them because of this unjust law. It’s got to go.”

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Vistors watch Westboro Baptist Chuch protest the 9/11 memorial service. The church believes the attack was an act of God. Photo by Nicole Guzzardi

The often controversial Westboro Baptist Church, known for their protests, which can include American flag burnings and picketing funerals, were in full force at today’s 9/11 memorial service.

Stationed on Broadway and Liberty Streets, they held signs that read, “God’s Wrath = 9/11, and America is Doomed,” and shouted “God hates America,” startling visitors who came to ground zero to remember the thousands killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Church members shouted their belief that soldiers and 9/11 victims died by God’s hands, because he does not approve of homosexuality. They wore t-shirts donning the slogan, “God Hates Fags.”

“You think 9/11 was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” said protester Abigail Phelps. “There is still time. You are still alive and you can still repent.”

Phelps said the 9/11 attacks were just a fraction of God’s punishment on the world for their sins, which include adultery, fornication, abortion and sodomy.

“We are supposed to thank God for all things that happen, that is to indicate that you understand and are obedient to a sovereign God,” Phelps said in regards to the 9/11 attacks.

Many visitors seemed disturbed by the protest.

Michael Fleming, 32, of the Bronx, who served two tours in Iraq from 2003 to 2005 and served six months in Afghanistan, shouted at protestors. He was hurt by a sign that read, “Soldiers Die, God Laughs.”

“I want to jump over the fence and rip their throats out,” he said. “This is a day of somberness and remembrance.”

Hannah Moch, 18, of Battery Park, said the protest was especially disturbing to her -not only did she grow up in the city, but also she was in elementary school at PS 234, which stands about three blocks from where the Twin Towers fell.

“On that day, my mom saw the first tower hit and immediately came and got me [from school], and she took me outside and she knelt down by me and said, ‘you have to look at this, [pointing to the towers] because this is history,” Moch said.

Today, she argued back and forth across barriers with protestors about gay rights.

“The whole point is they should be ashamed of what they are doing here today,” she said.

Police surrounded the protestors to make sure there were no incidents.

“If you read the bible, then you know God said there is no such thing as an innocent person,” Phelps said of the 9/11 victims.

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Several advocacy groups including the Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) expressed concerns related to the repeal

.

According to The Advocate, the repeal does not solve several problems such as benefits for same-sex partners of gay service members, the insufficiency of existing channels for reporting antigay harassment and a mechanism to allow those removed from the armed forces under DADT to reclassify their discharge.



So far, the Pentagon has yet to release a public statement on the meeting.

Denny Meyer, Vice President for Region I of American Veterans for Equal Rights. Photo by Meredith Bennett-Smith



Denny Meyer, AVER’s Public Affairs Officer, said the fact that Pentagon officials were willing to meet is an important step.



“Some answers were given, but not necessarily the answers we wanted to hear,” he said. “Concerns were raised — they were not resolved — but they were raised very directly.”



The military’s policy will remain in effect until U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that the armed services are prepared to implement the final repeal, followed in turn by a 60-day waiting period. 




The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996, continues to be a sticking point for the advocacy groups. Spousal benefits for same-sex couples are not included in the repeal’s language. 
 


“The military really is trying as hard as they can,” Meyer said. “Even though they aren’t being thrown a bone. That’s the big stumbling block. We’re still being held back by these discriminatory laws.”



Officials were also pressed to create a more efficient and less intimidating channel for gay service members to report abuse.

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At her Las Vegas commitment ceremony to her partner Jamie last year, LeAnna Bradley wore a white floor length gown with lace trimming and a beaded train. Her red hair was coiffed in an updo, crowned with a tiara. The fact that her sheer sleeves did little to hide her many tattoos, or that her carefully set curls imperfectly disguised a partially receding hairline did little to dampen her grin. Bradley, a 37-year veteran of the armed services, likes to say she feels like someone 20 years younger.

But Bradley hasn’t always been so carefree. For most of her life, the highly decorated Lieutenant, born Donald Daryl Alfred, felt like a woman trapped in the body of a man. For six decades Alfred struggled with feelings of confusion and isolation associated with the gender struggle. Two failed marriages and a pair of Purple Hearts later, Bradley’s struggle culminated in her 1997 gender reassignment surgery, an operation that resulted in the completion of Bradley’s “real self.”

Performed in Thailand, the surgeries — including various implants and facial reconstructions — were like the resetting of Bradley’s biological clock. “I really felt that I was a woman all those years,” Bradley said. “I really wanted to be a female.” And finally, at the age of 60, she could say she truly was one.

