Jennie Hodgers, a native of Ireland, took the name of Albert Cashier, and not only served through the entire war—she posed as a man her entire life, and was only discovered near the end of her life.

All of these women took masculine names. They cut their hair short, wore pants, bound their breasts, and learned to swear and walk like men. Their gender was often not discovered unless they were severely wounded. Some were killed in battle, and only then was their sex revealed.

Female Soldiers of the Civil War

On the occasion of this Memorial Day, Linda Paul reports on “Jennie’s Secret” …

I don’t remember how I first encountered the story of Civil War veteran Jennie Hodgers (aka Albert Cashier), but I was smitten from the start. I was amazed that hundreds of women had posed as men during the Civil War. I couldn’t imagine how she (or they) pulled it off. And I was positively gob-smacked when I found out that Hodgers went on to spend most of her adult life – as a man – in the tiny town of Saunemin, Illinois. That’s just 12 miles down the road from Pontiac in Livingston County. And Pontiac is where my family comes from.

…

Look at the picture of Cashier in 1913 (on the right) and you can see that late in life her sartorial tastes still ran to high collars around the neck. Maybe because she didn’t want people to notice that she didn’t have much of an Adam’s apple.

Cashier/Hodgers would have been 69 in that picture. She looks so calm and unassuming. Who could imagine that she led the life she did?

Today in 2009, I have the feeling everybody wants a little piece of Jennie Hodgers. Civil war buffs, the Irish, the transgender community.. each wants to claim her.. and now, after many years – for the most part, even the town of Saunemin wants to claim her too.

You can listen to Paul’s report at Transom, WBEZ or NPR …

Albert D.J. Cashier was the shortest soldier in the 95th Illinois Infantry. In one of the few existing photographs of Cashier during the war, you can faintly detect the outline of breasts under her uniform. But that’s if you’re looking for it. And the military apparently was not:

DAVIS: Uh, they didn’t conduct physical exams in those days the way the military does now.. What they were looking for was warm bodies.. people who could stand up straight.. who obviously could see.. and could hear.. and hopefully could speak English so they could follow orders.

Rodney Davis is a retired professor of history at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He taught American history, including the Civil War, and knows all about the exceptional story of Albert Cashier. And in one of those real life twists, that seems too lucky to be true, years ago Davis found some papers in an old family trunk that belonged to his great grandfather, CW Ives. To his astonishment he discovered that his own great grandfather was the commanding officer to Albert DJ Cashier.

DAVIS: CW Ives was her first sergeant.. HIS first sergeant… however you wanna do it… His/her first sergeant… And they were together for at least two years.. So, uh, they got to know each other rather well.

Jennie Hodgers, masquerading as Albert Cashier, marched thousands of miles. She was at the Siege of Vicksburg and surrender of Mobile. Her regiment took part in more than 40 skirmishes and battles. Hundreds of her fellow soldiers died from wounds and disease but …

