>Australia’s first soldier to transition while serving her country took on the Australian Defence Force and won, paving the way for other trans personnel and veterans.
>Bridget Clinch dedicated a decade to training with the ADF and was deployed twice to East Timor. But when she told her bosses she wanted to identify as her true self she was slapped with a termination notice. “I had a medical review and they said I had to leave,” Ms Clinch, of Brisbane, told 9news.com.au. “My fight was about getting the policy cancelled. It stated trans people have a psychiatric disorder and need to be kicked out of the military."
>The 39-year-old challenged the ADF’s transgender policy in 2010 - and succeeded. Previously, every trans member of military personnel had been medically discharged from service. Since then, a total of 44 trans personnel have had treatment for gender dysphoria paid for by the ADF to December last year, with 21 members being referred for surgery. But Ms Clinch says more needs to be done for retired trans soldiers whose applications for gender reassignment surgery still gets refused by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
>YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY FROM YOURSELF’
>Ms Clinch joined the defence force in 1997 to mask her gender dysphoria. “A lot of people go into these hyper-masculine jobs thinking it will fix them,” the 39-year-old said. “In the military they refer to you by rank so you don’t get that jarring gender-based thing thrown at you all the time. “I went to mostly all male areas in the military to avoid having women stuck in my face to continually remind me. “I kept myself busy and distracted. But once I was promoted to captain and was stopped doing ground-level work, I let it come to the surface and I scared myself with my thoughts.”
>Ms Clinch said when she was in primary school, she didn’t have the language or knowledge of what transgender was. “At school, when we were lining up as boys and girls, you’d be looking at the other line thinking you should be over there,” she said. “I’m sure I said something to my parents when I was very young and they freaked out. You learnt from reactions like that not to talk about it and just try and bury it but eventually it comes back and bites you. “You can’t run away from yourself. You just try and avoid gender-related stuff.”
>CHANGING HISTORY
>Towards the end of 2009, living as a male was getting too much for Ms Clinch. She enjoyed her job but knew the consequences if she told her superiors of her need to transition. But after having precedent from Canada and UK on her side, as well as seeking legal advice, the ADF remarkably abolished its policy. “The hierarchy of the army in Canberra was skittish and scared about changing the rules but it was 10 years behind our allies,” Ms Clinch said. “This was not progressive, crazy or radical. After the policy change, there were about a dozen trans people who popped up in the first couple of years.”
>Group captain Catherine McGregor was one of them – she went public as trans in 2013, and soon after became the highest ranking gender diverse person in the army. “Everyone thinks that you have some Disney princess thing that happens to you when you transition but it’s really more that you get to start your life,” Ms Clinch said.
>She said when defence, which consists of just under 80,000 personnel, eventually overturned its ban on transgender personnel after she pleaded her case, commanders tried to keep the fact she was trans a secret. “They made me feel like I had something wrong with me but I didn’t feel crazy,” she said. “They were trying to put me back in my box and they started stuffing me around with career management. “It made me feel stressed because they weren’t overtly supporting me.”
>Ms Clinch was discharged from service in 2013.
https://archive.is/B9MQt
https://www.9news.com.au/2019/02/27/11/54/transgender-news-australian-defence-force-department-of-veterans-affairs-gender-reassignment-surgery