A former member of SEAL Team 6 has become the poster girl for a Pentagon effort to include transgenders — people who have undergone sex-change operations — in the ranks.
Kristin Beck, formerly Senior Chief Petty Officer Christopher Beck, spoke recently at several high-profile events at intelligence agencies and the Pentagon to promote the integration of transgenders.
“Transgender service in the armed forces, yes it will happen soon,” she said on Twitter.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, among the most politically correct Pentagon chiefs of the past several decades, fueled the effort within the Pentagon to integrate transgenders in May when he said the policy of banning transgenders should be reviewed continually. The transgender drive is the latest element of the Obama administration’s social engineering within the U.S. military.
The Pentagon currently defines transgenders as sexual deviants.
Among Ms. Beck’s recent appearances were speeches at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, according to the DIA and her Twitter feed.
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She also was scheduled to speak to the Multicultural Heritage Committee at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, although one defense official said it is not clear how transgenderism fits within the multicultural spectrum.
Ms. Beck, author of “Warrior Princess,” spoke to the DIA on June 18 as part of the intelligence agency’s annual Pride Month — formerly Gay Pride Month but now expanded to include a host of sexually related terms, including transgenders. She received an award from DIA Director Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn at the event.
According to DIA’s newsletter, Ms. Beck, in her remarks, pushed for allowing transgenders in uniform. She said the Pentagon should stop defining people by external appearances and accept what they say they are on the inside.
“We are all, all of us, created equal, and we all deserve equal justice,” she said, explaining how she hid her true sexual identity during her military career.
As a man, Ms. Beck was part of SEAL Teams 1, 5 and 6 and was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
Since sex reassignment last year, Ms. Beck has sought to promote gay, bisexual and transgender acceptance in the military.
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“The world is looking at us,” Ms. Beck told the DIA. “You can change the wallpaper, but I’m still right here. I can still do the job I was doing in uniform.”
The DIA said its event was designed to promote education and diversity in the workplace.
A Pentagon official critical of the sexual-diversity campaign said it was a waste of money.
“Who’s paying for this?” the official asked. “Especially in these trying fiscal times with reduction-in-force boards, selective early retirement boards and early terminations for our enlisted ranks, someone is wasting money by mainstreaming a transgendered veteran?”
Ms. Beck said she is not “pushing” for transgender integration in the military. “I am speaking about being a ’human’ and the value of people in the armed forces,” she stated in an email.
The military is looking at allowing transgenders in the military and “I am giving them correct information instead of stereotypes and misguided information of the past,” Ms. Beck said, adding that 13 nations permit transgenders in their armed forces.
Many of the speeches were not paid appearances, although travel expenses were reimbursed, Ms. Beck said.
Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said the Pentagon’s push to promote transgenders in the military is the latest effort by President Obama to delivery on political promises to special interest groups.
“Before President Obama imposes another extreme element of LGBT law, he should consider the consequences for the majority of men and women in uniform,” Ms. Donnelly said. “They should not be forced to participate in an unprecedented social experiment that does nothing to strengthen our military.”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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