Special Episode! Shane Ortega Reacts to Trump’s Transgender Military Ban | LGBTQ&A with Jeffrey Masters

Shane Ortega is the first transgender person to serve openly in the military. He talks about how to interpret President Trump’s tweets banning trans people from serving in the military, explains why it’s so detrimental that Trump didn’t seek guidance from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and says that as of now, there hasn’t been any changes to official military policy concerning trans people. Shane also talks about why this is a human rights issue, not just concerning LGBTQ people.

For the full LGBTQ&A interview with Shane, click here: http://apple.co/2pZjmtx

Shane Ortega is a transgender, disabled and retired combat veteran. He transitioned in 2009 while actively serving. Shane was retired as a Staff Sergeant with eleven total years in two different branches of service: the United States Marine Corps from 2005-2009 and then United States Army in 2009-2016. He served multiple tours in both Iraq and Afghan theaters. Shane Ortega is a professional public speaker and an LGBTQ health educator.

Since 2008, Shane Ortega has set the bar high in accomplishing LGBTQ military equality. His first accomplishment was Co-founding a transgender specific Chapter for Outserve-SDLN. He created this safe space for actively serving transgender military personnel and later became its leader in 2008. 2010 was also a huge year for Shane, He was voted to board member of Military Freedom Coalition (503c) where he worked in aide of Joshua Block(ACLU) on the repeal of DADT, equal opportunity protections for LGB service members and he was hugely instrumental in lifting the ban for transgender military service. In 2013, Shane also co-founded SPARt*A- a non-profit LGBT military support group.