This is the second excerpt of a two-part interview. Be sure to read the first part here.
- Oftentimes, uniformed service is a career people feel a strong passion for or find a sense of purpose and belonging in. When a transgender troop experiences sexual assault while serving and isn’t believed or sufficiently helped by their superiors, what should service providers know about the additional struggle of feeling institutional betrayal on top of sexual trauma?
In August of 2022, I was at the NOVA (National Association for Victims Assistance) Conference in Denver. I was attending a breakout learning session where one of the local youth transgender advocacy organizations was talking about how to advocate for transgender individuals. I looked around and saw so many of my peers, military advocates, in the room. I was very curious to see how it would come out. What happened is exactly what I anticipated.
The civilian advocates were being asked questions like, “What do I do as an advocate when the victim’s commander that I work for does not support the LGBTQIA+ community, specifically transgender individuals? What do I do when the commander I work for doesn’t know how to talk to the survivor of sexual assault that I’m advocating for?” In accordance with DOD policy, commanders are required to check in with their servicemember who is a survivor of sexual assault, at a minimum, on a monthly basis. We must remind Commanders that the military is just a microcosm of the entire country. You find every single demographic, value, ideal, and belief in the military that you find throughout the United States. You have Commanders who genuinely believe that transgender members shouldn’t serve. We have to remind them that there are regulations and instructions put out by the DOD and the military services that define how we provide space for diversity, equity, and inclusion. That means that the bottom line, regardless of your background, is that everyone deserves equity and inclusion in the form of, “treat every servicemember, every uniformed person, with dignity and respect.” When we’re talking about survivors, and you have a leader who says, “Well, I don’t support their transition,”...this isn’t about their transition. Sexual assault is about sexual assault. Sexual violence is about care for victims, and not about someone’s demographics. Whether you support their transition or not is completely irrelevant in this situation. We have to set that aside. That’s something we can advocate for later, but right now, we have to advocate for their healing path to get them back to a thriving state where they can support the mission and be completely combat-effective. The biggest thing in the military is that we serve because we support and defend the Constitution of the United States.
While less than 1% of the US Military identifies as transgender, transgender Americans join the military at a rate almost ten times that of the rest of the American population. This speaks volumes about the commitment of transgender Americans to serve the country. These statistics have not changed in the last 10 years, and yet transgender individuals choose to serve their country, to support and defend the constitution of the United States, which tells us that all people are entitled to dignity and respect, fairness and equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If your happiness means that, you will go out and serve so that other people like you can live in a free country. We see that 10 times more often in the transgender community than in the cisgender community. So why would we even look at these individuals and say, “I don’t think that they should be serving” when they’re all out there making the mission happen?
So when they fall, let’s pick them up and help them back to the point where they can continue to support the mission.
- In this issue of The Resource, we discuss the need for health equity for transgender survivors. For troops who live far from VA (Veterans Affairs) hospitals, what sort of challenges might they face when trying to get access to healthcare related to a sexual assault experienced during service?
To clarify, most service members do not usually receive care from VA hospitals. VA hospitals are for veterans and service members who continue their service in the Reserves or National Guard after serving on active duty. So, when we’re talking about healthcare for transgender veterans, that is also a problem because the VA does not provide the same level of healthcare for transgender veterans that the uniformed services provide through military treatment facilities for transgender servicemembers. That’s a problem that needs to be fixed.
Uniformed service members -- anyone in the uniformed services who is receiving the uniformed service healthcare program -- are treated at a military treatment facility most of the time. If a transgender service member is in a remote location and they do not have immediate access to a military treatment facility, the uniformed service healthcare program authorizes them to receive healthcare at a civilian provider that accepts that program’s insurance. Now one of the stipulations for medical providers taking uniformed service healthcare program insurance is that they will provide medical care in accordance with the program’s standards. This is what’s supposed to happen. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. The instances of actively serving uniformed service members not receiving equitable healthcare in a non-military facility is very, very low and therefore not one of our greatest concerns. Our bigger concern is getting military treatment facilities and medical providers in military treatment facilities to provide equitable healthcare for uniformed service members, and VA medical centers to provide equitable services to our veteran service members.
- All too often, the stresses of working in a combat zone can manifest into Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Sexual assault can also cause PTSD in the survivor. What should service providers and mental health practitioners know about treating survivors who may be experiencing two forms of PTSD concurrently?
That’s definitely an important topic, but one that is becoming less common. Transgender individuals see combat at the same rate as any other service member. We hope that a service member, upon returning from combat, will seek out counseling and try to address the trauma they experienced in a combat zone, but we know that doesn’t always happen. There is still quite a stigma against behavioral health in the uniformed services. So unfortunately, sometimes this trauma just sits and lingers for years and years and doesn’t come to light until they experience another form of trauma. That other form of trauma might be when they come out and are starting on their journey sharing their authentic self with the world. Also, it can be when they experience trauma from sexual violence during their journey. Unfortunately, it can also include all three traumas. Providers and professionals need to remember that combat-related trauma will easily slow down the healing process and require providers to exercise greater patience and understanding with transgender survivors who have served in combat when they’re healing following a sexual assault.
But that’s really no different than the challenges any service member has going through on their journey to healing after a sexual assault if they’ve seen combat. Any past trauma is bound to come up in the healing process. All of a sudden, we find ourselves revisiting every bad thing that ever happened because we have to heal completely if we want to return to a true thriving state, and it just means that some people are going to take longer to heal. That’s really the important part for the advocates to remember. You might go through the entire investigative process supporting them. You may follow them and go with them to trial. The trial may be over, but the trauma is still unresolved. As an advocate, you need to continue to support your survivors for years. I have clients who still stay in touch with me years later because they know that I am still here to listen.
