Transgender Troops Caught Between a Welcoming Military and a Hostile Government

Transgender troops like Senior Airman Sterling Crutcher are seen as “an unreasonable burden” by the Trump administration. It says their presence hurts morale and the military’s ability to fight, and that they have no place in uniform.

That’s news to Airman Crutcher. He just got back from a deployment with his B-52 bomber squadron, and when he did, fellow airmen in his squadron, whom he counts among his best friends, threw a shower for him and his wife, Aimee, to celebrate their first child, born in February.

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“At my level, it’s not an issue,” Airman Crutcher, 30, said about serving while transgender. “I can meet and exceed all the standards, and the people I work with, they like me. They have a lot of questions, but they don’t have a problem.”

This has been an uneasy time for transgender troops in the United States military, caught between a commander in chief who wants them out and court injunctions that, at least temporarily, said they could stay. (The last of the injunctions was lifted on Thursday.)