DAVIS: Albert Cashier seems to have been in from the beginning to the end.. She uh, she stuck it out … Commander CW Ives once described Albert Cashier as quote a fearless boy.

~~~~~

Related links …

* Jennie Hodgers [Civil War Women]

* Transman Civil War Hero? [Trans Group Blog]

* My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]

* Also Known As Albert D.J. Cashier: The Jennie Hodgers Story [Compass Rose]

* Civil War house going home [Pantagraph]

* Restoration planned for home of female Civil War soldier [Transgender News]

It’s been a bit of a while since we heard any news on Jan Hamilton.  Hamilton, whose doings frequently appeared on this blog when I was posting on a regular basis, is famous for being tagged Britain’s “sex-swap paratrooper” and for her lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence.  Today, the Daily Mail is reporting that Hamilton, who is now calling herself Abigail Austin, will become Scotland’s first trans police officer …

A paratrooper who underwent a sex-change operation has been accepted by the police as a trainee woman constable.

Jan Hamilton, formerly Captain Ian Hamilton, quit the Army in 2007 after 20 years’ decorated service and embarked on a full gender reassignment programme.

Now living in Glasgow, she has been accepted by Strathclyde Police to begin two years’ probationary training, making her Scotland’s first transgender police officer.

A source said that Miss Hamilton, 44, had ‘sailed through’ the initial six-month selection process: ‘Jan Hamilton scored highly in the written tests and had no problem with the fitness tests.

‘She completed the mile-and-a-half run in about 11 minutes, even though women are allowed to take up to 16.’

The source added that senior officers had given their full backing to her application.

The fact that Miss Hamilton was born a man will have no bearing on the way that she is expected to operate because she is legally recognised as a woman.

For example, she will only be able to search other women, in line with police guidelines.

She will also wear the uniform of a Strathclyde Police woman constable, including the reinforced bowler hat.

It is understood that Miss Hamilton will be working in Maryhill, one of Glasgow’s most dangerous areas and the setting for gritty television detective programme Taggart.

Over the next two years Miss Hamilton, who will earn the standard starting salary of £21,000, will study and train at Strathclyde Police’s Training and Recruitment Centre at Jackton, East Kilbride, and at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan, Fife, as well as working as a beat officer in Glasgow.

In 2007 Miss Hamilton, as Britain’s first transsexual paratrooper, took the Army to an industrial tribunal on grounds of sex discrimination for its refusal to acknowledge her legally enforced female status.

She won her case and later received a written apology. Since then she has undergone a remarkable physical transformation.

As Captain Ian Hamilton she weighed 16 stone, boasted of having 14in biceps and was deployed on long-term engagements with the elite Parachute Regiment in Kenya, Oman, Kuwait, Cyprus, Germany and Bosnia.

As Jan Hamilton she still stands at a manly 6ft but says she is five stone lighter, has a feminine figure thanks to hormone therapy, and says she is a size 12.

Miss Hamilton is not the first transgender police officer in the UK. In 2001 North Yorkshire Police said that, after 26 years in the force, Sergeant Chris Lamb had decided to live as a woman and would henceforth be known as Sergeant Nicola Lamb.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: ‘We cannot confirm or deny any information that constitutes personal information. The Force actively promotes itself as an employer to all sections of the public.’

Sex change Army hero Jan to become Scotland’s first ‘transgender’ police officer

On the 24th of September, 1980, I entered the U.S. Navy’s boot camp as a seaman recruit. The nation was in the midst of having incredibly high interest rates, stagflation, and high unemployment rates. I joined the Navy in large part because while living in Portland, Oregon — a city and state I’d only moved to a year earlier — I lost my job as a shipping and receiving clerk due to the bad economy and I just couldn’t find another job.

Twenty years and six days later (September 30th, 2000), I retired from the military as a Fire Controlman First Class.

I feel odd in thinking about this today; odd in the sense that the Navy was never a really good fit for me. I knew in the back of my mind from before I joined the Navy that I was gender-variant, although in the late seventies I had gone through some reparative therapy and believed God had healed me from being trans. I also tend to function from the perspective of cooperation, and military services tend to reward best the servicemembers who function from the perspective of competitiveness.

But beyond those personal issues, I was always was concerned about our nation going to war. I trusted that our leaders, especially after the political mess of the Vietnam War, wouldn’t send us to battle without exceptionally good reasons, a clear and limited set of objectives, and without some sort of an exit strategy. I was wrong of course. I feel fortunate that I got out of the Navy prior to September 11th, 2001, and that I was spared being sent to war in either Afghanistan or Iraq.

The Iraq War news I saw on the Rachel Maddow Show last night (September 23rd, 2008) causes me to feel incredibly fortunate that I’m not currently on active duty; I feel incredibly fortunate that by having a Veterans Administration (VA) disability rating of 100% and by being transgender there is a 0% chance I’ll be recalled to active service. And, it causes me some great concern about the military servicesmembers that are called, and will be called in the future, to serve in Iraq:

I would hope the time and the lives of servicemembers are more valuable to the American public that their time and lives appear to be to President George W. Bush and his administration. In my humble opinion as a former servicemember, we need to bring the troops home from Iraq as soon a possible — our servicemembers shouldn’t be separated from their friends and families or placed in physical danger for “political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the U.S.].”

In two days we’re scheduled to have a presidential debate on foreign policy. If this subject isn’t broached — this subject of keeping military servicemembers in Iraq for 12 or 15 months at a time for reasons relating to “political circumstances related to the domestic situation [in the U.S.]” — then I believe the debate moderator will have seriously failed the American people.