Another complication with the military is that we move a lot. We call it a permanent change of station or a temporary change of station, but we move regularly every one, two, or three years. When a survivor of sexual violence moves, whether their choice or because of military assignments, it’s important for the advocate to know that they can still reach back out to them for support if they need it. Those behavioral health providers need to make sure that, when the survivor moves, they do a nice, warm hand-off with the gaining installation support network. All the professionals involved in the healing process must be involved in the warm hand-off to the gaining installation or unit. That way, there is a clear, concise continuity of care throughout the victim’s path to healing.
- Over our emails setting up this interview, you mentioned that, “many advocates don't fully understand how their words and behavior lead transgender survivors to avoid advocacy altogether.” Could you elaborate further on that?
This is where advocates themselves allow their background, upbringing, values, beliefs, and ideals to impede their advocacy. Advocates must remember that you are in the spotlight 100% of the time of your life. Everything you do outside your home, everything you do on social media, and everything you say publicly is seen, heard, and absorbed by anyone who is a potential client. Part of the reason why so many queer-identifying survivors of sexual assault have come to me when they’re not even in my unit (they even seek me out when they’re not at the same location as me) is because they tell me that the advocates that are responsible for them (the military has advocates assigned to units) have said things and done things that tell the survivors that these advocates are not trusted. When I say “not trusted”...we know they’ll advocate for them, but will they provide the same advocacy for a transgender survivor that they would provide for a cisgender survivor? If we look at history, there is that stigma of trauma. That stigma of re-traumatization that has occurred. We see it in men. Male survivors of sexual assault were accused of being gay (and often still are). They question their sexuality because everyone else looks at them and goes, “Well, clearly you wanted it or weren’t man enough to say no.” Transgender survivors experience their own level of trauma. It all comes down to, “You were deceitful. You were lying. You were hiding the truth from me. You didn’t tell me you were transgender first.” The advocates also can have clients say, “I don’t want that person to advocate for me because I don’t trust that they will advocate in the way I deserve.” That’s because of things you do or say. If you do nothing else as an advocate, educate yourself. Listen to people’s experiences and learn how to better advocate for everyone.
- How would you like to see rape crisis centers and local sexual assault programs grow in how they build bridges with the trans community and the veteran community?
They need to hire more LGBTQIA+ individuals. They need to hire people of color. They need to have a diverse group of people who are not just running their center but working within their center. The volunteers, the advocates, the sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs), the behavioral health counselors…everyone who is there supporting survivors in their time of crisis, there needs to be diversity because if I don’t see myself in this organization, then I don’t think I can trust them. That’s because of the history of discrimination that has been in place.
Another huge thing that will turn off so many members of the queer community, especially the transgender community, is a religious denomination running a crisis center because so many religious faiths have discriminated against or spoken negatively about transgender individuals or the entire transgender community. When you put out front that you are a religious organization that serves people in crisis, that says that we advocate for people of this faith. That turns off a lot of transgender individuals.
In the civilian sector, when I look across the entire state of Washington, and I look at all the different crisis centers across the state of Washington where I currently live and support every guard service member in this state. I see a county where the only crisis center they have is religious-based, I worry about LGBTQIA+ individuals in that county. Then we must start looking at what resources are available in nearby counties. Another big thing that civilian resource centers can do is support the greater area and make sure that people see and know that you are a safe space. That you provide a safe space regardless of an individual’s background.
- How do you hope the landscape changes in the future for transgender survivors and other transgender uniformed members?
As I’ve been telling service members for years, my ideal for the landscape of this country in regard to sexual assault, is that I don’t have a job as a sexual assault advocate anymore. That I have to go back and fall back on what the Army trained me to do initially as a Medical Laboratory Technician, which is work in a hospital and do laboratory testing to help people figure out how to be healthy. If we lived in the ideal setting, sexual assault would not occur in our country or in our world. Until that happens, we need to have a very broad and diverse network that works together all across the country to support survivors. If someone shows up at your door, at your crisis center, and they’re looking for support, and you feel like you don’t have the resources available to support this individual because they are transgender, because they’re gay, whatever the reason may be…know which crisis centers can support them nearby and get them to the help that they need. That is one of the best things I love about the military. If I am not best suited to support someone in their time of crisis, I know many other advocates that can step in and fill that space. It’s not about me as an advocate. It’s about us as a community supporting survivors, regardless of their background on their path to a thriving state.
- Is there anything else you’d like to add?
The last thing that I’d like to add is I would like to see more of our nationwide organizations noticing and recognizing this gap in our advocacy across the country. When I go to conferences, when I talk to my peers, when I talk to fellow advocates or legal advocates anywhere in the country, and I start talking to them about the challenges that I personally have experienced as a survivor in addition to my experiences as an advocate, they don’t understand because they haven’t taken the time to learn. The reason they haven’t taken the time to learn is because the organizations that provide training nationwide, our biggest organizations, do not put this at the forefront. Advocating for military LGBTQIA+ survivors needs to be taught to everyone.
The blog was published in The Resource 2025 online magazine special issue Sexual Violence and Sexual Health Outside the Gender Binary.
About the Author:
Freyja Eccles currently serves the military community as the Joint Force Headquarters Victim Advocate for the Washington National Guard Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program. She recently started working in this role after retiring from 25 years of military service where she served as a Victim Advocate since 2015. She led the SHARP programs for two medical brigades during her last six years in the Army providing resource management and restoration of consent to victims of sexual assault. While serving as a victim advocate Freyja has volunteered her time to Sparta Pride supporting and advocating for transgender service members during hers and their gender transition processes. Freyja currently serves as the Deputy Director for Advocacy for Sparta Pride, working to ensure all uniformed service members have the right to serve as their authentic selves.