Although now content with her new life, Bradley’s childhood and early military service was riddled by molestation and abuse, both at the hands of family members and servicemen. Her parents refused to recognize her identity struggles, adding to her confusion by writing off any youthful effeminacy as merely a fad.

“I really didn’t know which way I was going or which way I was headed,” she said. “Twice in Vietnam I thought about suicide. By the time I retired [from the military] I was pretty well beaten up and bullied.”

Bradley’s experiences are shared by more American veterans than either the public or the military publicly acknowledges. While exact numbers have not yet been determined, Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) estimates that just as 13 percent of Americans in the U.S. are veterans of the armed service, approximately the same percentage of this country’s transgenders are veterans as well. She added that at transgender gatherings and conferences, veterans constitute a far greater than 13 percent of the attendees.

Helms said there are several reasons why transgender or transsexual people could be attracted to the military in proportionally higher numbers.

“Some transgenders join the military to “get cured,” Helms said. “They think, ‘The army will make a man out of me.’ Or women will join because you can do things that are more masculine. [Transgenders] can hide who they are or be able to express who they are in a society that accepts those types of behaviors.”

Following the recent, yet not fully enacted repeal of the military’s ban on gay and lesbian service members, advocates like Helms are trying to shift the focus to the ‘T’ (for transgender) in the LGBT alphabet soup. He considers this the final frontier in terms of military discrimination; transgender status and “gender identity disorder” are still automatic disqualification from military service.

Helms said that in her capacity as a leader and co-founder of TAVA, she fields numerous complaints about the treatment of transgender veterans, especially by the Veterans Association Health Department.

“Transgendered people are discriminated against by the VA,” Helms said. “They are denied service, misgendered on purpose. Just a whole series of things happen.”

The VA declined to comment.

A 2007 study commissioned by TAVA and The Palm Center, a Southern California public policy think tank, found that of the 827 respondents, nearly one third reported “having experienced some form of discrimination in the workplace.”

In addition, “Respondents reported organizational discrimination at the VA in a lack of clear and consistent practice, with little support of gender transition. …there were many reports of interpersonal discrimination, via lack of respect from VA doctors, non-medical staff and nurses.”

Denny Meyer, spokesperson for TAVA as well as a longtime activist for gay service members, said even as the military prepares to open its doors to openly gay men and women, transgender individuals remain locked out in the cold. Those that do manage to join up, he said, risk “both emotional isolation and physical danger.”

“While gay service members have been able to be increasingly open among their peers in the past 10 to 15 years, transgender troops have remained largely closeted and isolated, with no ‘renaissance’ of understanding at all,” Meyer said. “There are endless stories of transgender vets being discriminated against. I get calls every week.”

Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA) and a veteran, has been living as ‘Monica’ since 1997.

Helms, who has been living as ‘Monica’ since 1997, said transgender veterans —who were generally overlooked during the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell debate — now need a voice more than ever.

“The media doesn’t seem to care,” Helms said, adding that until the major, heavily funded LGBT rights organizations like the Human Rights Campaign switch their focus, the issue will continue to take a back seat. “[Organizations like the HRC] pretty much run the show in Gay Inc. Most of the people who donate to them are rich white gay men. They get to call the shots.”

Yet there are signs that some people are beginning to rally around TAVA’s pink and blue standard. Columbia University hosted a debate this February on whether to allow Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) — banned for more than four decades — back on campus. Raucous protesters heckled veterans who spoke in favor of ROTC programming.

Protesting student Sean Udell specifically mentioned the treatment of transgendered people as a reason to continue the ban. “Transpeople are part of the Columbia community,” Udell said, as reported originally by the New York Post.

Still, Helms remains unconvinced. “Until I start seeing progress, I can’t really say [when change will come],” she said. “I can’t give false hope to people.”

During her decades of service, Bradley herself sometimes found hope hard to find. She battled depression and substance abuse as well as the persistent questions about her own sexuality. Now, Bradley harbors no ill will towards the U.S. Navy and her partner is herself a transgendered, 15-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

Bradley managed to have her military record officially changed to recognize her gender transition, something few others have been able to accomplish.

“All my paperwork has been changed,” Bradley said. “I went through a board of review and took me three and half years. The government and the military recognized that I had exhausted all ways and means of what my sexuality was. I’m one of the rare few.”

Immediately following her gender assignment surgery, her local VA center in Miami, Fla. refused to treat Bradley at the female clinic, yet Bradley maintains her positive outlook on her years of service.

“I don’t blame the military,” she said. “I’m very proud of what I did. More so now than I was before.”

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