HAYDEN BROWN: The fact that I was there protecting Donald Trump and his family and then for him
to come out with this announcement banning all transgenders in the military; it was a slap
in the face is what it felt like.
HAYDEN BROWN: I always knew that I was a boy from a very, very young age. I would fight
with my mom all the time because I hated dresses. She would always want to dress me up for church.
I was always a tomboy.
HAYDEN BROWN: When I joined the military, it
kind of clicked, you know, I wrote a letter home to my mom and I was like, ‘You know
I really, really like it here.’ I was like, ‘Because I am not genderised.’ No, I don’t
care if you are a man or woman. You’re…you’re jumping over this obstacle. You are doing
it. It doesn’t matter, you know, gender, colour, race. You are doing the same thing
everyone else is doing.
HAYDEN BROWN: I came out to all my comrades throughout drill one day and I said, ‘I
am sorry if you feel uncomfortable. And if you do, like, I will do anything to make you
feel more comfortable with it.’ They all said, ‘No. You know you are the same person
regardless of, you know, what you are doing and, you know, we have always felt comfortable
with you. Just because you are doing this doesn’t change who you are.’
HAYDEN BROWN: We met about a year and a half ago.
So it was actually right as I started my transition and she just accepted me for
everything that I am.
MIA: I fell in love with his personality and he has always, from the moment that I have
met him has been so proud to serve in the military. And it’s been a life-changer for him.
I got him, you know, on a good track.
HAYDEN BROWN: You know during Trump’s campaign, he said that he is going to support the LGBT
community better than Hillary, he even said. After Trump was elected President, I decided
that I was going to give Trump a chance. My unit went to the inauguration. It was our
job to obviously protect the President and to calm down all the riots that had gotten started.
HAYDEN BROWN: When I heard that Trump was banning all transgenders in the military,
I felt deceived. I served four and a half years. Where does this leave me? Military
has not paid a dime for my transition. I have paid out of pocket for all of my appointments,
for my own hormones and then I have to come up with money for, obviously my own surgeries
because the military does not cover that for me. I feel like me and all the other trans
soldiers that are in the military, we didn’t join to get surgery. We were humans just like
everyone else: we will jump when you tell us to jump, we stand in line whenever you
tell us to stand in line, we lace our boots the same as they lace their boots.
Having this news kind of thrown upon me and all my other fellow trans soldiers was a slap in
the face is what it felt like.
MIA: There are so many transgender people in the military and all they want to do is
make a difference, you know. Keeping someone from that is disgraceful.
HAYDEN BROWN: I made a Facebook post the day of the ban stating who I was and telling Trump
that I am here, that I am visible, that I am human and that I can do anything that anyone
else can do. And it went huge.
HAYDEN BROWN: The whole point of my Facebook post was not to get really my story out. But
to let them know that I am one voice and that somebody is fighting for them and that they
are not alone. We have to keep standing up. Because if we don’t stand up, who will?
HAYDEN BROWN: I actually had a call from my unit telling me that by regulation I will
have to continue out my military career as a female and not as a male. That’s completely
pushing back everything that I’ve worked so hard and so much that I have strived for
to overcome. You know, I have been transitioning for a year and a half. And for you to tell
me that I can’t be who I am, but I am allowed to be who I am outside the military.
It's just not right. I don’t feel like I should have to live a double-life.
INTERVIEWER: Are you going to do it?
HAYDEN BROWN: Well, I have to do it. I don’t really have a choice. But after my contract
is up, I am not resigning.