~~~~~
Further Reading:
* Military: Your Stories: Autumn Sandeen
* Gay & Lesbain Times: Transgender Veterans: Beyond ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ transgender vets face different discriminations in the armed services (Story features my story as a transgender veteran)

I find it very disturbing that our proud veterans are being turned away by the VA because of who they are. We served our country honorably and proudly and the VA medical benefits we earned should not be denied or diminished simply because of the direction our lives took after discharge from active service.
–Monica Helms, President of Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA)

This survey produced the first significant, empirical documentation on transgender people who’ve served in the military. Per TAVA, the survey of 827 U.S. military veterans and active-duty personnel represented results for the approximately 300,000 veterans in the US who identify as being transgender.

Key findings from the survey:

• Survey participants ranged across all branches of the service, with the highest proportion having served in the Army (38%) or Navy (29%).

• Nearly one third of the survey participants reported having experienced some form of discrimination in the workplace; the same amount reported some other form of non-employment related discrimination, such as being unable to obtain identification documents that reflected their new name and gender.

• Of the 660 participants who identified as transsexual, 97% reported they were unable to transition before leaving the military.

• A full 38% of survey respondents reported that when they were in the military, people suspected or directly asked if they were gay. In addition, 14% had been questioned by an officer about their sexual orientation.

• These violations of “don’t ask, don’t tell” varied by gender. Transmen were almost two times more likely to report they were suspected of being gay than transwomen.

[Below the fold: More findings from the survey; Palm Center statement on the findings.]

Read the rest of this entry »

From CNN‘s Why do military donations favor Obama over McCain? (emphasis added):

When it comes to the money race, it appears Barack Obama is ahead on the battlefield. Members of the military are donating more money to Obama than to the military man John McCain. A lot more money.

A nonpartisan organization called the “Center for Responsive Politics” reports U.S. troops serving abroad have given almost six times as much money to the Democrat Obama as they have to the Republican McCain.

These are pretty shocking results when you consider that historically military donations favor the Republican. Also, McCain is a decorated war hero who spent almost 5 years as a POW in Vietnam. He graduated from the U-S Naval Academy and was a naval aviator for 22 years. His military experience is a big part of his candidacy. Obama has never served a day in the military.

It might just mean that Obama’s message of being against the war in Iraq is resonating with the people who have been called on to fight it…

Hey — it’s not just the war. As a military veteran myself, I’m very much aware that Sen. McCain did not support raising veteran’s college benefits with the recent GI Bill. With that recent public stand in his recent record, he hardly has a reputation of “supporting our troops.”

It should be noted by folks who want to “support the troops” how the troops are voting with their campaign donations — it’s a bit of counter-intuitive news that’s perhaps a challenge to what many Americans believe servicemembers are thinking.

A lot of people think I’m crazy. This is important to me – I just want to be comfortable. I just want the option.
–Letter carrier Dean Peterson

The Boston Globe is reporting, in an article entitled Mailman seeks comfort in kilt, about one letter carrier’s effort to make a kilt option available for male letter carriers:

As some 10,000 letter carriers gather in Boston this week for the 66th biennial convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Peterson is on a one-man mission to persuade his colleagues to approve a change in their strictly regulated uniforms. He has proposed a resolution to allow mailmen to wear kilts, which he calls a Male Unbifurcated Garment, or MUG.

Over the past few weeks, he says he has spent the $1,800 he received as part of the federal government’s stimulus package to send about 1,000 letters and photographs of a mockup of the new uniform to postal union branches in every state, as well as Guam and Puerto Rico.

“MUGs are worn all over the world, and have been for thousands of years because they are comfortable,” he wrote to fellow mailmen. “Unbifurcated Garments are far more comfortable and suitable to male anatomy than trousers or shorts, because they don’t confine the legs or cramp the male genitals the way that trousers or shorts do.”

So when creating uniforms for it’s uniformed jobs and uniformed services, is it a function of government to only allow women to wear unbifurcated garments? And even beyond allowing men to wear MUGs, should biological males be allowed wear government uniforms designed for females, and vice-a-versa, should biological females be allowed to wear government uniforms designed for males?

When thinking through your answer, remember that the military services are uniformed services too.

Saturday night, I went out to the Diversionary Theatre with my friends Diversionary Theatre board member Vicki Estrada, her partner and fiancée Lynda, and IGFE Winslow Street Fund Chair Stephanie Battaglino to see the musical Yank — a musical about gays in the World War II military services. I had so much fun watching the show with my friends. At the same time, I cringed listening to a boot camp instructor character shout at recruits as I remembered some of my own boot camp experiences at the Naval Recruit Training Command, San Diego. And then, at the same time I got a kick out of the theatre’s lobby display of LGBT military veterans — I got to see my photograph prominently displayed with the LGB vets.

