Transgender Navy SEAL comes out in new memoir ‘Warrior Princess’

[Drache]

Kristin Beck, formerly known as Chris Beck, came out as a transgender woman after retiring from a 20-year career in the military's most elite unit. Her new biography talks about her lifelong struggle to find herself.

A former Navy SEAL who once served in the elite Team 6 responsible for the capture of Osama bin Laden has stepped out as a transgender woman.

Kristin Beck, formerly known as Chris Beck, served 20 years in the military's most elite unit where she underwent 13 deployments and seven combat deployments.

It wasn't until Beck retired from the Navy in 2011 that her battle over her true identity could finally be fought — and, to her surprise, she was warmly received not only by friends and family but her fellow SEALS as well.

In Beck's new biography, "Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming out Transgender," she reveals her lifelong struggle in a man's body while going on to serve in SEAL Team 6, the group that found bin Laden in the months after her retirement.

"[Beck] had considered living as the woman he felt himself to be for a very long time, but while he was serving as a SEAL he couldn't do it," reads an excerpt from his book published this past weekend.

She describes herself as "living basically asexual" her entire life while stifling any urges to genuinely express herself.

After her military retirement, taking with her a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, Beck began undergoing hormonal therapy.

She cut off her burly beard and began wearing women's clothing before - in a daring final step - she revealed her new look and name to friends on LinkedIn while publishing a photo of herself as a woman standing before an American flag.

"I am now taking off all my disguises and letting the world know my true identity as a woman," Beck wrote with the photo published earlier this year.

To her immediate surprise, she received outpouring of support from other SEALS.

"Brother, I am with you ... being a SEAL is hard, this looks harder. Peace," one wrote her, as the Atlantic Wire reports.

"I can't say I understand the decision but I respect the courage. Peace and happiness be upon you," wrote another.

"I just wanted to drop you a note and tell you that Kris has all the support and respect from me that Chris had ... and quite possibly more," another wrote her. "While I'm definitely surprised, I'm also in amazement at the strength you possess and the courage necessary to combat the strangers and 'friends' that I'm guessing have reared their ugly heads prior to and since your announcement."

Beck writes that she wrote the book, "to reach out to all of the younger generation and encourage you to live your life fully and to treat each other with compassion, be good to each other, especially in your own backyard (whether it be high school or your community)."

Her memoir comes roughly three years after the Department of Defense lifted its ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in uniform.

Transgendered men and women are still banned from serving.

That's an issue far from lost on the National Center for Transgender Equality that warns that such men and women like Beck, who would have been disqualified from serving because of her gender, hurts our national defense.

"Not only is this unjust to individual transgender people who wish to serve their country through military service, it weakens our national defense by barring qualified people from duty," the NCTE states.

Today Beck is the founder of Healing Grounds, a Florida nonprofit that provides psychosocial support to returning combat veterans through landscape assistance and gardening experience.

She writes that it's this outdoor landscaping work that brought her calm after retiring from the service as a wounded, disabled veteran.

"When I sit in my backyard or at my fishpond, it is very hard to feel anger, resentment or depression; I feel peace. I want to give this opportunity to my veteran brothers and sisters," Beck writes of her St.Petersburg program on her LinkedIn page.





http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/transgender-navy-seal-article-1.1362490

[Mytur Binsdirti]

This thread needs music.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw

[ACUDANUT]

What a disgrace to the seals. 

[Drache]

What a disgrace to the seals. 

And yet most of the SEALS support her. So why should you care? 

[JB400]

Some things are just wrong

[ACUDANUT]

What a disgrace to the seals. 

And yet most of the SEALS support her. So why should you care? 

Sorry to offend you. Ask it for a date.

[Drache]

What a disgrace to the seals. 

And yet most of the SEALS support her. So why should you care? 

Sorry to offend you. Ask it for a date.

Getting a little defensive aren't you? What happened woke up next to a transvestite once? 

[twodko]

Some things are just wrong

X2

[twodko]

What a disgrace to the seals. 

X2

[twodko]

What a disgrace to the seals. 

And yet most of the SEALS support her. So why should you care? 

Sorry to offend you. Ask it for a date.

X2

[twodko]

I acknowledge, am grateful for and appreciate the 20 years of honorable service before. With this said, I understand why other team mates are supportive. When you're outside the wire the only one you can depend on is the gun next to you. That is a lifetime bond. What a person chooses to do when they get out is their business.
Unless someone is current/ex-military or current/ex-SWORN law enforcement such a bond cannot be fully understood.

[skip68]

I'd rather nail Justin Bieber.   He looks more like a chick...   

[twodko]

Skip....dude.....you gotta stay outta the sun.

[Todd Wilson]

 

[duanesterrr]

Heck of a way to gain early retirement.

[twodko]

20 years is normal retirement.

[daveco]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2WCbbyChJ4

[ACUDANUT]

Careful Drache might hate you too. 
BTW that was funny.

[Bandit72]

 

[JB400]

There's a difference between a guy cross dressing so that he can get discharged (Klinger), and the before mentioned person.

[stripedelete]

[Steve P.]

First, I ask that we keep this clean. No need to get it locked just because someone wants to be a smart ass...

Second, I hope you are all considering that this person is yet another who was on the line for you and your rights. Yes, even the right that you have to think of him or her that you do. I salute this person for her service to this country and for having the guts to be who she wants to be.

Third, for those who have nasty crap to say about her, I DARE you to say any of it to her face. You would probably never get to finish your remark.

[twodko]

Word!

[Mytur Binsdirti]

If any person has male junk between their legs, that person is a he, not a she, no matter what they call themselves or however many female homone pills they take. Call me a biggot if you like, but it's an undenyable fact.

[Drache]

If any person has male junk between their legs, that person is a he, not a she, no matter what they call themselves or however many female homone pills they take. Call me a biggot if you like, but it's an undenyable fact.

Man, 66, goes to doctor and finds he's really a woman

A 66-year-old apparently male patient made a stunning discovery when he sought treatment for swelling in his abdomen. The swelling was a cyst on his ovary and he was in fact a woman.

The condition was caused by a very rare combination of two genetic disorders. One, Turner syndrome, causes women to lack some female features, including the ability to get pregnant.

Sufferers usually look like women, but in this case the patient also had congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which boosted the male hormones and made the patient look like a man.

The case was reported by doctors from Kwong Wah Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, who treated the patient. It was published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal yesterday.

"The patient, by definition, is a woman who cannot get pregnant. But she also has CAH, which gave her the appearance of a man," Chinese University paediatrics professor Ellis Hon Kam-lun said. "It's an interesting and very rare case of having the two combinations. It probably won't be seen again in the near future."

The 66-year-old Vietnam-born Chinese man is an orphan. He has a beard, small penis and no testes. Just 1.37 metres tall, he has decided to continue perceiving himself as a male and may receive male hormone treatment, the report said.

When pressed, he disclosed a long history of urinary leakage and arrest of growth after puberty at the age of 10.

Only six cases of a patient with both conditions have been reported in medical literature. This patient was diagnosed later in life than any of the others.

Turner's syndrome has an estimated prevalence of one in 2,500 to 3,000 females.

Normal females have a pair of X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y.

Turner syndrome patients have only one X. They usually had the appearance of girls and the condition was identified when they reached puberty and did not menstruate, Hon said.

Private gynaecologist Dr Kun Ka-yan said Turner syndrome was rarer now as most sufferers were identified in prenatal tests. Women would usually choose an abortion as the disease can bring other health problems, including mental disability.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1252857/man-66-goes-doctor-and-finds-hes-woman