When Technical Sergeant Alix Anguiano joined the US Air Force in 2010, she followed the legacy of family service, ranging from World War II to desert storms. Over 15 years, Texas Natively deployed in the Middle East, they carried out Shaw’s operations against hostile countries, loaded with ammunition to escort the Air Force for the President. Barack Obama and Donald Trump“Several times,” she said. As an instructor, she trained about 500 of the Air Force’s 6,000 weapons experts and planted what leaders believed they should be.
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“I’ve always wanted to wear a uniform,” said Anguiano, 34. Supporters. “I was going to continue serving this country up until and perhaps beyond the 20-year mark.”
Instead, after years of open service Transgender Beyond standards with the support of a woman, commander and peers, Anguiano is currently sitting at home on forced administrative leave, stripped of her duties, facing unwilling separation, and seeing her life as she built a teeter on the edge of her collapse.
Related: Air Force withdraws early retirement approval for transgender service members kicked out by Trump
A career that ended by politics
Anguiano began gender transition in 2016 shortly after Obama lifted his previous ban on open gender services. By 2017, she was living openly and serving under the uniform standards of women. “I was nothing more than a more effective, stronger, more capable non-committee officer, as the heavy burden was lifted off my shoulder,” she said.
When Trump returned to the White House in January, its stability evaporated. The executive order once again bans transgender services, bringing members like Anguiano back to uniforms, grooming and facilities “birth sex” standards, then Military Overall.
Anguiano says her commander doesn’t want to humiliate her and leaves her in an administrative absence. “I’m literally not allowed to do my job,” she said. “My unit needs people, but I’m sitting at home.”
Promise and Reversal
In May, the Air Force provided what looked like a lifeline. For those with 15-18 years of service, temporary early retirements, or early retirement under Tera.
“They told us on Thursday, but they had chosen until the following Friday,” Anguiano said.
She and her wife struggled with the decision before accepting it. Retirement will maintain benefits such as Tricare coverage, family health needs, pensions and access to services at military bases. It also provides some stability after destructive relocation and elimination of savings.
Related: “Less-known D-Day” attacks when pentagonal purges trans patriots serving in the US military
Her application was approved. An order for the retirement date on December 1st has been issued. Then she attended out-treatment, briefings and began preparing for civilian life.
Then, on August 4, the Air Force suddenly and quietly revoked all previously approved retirement requests for service, including Anguiano. The order signed by Brian L. Scarlett negates approval of service members with retirement dates granted under Terra, serving as a assistant Air Force secretary for manpower and preparation. The directive cited Trump’s “Military Excellence and Preparation Prioritization” policy. This is the same framework that has been driving system-wide purging of transgender service members since June.
The only path to advance: options with “voluntary” separations with enhanced separation salary, rapid approaches or expired deadlines, or involuntary separations. For Anguiano, either route risked economic ruin.
Jay Brown, staff chief Human Rights Campaignsaid in a statement Supporters, “This has nothing to do with military preparation. It’s cruel for cruelty.”
Overall, prejudice
Anguiano is not alone. Reversal hit ornamental veterans like Master Sergeant. Logan Ireland was approved for early retirement after 15 years of service, but only to get it back to the Air Force. Speaking from experience, Ireland, who lives in Hawaii, where he is stationed with his wife, said Supporters“One day you are preparing for a dignified retirement. Next, you are told you are out and not your condition.”
Related: Meet li, a transgender army challenging Donald Trump’s military ban
Supporters call this move a target attack. “It’s unnecessary, intentionally cruel and very destructive for individuals who willingly serve if possible,” said Cathy Marcello, interim executive director of the Modern Military Association. Supporters After the first announcement. She added that the decision “doesn’t take into account merits or combat capabilities” and “doesn’t make America stronger and safer.”
Shannon Minter, head of legal affairs at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, spoke Supporters The administration’s actions were merciless. “The Air Force has broken its direct commitment to service members who are already permitted to retire early,” Minter said. “This is a double betrayal. First, we force trans service members to leave after they promised they could serve, and now we retract our ability to get early retirement after admitting it. The financial outcome is devastating, meaning that service members dedicated to our country will not receive anything.”
“Betrayed” and “Destroyed”
Asked how the reversal felt, Anguiano said, “It feels like a betrayal. I have not been so betrayed in my life. I feel abandoned.”
For her, the fight is now bigger than about 30 trans service members in a similar situation. “It’s a dishonorable for every man, woman or someone wearing a uniform. They chose one thing about me who disqualified me after I followed all the regulations in the letter,” she said.
“If we’re disposable like this, then everyone is,” she added. “This is not just a fight for us. It is a threat to everyone who is serving or currently serving.”
Human costs
Anguiano’s professional uncertainty is consistent with his personal burden. She and her wife were hoping to buy a house at the current mission station and end her career there. Without Anguiano’s salary and profit, they could lose it. And because she has her family Texas and Arkansaud– The state of the state she calls “not very friendly now” – Anguiano feels they have no safe place to retreat.
Despite everything, Anguiano is grateful for her immediate chain of command and their continued support. Recalling the visible pain of her commander, when she reported the news of her withdrawal retirement, she said, “No one wants to make this happen. They know it’s wrong.”
That support was in contrast to the treatment she received from outside the unit. For months after the ban came home, Anguiano says he was accused by strangers and online commentators, just to join the Air Force to affirm gender. Meanwhile, the military has not shown her and the others what the separation process will look like in her situation. That uncertainty extends to timing. Based on what she was informally told, she could be kicked out as early as October or November.
“Now, I’m just being dragged over and reacting to each new development,” she said. “These are life-changing decisions and we are forced to make them without sufficient information and without good options.”
Currently, she is considering the next steps outside the Air Force, including the launch of multimedia. work With my wife who creates music, web comics and other creative projects. She also weighs defense contract work using skills and security clearance she built on her career. She thinks, “It’s not a way to contribute to the mission, and not a uniform, with the people who are.” And during that time, she and her wife GOFUNDME Campaign Supporting costs during uncertain times.
While she waits for an answer that may never come, Anguiano is determined to continue fighting. “If I were to fight for anything, it was because my brothers and sisters were wearing uniforms,” she said. “If I’m considered disposable, because we’re all like that.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