Yank. At dinner and the between play’s two acts, I was discussing the 2009 California Transgender Leadership Summit with her — very preliminary discussions about attempting to get a Winslow Fund grant for putting the summit in San Diego next March.

Oh. I’m on the team planning for the summit in San Diego — probably will end up being in the executive committee for this conference. I guess it was recently decided that California’s Transgender Leadership Summit will be at San Diego, with the goal of having the summit at San Diego State University‘s Aztec Center in late March of 2009.

For the 2008 summit, we had approximately 400 trans and ally activists show for the 2008/third annual summit in Berkley — so I believe that makes this annual summit the second largest transgender conference in the United States (only following Southern Comfort in size), and the largest conference geared entirely towards individual and organizational development for transgender activism.

Obviously, I’ll be writing more about this summit in months to come — more details about California’s fourth annual Transgender Leadership Summit as details develop.

Oh — back to Yank for a moment — this musical is wonderful. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a theater production in years as much as I enjoyed this one.

At an after party, I commented to the actor playing the play’s focal character Stu — the actor’s name is Tom Zohar — that he really captured that feeling I had of feeling off in boot camp. If you look above to the picture of me in my navy blue crackerjack uniform (that was taken on my boot camp liberty weekend back in 1980), perhaps you notice how feminine I appeared to be back then even when presenting as male. There was a feminity of posture, movement, and speech that was there throughout pretty much my entire Navy career. That feminity — that feminity many of my peers in the Navy took as effeminacy — resulted in me being perceived as gay, for which I was sexually harassed in 1999/2000. Anywho, I though Tom, the rest of the cast, and the production folk did a incredible job.

I hear Yank‘s next stop after San Diego is Off-Off-Broadway. I obviously recommend seeing the play at some point, if you have the opportunity too.

One of the things I noticed about the An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace hearing is that minus the Alliance Defense Fund, there weren’t any conservative Christian organizations speaking at the hearing; minus the Traditional Values Coalition any conservative Christian organizations leaving press materials at the hearing; and minus the ranking minority member of the subcommittee (Rep. John Kline, R-MN) there were no Republicans there to ask questions of the witnesses at the hearing.

So what’s happening now there’s a conservative Christian community characterization of the hearing as if there was serious wave of opposition speaking to trans employment issues — but they didn’t actually have much presense there opposing any future gender idenity and expression inclusive legislation in person.

Some examples of online, conservative Christian commentary:

- PFOX: Congressional Hearing To Push Gender Confusion Upon All Americans

[OneNewsNow/American Family Association, Peter LaBarbera, Focus On The Family/CitizenLink, Concerned Women For America, and Traditional Values Coalition commentaries below the fold.]
Read the rest of this entry »

In a 5-4 decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to habeas corpus challenges of their detention. The New York Times reported:

The ruling on Thursday focused in large part on the centuries old writ of habeas corpus (“you have the body,” in Latin), a means by which prisoners can challenge their incarceration. Noting that the Constitution provides for suspension of the writ only in times of rebellion or invasion, Justice Kennedy called it “an indispensable mechanism for monitoring the separation of powers.”

In the years-long debate over the treatment of detainees, some critics of administration policy have asserted that those held at Guantánamo have fewer rights than people accused of crimes under American civilian and military law and that they are trapped in a sort of legal limbo.

Justice Kennedy wrote that the cases involving the detainees “lack any precise historical parallel. They involve individuals detained by executive order for the duration of a conflict that, if measure from September 11, 2001, to the present, is already among the longest wars in American history.”

The Los Angeles Times reports in their article Supreme Court again says Guantanamo prisoners should have rights:

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Los Angeles Times‘article Guantanamo Criticism Intensifies:

Critics of the war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay have consistently assailed the coerced confessions that may be used as evidence against the defendants and have repeatedly charged that the prisoners’ severe isolation causes mental illnesses that make them unable to aid in their own defense.

Now, the critics add, evidence has emerged to show that the government advised interrogators to destroy their notes to evade legal consequences for their actions.

