Highest-ranked transgender officer speaks out in San Diego as she prepares to leave military

Space Force Col Bree Fram gives an inspiring speech at The San Diego LGBT District Center s Veterans Wall of Honor induction ceremony Photo courtesy of Paul Margolis HILLCREST Space Force Col Bree Fram is on administrative leave pending separation from the military due to President Donald Trump s ban on transgender troops In this limbo the highest-ranked openly transgender military officer in the U S is technically operational duty while awaiting retirement Like countless out and outed LGBTQ organization members in the past her departure from the military is not voluntary adding resounding grief to the process she reported this week while in San Diego to give the keynote address at The Center s annual LGBT Veterans Wall of Honor induction ceremony I m still grieving over the loss of what I thought my future was announced Fram first a part of the Air Force then Space Force I invested almost years in the facility And I absolutely supposed in what the military stood for assumed in my oath to the Constitution and I worked on amazing things with incredible people I loved what I did Fram spoke in her personal ceiling not as a representative of the Department of Defense or War per Trump s September executive order to the a large number of local LGBTQ veterans institution members and supporters in attendance It was a bright spot in a year of struggle as Fram was surrounded by locality and happiness Still the colonel was not allowed to appear at The Center in uniform On her jacket lapel she pinned a trans pride flag and American flag pin which she revealed represents a lot of what she believes in From left Veronica Zerrer Veterans Wall of Honor Advisory Council co-chair Space Force Col Bree Fram Clay Kilpatrick Veterans Wall of Honor Advisory Council co-chair and Gloria Cruz Cardenas Chief Impact Officer of The Center at the induction ceremony Photo courtesy of Paul Margolis The San Diego LGBT Public Center The Center s full name founded the Veterans Wall of Honor in the wake of the repeal of the Don t Ask Don t Tell approach that was first implemented by former President Bill Clinton That procedures of hiding one s identity was seen in the s as a step forward LGBT arrangement members were no longer automatically investigated and discharged In former President Barack Obama went on to repeal a ban on transgender troops Fram came out that day in a letter to her colleagues She continued working as an astronautical engineer when Trump re-implemented the ban for the first time in It s only now when the ban also includes a purge of transgender troops that she is departing Seeing that institutional step backwards is incredibly disheartening Fram mentioned This is a reversal that really is almost unprecedented in terms of re-institutionalizing discrimination The Center s wall honors veterans who advanced equality and served with distinction no matter the discriminatory policies of the moment This year s inductees honored Thursday were Navy veterans Ashley Tatum Jennifer P K Jow Joe Zilvinski Nat Kapp and Todd Andrew Nelms Army veterans Jeff Hall Miguel Hernandez Ray Moore and Tom Rummel and Air Force veteran Michael Rolfe Zarbo Space Force Col Bree Fram and The Center CEO Cara Dessert Photo courtesy of the San Diego LGBT Area Center Despite past bans LGBTQ people have inevitably served The LGBTQ system member population was even prevalent enough in military-centric San Diego to backing a couple gay Navy bars such as the Gold Rail which advertised itself in as Where Mate Meets Mate We have been part of the military since the Revolution Fram announced It s really that competence first that earns people s trust in the military And the trans folks presented that everywhere every rank every utility all around the world And that mattered In the sparse records available transgender people were two to five times more likely than the general population to serve even prior to the repeal of the transgender military ban in making it the largest employer of transgender Americans For particular the military is an escape from an unaccepting home atmosphere But others like Fram are idealists In the wake of she sought to defend the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution In both cases it opened up economic opportunities to a population with roughly double the unemployment rate of the cisgender population in Anytime you take away economic opportunity and a pathway for people that s problematic for any society reported Fram who now resides in northern Virginia Those former transgender operation members must compete for jobs with thousands of fired federal workers Fram spent the year writing her memoir She isn t yet sure if it will be a military memoir or a transition memoir Those two identities are entangled for her so it could be a combination of both And like she described San Diego veterans at the ceremony amenity does not stop the moment she had to take off her uniform She has continued to fight for founding freedoms like free speech bodily autonomy and the pursuit of happiness That is our power as Americans Fram stated That oath has no expiration date and we get to continue defending democracy in different tactics Space Force Col Bree Fram champions free speech at The Center in Hillcrest on Thursday Nov Photo courtesy of the San Diego LGBT Area Center