Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is history, right? Not entirely. 

The U.S. military still considers transgender identity to be a mental health disorder, so trans people are still barred from open service, in spite of DADT’s repeal. Many trans people serve in the armed forces anyway, but they do so silently for fear of losing their jobs or worse. 

This story from The Advocate speaks with several of these soldiers, on the condition of anonymity, about what it’s like. 

Andy is a trans man and Army Major who is on active duty in the Active Guard Reserves. Military policy means he has “to work so hard to have to be a female, and it would be so much easier to just be who I am, and be a guy.”

But it’s not like the institution is entirely oblivious to what’s happening. Those who’ve successfully served while trans say there is a difference, for example, in how gender non-conforming women are treated from gender non-conforming men in the military.

“I think there’s more of a turning of a blind eye,” said Andy. “Because people kind of just identify you as a butch lesbian, or just an effeminate man that’s gay. It’s OK to be gay [since DADT was repealed], so it’s easier to blend in.”

“I’d like to say that there’ve been more positive [attitudes] toward any aspect of feminine-based personality traits [since DADT repeal],” said Jennifer, a trans woman and Army Sergeant who is serving in the southeastern U.S. “But when it comes to the military, it’s still very much a hypermasculine, macho-based ideology.”

Read the piece. How far we have to go.