As the Bush administration revs up its prosecution of suspected terrorists ahead of the November election, defense lawyers and human rights advocates are ratcheting up their criticism of the offshore justice system.

The article goes on later to state:

Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler, the Navy lawyer defending young Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, encountered the directive in an unclassified portion of the 2003 Guantanamo “standard operating procedures” manual that was in effect at the time Khadr was interrogated at the naval base.

Because the mission “has legal and political issues that may lead to interrogators being called to testify, keeping the number of documents with interrogation information to a minimum can minimize certain legal issues,” the manual notes.

It seems to me that the main reasons not to keep documentation on interrogations would include American interrogators being able to “plausibly” state when under oath “I can’t remember” when it comes to interrogation details, or because it directly allows these interrogators to lie on the stand because there is no documentation of interrogation details.

How does one end up with justice from a court system that allows for the destruction of evidence that could possibly have cast doubt on prisoner confessions? The answer, of course, is one doesn’t. That Guantanamo Bay trials are beginning just in time to make news for the November election seems to me to indicate that the goal isn’t justice — the timing of these trials looks like the intent was to assist in the election of Republicans.

I know I have a real problem with giving Republicans in the executive and legislative branches any further or continued control of the American justice system — It’s specifically because of how civil rights have been attacked by the current Republican administration. And hey, I just know I can’t be the only voter who’s thinking thoughts like these.

News and views relevant to (not just) trans people …

#1 – Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 08-200 (“Concerning The Expansion Of Prohibitions Against Discrimination”) into law Thursday. The bill essentially (defines and) adds “sexual orientation” to the state’s existing anti-discrimination statutes, where …

“Sexual orienation” means a person’s orientation toward heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgender status oe another person’s perception thereof.

… and (I am shocked) Focus on the Family’s James Dobson is trying to whip up some hysteria (“Dr. Dobson Decries Ritter’s Signing of SB200“) …

“Who would have believed that the Colorado state Legislature and its governor would have made it fully legal for men to enter and use women’s restrooms and locker-room facilities without notice or explanation?

“Henceforth, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence. The legislation lists every conceivable type of organization to which this law applies, including restaurants, bathhouses, massage parlors, mortuaries, theaters and ‘public facilities of any kind.’ Those who would attempt to protect females from this intrusion are subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year behind bars.

“This is your government in action. It represents a payback to Tim Gill and two other billionaires who have essentially ‘bought’ the state Legislature with enormous campaign contributions. Coloradans deserve better!

“And by the way, because of the way this bill is written, it is not subject to the initiative process. There is no recourse.”

Please, when you get down to it, this is about much more bathrooms. It’s really about issues like finding employment or housing, or even about getting someone to cut your grass, and some folks’ perceived, god-given right to say trannies or gays “need not apply.” Every restroom or bathroom in the state of Colorado could be magically transformed today into one’s own little, unassailable fortress, and these folks would be no happier tomorrow. They want their own little “land of the free and home of the brave” all to themselves. That’s it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some news and views, trans and otherwise, catching my attention today …

#1 – Sophia Siedlberg from the Organisation Intersex International commented on a Bay Area Reporter feature today (“DSM controversy could overshadow opportunities“) on Kenneth Zucker, Jack Drescher and DSM-V …

If the APA feel that some of the very real anger expressed about how certain people are appointed and the actions of those people, then the APA should consider the possibility that the Clarke Northwestern academics they have elected have, in the past been known to provoke an acrimonious response from those they “discuss” and then deliberately ignore any invitations for polite debate, while crying foul when people get angry out of sheer frustration. That is a well known and documented tactic on the part of the Clarke-Northwestern. And one that renders their objections to being called everything from “Quacks” to “Nazis” utterly meaningless, as they have deliberately taken an invidious approach to debate, in order to cry foul when the predictable response happens. We have to ask why do the Clarke-Northwestern do this? Most logical people would conclude that there may be some truth in the more slanderous accusations levelled at the Clark Northwestern as they persistently fail to engage in open debate, in a way that appears deliberate.

