All Blog Posts (161)

The Republican National Committee has again aggressively affirmed its party’s permanent opposition to marriage equality. On April 12, the RNC unanimously adopted a resolution declaring that mixed-gender marriage is holy, but same-gender marriage is un-holy.  Furthermore . . .…

Time to get organized and begin requesting, meeting, and organizing your local organization and or base's June LGBT Pride in-house.

For many years we have been told "No because LGBT people are not considered members of a special emphasis group." According to the OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense) Diversity lead with discussions between OSD, OPM (Office of Personnel Management), and DOD FED GLOBE we do NOT have to be "Special Emphasis" to have these events.

Please…

Mária Lebstück was born in Zagreb on 15 August 1831, the daughter of a wealthy German merchant family.  She moved to Vienna when she was thirteen years old to live with a maternal uncle. 

It was in Vienna, when she was seventeen, that  Mária adopted the male identity of Károly Lebstück to fight in…

More to come...

It was for the love of a man that Dame Jeanne de Clisson donned male garb and set to sea as a pirate and…

As a Gay Straight Alliance advisor at my high school, I often notice something: many people who were not in the LGBT community just didn't understand why LGBT people felt ostracized. They didn't get it on a gut level. 

I did. Although I'm straight, I've worked for twenty years with kids who couldn't come out to their parents for fear of being disowned. I'd seen kids harassed, assaulted, and bullied for something fundamental about themselves. In the small community in which I teach,…

          Not strictly meeting the definition of "transgender", Minnesotan Frances Clallan Clayton nevertheless showed her mettle by enlisting in the Union army in Missouri in 1861, alongside her husband Elmer.  After she saw her husband killed at Stones River, she went to her commanding officer to reveal her biological sex.  Once the press got hold of the story the emphasis was on her love and devotion to her husband, so much of the facts we might want to know about her were lost in the…

Onorata Rodiani was born in 1406 in Castelleone near Cremona in Italy. She is the only woman artist known to have been commissioned to do work in the 15th century. While creating a fresco for the Tyrant of Cremona, Gabrino Fondolo, a young courtier tried to molest her. She stabbed him with a knife, killing him, and then fled the town disguised as a man.

Although Fondolo…

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/end-5-year-overseas-rule-dod-civilian-employees/w89GfZLL

Please support scores of DOD employees living overseas who are being forced to return to the US after serving five to seven years overseas. Many will be forced to work in areas where they have no family. The average cost to move one family of four is $85,000.…

By Christopher T. Moss

Mary Ann Talbot was born an orphan in London on February 2, 1778.  Her mother died at Talbot’s birth and the child was raised by a series of what we would now call foster homes and in boarding schools.  She claimed to be the illegitimate…

Franklin F. Thompson born Sarah Emma Edmonds

Sarah Edmonds was one of an estimated 200 women who disguised themselves as men and served as soldiers in the Civil War, but that's just one of her remarkable feats. When a childhood friend was captured as a spy and executed by the Confederates,…

Catalina de Erauso/Francisco de Loyola

1592-1662



De Erauso was the daughter and sister of Basque soldiers in Spain.  She was forced to join a convent, but was so unhappy she escaped, dressed as a man, called herself Francisco de Loyola, and traveled as a soldier to South America where she served for many years. 

She courted women and nearly was married to a rich widow's daughter.  When the authorities sought her for…

Legend or history?  Who can tell with Hua Mulan, but the story of this woman turned soldier is compelling enough for Disney to tackle it.  If Mulan never lived, certainly her story fit hundreds of others with the desire to "fight like a man" as well as the ability, forced or preferring to don a male identity in order to…

The soldier known to his unit in the American Revolutionary War as Robert Shurtleff was born Deborah Sampson on December 17th, 1760 in Plympton, Massachusetts. Like so many women who served as men in the military, both history and culture have overlooked Sampson's courage and determination and attempted to…

\Women who have taken historic roles as men in time of war do it for a variety of reasons.  For most it is simply the only way they can take up arms and serve in their country's military.  For others it allows them to pursue career opportunities simply barred to women.  In the case of the dashing officer of the Czar's cavvalry, it may have started out as a way to get out of an…

Hi my name is Thomas and my husband is Marko and we are married. We live in Germany. Both of us were civil servant employees of the US Department of Defense (DOD) in Germany. I am an US military veteran and Marko is a German national. We've been together for 11 years and plan to be together for the rest of our lives.

While working at the commissary this is a very large military grocery store at Vilseck Post I had a low level job, but was very happy. My supervisor then split…

Mary Anne Buckley/James Barry

c. 1789-1799 – 25 July 1865

One of the greatest gifts that you can give your family and yourself are Advance Directives -- especially a Living Will and Medical Power of Attorney.  



These documents permit you to affirm your wishes as to who will make medical decisions for you when you are not able and what type and degree of medical treatment, if any, you wish to have administered at the end of your life.



Advance Directives guide your medical care and treatment in two ways:



1.         Naming…