so were you kind of happy to let them
would you let them you know I was I was
pretty scared I went up in front of my
commander and the doctor and a whole
bunch of people and I said I'm
transgender and please let me keep my
job
hi I'm Kara IRISA hi nice to meet you
nice to meet you baby my name is ISA
you son yeah that's nice to meet you do
you know what we're here to talk about
you have a dangerous job or do you have
like a normal job that someone would
well I'm in the Army Wow nice what like
which position are you on my rank is
Staff Sergeant so I have about 10
soldiers under me that I'm responsible
for training um have you been in the
army
how old are you unfix your six so I've
been in the Army for twice as long as
you've been alive
Oh what is your favorite thing to do in
the Army riding in a helicopter there's
just that never gets old like do you get
a ride horses
i I do not get to ride horses have you
been to war I have I went to Iraq in
2013 there's a lot of very important
decisions that you have to make very
quickly and some of those decisions are
life and death and that isn't easy so
you know I'm in the military yeah do you
know what else
[Music]
No do you know what it means to be
transgender hmm no I you know when
you're born the doctor says it's boy or
it's a girl and sometimes they're wrong
sometimes you know sometimes when you as
you get older you realize that's not
right and so you change you transition
from one to the other I felt like I
could tell but I don't want to make you
read or anything sometimes yeah what
made you think that I don't know I feel
like kind of your voice is like a little
deeper and yeah it is what it is yeah
yeah when did you know I remember being
like six or seven and thinking no this
isn't right
I tried to be a boy yeah I wasn't very
good on it so would you rather be a girl
or would you rather be important well
I'd rather be a girl is it kind of like
how how people like a boy could like a
girl color do you really think there's
like boy colors and girl colors no not
really cuz I mean I kind of like purple
I changed my favorite color every years
it's me - I like brain makeup I like
wearing dresses but that's not what
makes me a girl it's more about who you
know you are inside so you you just
didn't feel like you're meant to be a
boy
exactly I couldn't I was holding back
yeah I knew I was trans woman but I
didn't want to be at the time I thought
no this is nobody can know this is this
is something I'm ashamed of back then I
thought the army it's pretty masculine
maybe if I'm a soldier then those
thoughts will go away after coming back
from Iraq it really just it came down to
I can't fake it anymore it's kind of
like holding a secret exactly like like
if you have a crush on someone you're
like I'm not gonna ever tell anyone and
I'm like you tell them and
but afterwards it's kind of worth it
because you're not carrying it around
anymore I had tried to keep it a secret
for a really really long time because I
was afraid that a lot of my friends
wouldn't understand
a lot of them didn't does that mean
you're not friends they weren't very
good friends but afterwards I made new
friends friends that no one understood
exactly you like everyone nervous to
like go out in public when you're first
starting out it's one of the scariest
things but I think it's pretty important
to be visible what was your name before
you were Katie um a lot of trans people
aren't very comfortable at talking about
um what their old names were it's just
it's something that other people used to
call me no it's okay
and I promise it's okay who is the
hardest person to tell I had to tell my
commander and at the time I didn't know
if that was gonna be the end of my
career luckily I was able to to fight to
stay in there was a couple times when
they tried to find some things that I
was doing wrong because if they could
find something I was doing wrong then
they could say we don't want you to be
in the army anymore
that makes sense but they couldn't find
anything cuz I'm really good at my job
so still a chance that you might get
kicked out there are people who are
trying to make it very difficult for me
to stay in for example maybe like Donald
Trump so it's not well what do you know
about that mmm he doesn't really like
women
why do you think they're gonna change it
because there's still a lot of people
who don't think that that we can do our
jobs
even if we're doing them every day part
of the whole issue is people disagreeing
about whether transgender medical care
should be covered because they say I
don't want my tax dollars paying for
that why not that is a very good
question I just wanted to ask you if you
felt like you wanted to be different or
would you rather just be like normal
like born oh girl oh I didn't really
have that choice that's a be hard that's
a that's a good question if I didn't
have to go through all this then yeah I
probably would have chosen that but
that's not what happened I didn't really
have a choice in the matter
are you happier now as a woman
definitely I've always been a woman now
I don't have to worry about people
seeing me that's something else it's
three G applies to meet you bye Katie
bye it was great to meet you great to
meet you too good luck you two I'm
Katherine Schmidt thank you for watching
kids meet if you want to learn more
about me and transgender service members
check the link below don't forget to
subscribe to hi ho and watch more kids
meet videos