On the The Bay Area Reporter

#2 – Barack Obama supporter and Transadvocate blogger, Marti Abernathey, is the subject of a Bay Windows feature today (“Trans parent, gay son: pride across the generations“) …

Abernathey fights through her involvement with various national and state transgender and LGBT organizations. She runs the Transadvocate group blog (transadvocate.com) and is contributing editor for another, the Bilerico Project (bilerico.com). She also fights simply by being open about who she is. “A lot of the reasons why there are fewer obstacles now for gay and lesbian parents is because there are gay and lesbian parents,” she explains. “There’s exposure to the straight community, so it’s not an abstraction, it’s real. When trans people are open and honest about who they are, then people will start to see we’re just parents. We’re not trans parents, we’re parents. I think that’s what gays and lesbians want, and what trans people want.”

And, speaking of Obama, he has a fan in Rupert Murdoch (“Rupert Murdoch Says Obama Will Win“) …

“He is a rock star. It’s fantastic”

#3 – Actor and comedian Harvey Korman passed away today (“Comic powerhouse Harvey Korman dies at 81“) …

Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to “The Carol Burnett Show” and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in “Blazing Saddles,” died Thursday. He was 81.

…

His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr (who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel Brooks‘ 1974 Western satire, “Blazing Saddles.”

…

After 10 successful seasons, Korman left Burnett’s show in 1977 for his own series. Dick Van Dyke took his place, but the chemistry was lacking and the Burnett show was canceled two years later. “The Harvey Korman Show” also failed, as did other series starring the actor.

“It takes a certain type of person to be a television star,” he said in that 2005 interview. “I didn’t have whatever that is. I come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright. … Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I’m fine.”

#4 – Where would some folks be without us … ? (“A better way to morality“) …

Cross-dressing to my mind is the single most important factor in spreading the homosexual lifestyle.

#5 – One way to get rid of some carbon footprints (“Environmentally Friendly Bombs Planned“) …

New explosives could be more powerful and safer to handle than TNT and other conventional explosives and would also be more environmentally friendly.

…

To make safer, more environmentally friendly explosives, scientists in Germany turned to a recently explored class of materials called tetrazoles. These derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen instead of carbon as TNT and others do.

…

These compounds have great potential, “especially for large caliber naval and tank guns,” Klapötke added

Over the Memorial Day weekend here in the States, the British press was roasting combat veteran and former paratrooper, Jan Hamilton (Okay, I know it’s “over there,” but since I moderate the TNUKdigest group, I try to keep up with the news over there.)…

A former paratrooper who had a sex-change operation has won a £250,000 payout for hurt feelings after being ordered to wear a man’s army uniform.

…

Sex-change paratrooper wins £250,000 for ‘hurt feelings’

also …

Sex swap para given £250k for hurt feelings

and …

The mother of crippled paratrooper Ben Parkinson has condemned a “£250,000 payout” to the army’s first sex-change officer who lost a job after refusing to wear a male uniform for a medical.

…

“Why does this person deserve so much when our boys have lost everything?

“These seemingly trivial matters are awarded such huge amounts of money and yet people with terrible injuries get nothing. You just despair.”

…

Tory MP Patrick Mercer – a former soldier himself – criticised huge discrepancies between payments for injuries and legal job disputes.

He said: “I can’t understand how the MOD can justify paying these amounts when soldiers suffering very serious injuries in action are getting less than £10,000.”

…

Fury of injured soldiers’ families as sex-change Para captain ‘wins £250,000′ from Army

You know, it’s — here’s “glamour shot” Jan, who’s getting £250,000 for a sex-change, and here’s “the most injured soldier every to survive,” who’s getting considerably less. (The article did eventually say Mr. Parkinson’s compensation award was revised higher to the maximum allowable £285,000 following a Daily Mail campaign, which raised “£210,000 to his legal fighting fund.” By the way, Parkinson’s case is not the only one the Mail is trumpeting.)

Apparently, however, there was no £250,000 agreement. And it looks like the Ministry of Defense (MOD) is just using the press to give her a good “bitch slap” (while the press gets another opportunity to “slap” the MOD).

Petra Henderson late yesterday posted in her Eurotransgender group on Yahoo …

THERE IS NO 250,000 POUND AGREEMENT.

OK I got a message (and a short follow up second one yesterday), from
Jan Hamilton on another (Military) Forum I am in…

Since she cannot make any statements to the press without prior
military approval or risk her ongoing case, I am going to forward this
WITHOUT her knowledge or approval.

I think it is important that our community know she is being set up by
the press and certain “leaks” in the Army to set the Public against
her and thus indirectly also against all TS people, including several
TS people still serving in HM Armed Forces.

Headlines such as “Sex swap para given £250k for hurt feelings” with
half truths about what the case is about, and who is casing the
dispute and need to go to court created a lot of waves and a certain
amount of “damage control” being needed by many people, including
myself, to reactions of serving and ex-soldiers.

More fuel was added to the “Witch burning pyre” as the other Paper’s
keen to grab a slice of these half truths, wrote headlines like “Fury
of injured soldiers’ families as sex-change Para” and that these
headlines lead to others such as the incident last week “Sex swap
soldier attacked in pub” were we saw the negative reactions to Jan and
her case and her being outed last year by the Army, probably by the
same person(s) who released “details” of this imaginary deal?

Today, Hamilton’s reaction did appear in one paper (although the headline left a bit to be desired) …

Ex-paratrooper Jan Hamilton, who was fired after refusing to wear a male uniform for a medical check-up, says she was “extremely upset” by reports in several national newspapers she has been awarded the substantial sum in an out-of-court settlement.

The 43-year-old, from Lytham – who was once known as Ian – took action to sue the Army for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination, but she says discussions are still going on and she has not “received a single penny”.

She said: “I was really disgusted to read these stories which are absolutely not true and what’s worse is nobody bothered to contact me about them.

“There is no £250,000 agreement, I have never sought £250,000 and neither would I accept it.

“I have been trying to negotiate my resignation with the Army so I can just get on with my life.

“I thought I was making some progress and was feeling positive about the talks.

“Now I feel crushed by this. Someone came up to me in the street yesterday and called me a money grabber, which is just not fair.”

She was particularly upset at reports comparing the payout to sums received by soldiers seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She added: “It is totally false and what has really got to me was the way some national newspapers have brought the families of those soldiers into it, those heroes who have suffered horrific injuries in the line of duty – at a time when these people should be left alone.

“I really feel for those families and think it’s despicable they have been asked about this. Especially as it’s not true.”

…

Fury over sex-change soldier £250,000 pay-out claim

Interesting story to say the least.

Memorial Day has been a day that’s hard for me to mark each year. When our country goes to war, people die — how many of our nation’s wars can we look back at and say “This was a cause worth dying for”?

The armistice at the end of World War I was the date of the traditional Memorial Day. As far as historians know, there is only one American veteran of that war still living — and he’s being honored this Memorial day:

The last doughboy came home to Missouri to be honored on this Memorial Day for his service to his country.

Frank Woodruff Buckles, 107 years old and the only known remaining United States veteran of World War I, was celebrated Sunday at the Liberty Memorial as the “last surviving link” to the Great War, which ended 90 years ago.

He was awarded the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Gold Medal of Merit and sat for a photographic portrait that will hang in the National World War I Museum.

The flag flown today outside of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri will be presented to the former Cpl. Buckles tomorrow.

On a weekend that these days seems to be more celebrated for it’s “blowout” sales of mattresses, BBQ grills, and new cars, perhaps it’s welcome news — and perhaps sad news — to note that the last surviving American veteran of The War To End All Wars is standing in for the soldiers for the end of the war for which Memorial Day was first conceived.

For me, he stands in for more than just his war. When I eat my barbeque grilled, 98% fat free hot dog today, I’ll be thinking of Mr. Buckles standing in for all of those who sacrificed their lives in service to America’s ideals of liberty, equality, and justice.

Are we fighting in the middle east for what many of us have suspected for years? Are we really spilling blood for oil? Sen. McCain said as much today.

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.
–Sen. John McCain, May 2, 2008.

Well, apparently he’s claiming he misspoke,, or was misinterpreted somehow. The “clarification” by Sen. McCain given later today:

The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn’t mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

“No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons,” McCain told reporters.

One reason was Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, he said. “But also we didn’t want him to have control over the oil, and that part of the world is critical to us because of our dependency on foreign oil, and it’s more important than any other part of the world,” he said.

“If the word `again’ was misconstrued, I want us to remove our dependency on foreign oil for national security reasons, and that’s all I mean,” McCain said.

“The Congressional Record is very clear: I said we went to war in Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

McCain is a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, although he criticizes the early handling of it by the Bush administration.

I feel soooooo much better about the Iraq War. Four-thousand plus dead, thirty-thousand plus wounded, and an incredible cost estimate of three trillion dollars to pay for the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan — and it was either for oil, or for those non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Super.