- These kids are pretty awesome.
There were a couple that were pretty insightful.
- I just wanted to ask you if you felt like
you wanted to be different?
Or would you rather just be normal, like born a girl?
- Ah, well.
I didn't really have that choice (laughs).
That's, that'd be a hard,
that's a good question,
and I don't even really know.
(hip hop music)
Hi, I'm Catherine Schmid,
and I just did Kids Meet.
- I thought it was pretty great.
These kids are awesome (laughs).
- How was your day?
- Pretty good so far.
Slept in a little bit.
- How is it sleeping in a tiny bed?
(laughing)
- I said I slept in a little bit,
not I slept in a little bed (laughs).
- Oh, okay (laughs).
- I don't know if it's just the kind of parent
who seeks out extra learning experiences (laughs)
for their kids, but these kids give me hope.
- What is it we're here to talk about?
- Well, I'm in the Army, and I'm also transgender.
So, do you know what that means?
- Yeah.
- Do you know anybody who's trans?
- I have a friend that I've known since elementary school
and then from then to eighth grade, it's totally different
now knowing them, but they're still the same nice person.
- That's pretty much the key.
You've already got it there.
You don't really,
you change the outside to match what's inside,
but the inside doesn't change.
Everybody told me you're a boy.
You're a boy, you're a boy.
I went to a doctor, actually, for help,
and it was the doctor who told me either you transition
and you have a shot at happiness,
or you keep fighting it and being miserable
for the rest of your life.
- Yeah, you gotta choose happiness!
- Exactly (laughs).
- The people who are willing to sit down
and take the time to ask questions and to listen to answers
aren't the ones that exhaust me.
The ones that exhaust me are the ones
who try to speak on our behalves
or who just say without actually knowing,
"Oh, we don't need mentally ill people in the military."
Well, I'm not mentally ill.
I had a condition that's treatable,
and it got treated and I want to keep doing my job.
- Does being transgender make your job harder?
- No.
Before I changed, before I transitioned,
it was harder because I was having to deal with
all the things I have to do for my job
and trying to keep a secret from everybody.
And keeping secrets isn't good.
- The more society as a rule makes it not a big deal,
the more the military will make it not a big deal.
In the civilian sector, it's almost seen as a disability.
It's these poor transgender people need to be protected
from this harsh world,
and that often leads to people thinking,
well, if it's being, if it's so hard to be transgender,
do we really want these people in the military?
And so, by making it a huge deal,
it often makes it harder on us.
- Are there other people in the Army that are transgender?
- Yeah, there are.
There's a few thousand of us.
- Would you recommend other transgender people
to join the Army?
- It takes a special kind of person to be a soldier,
but I think that in order to find
the kind of people who want to live this life,
you can't just ignore an entire part of the population.
You can't just say, well,
we're not even gonna look over there.
- What does it mean to you to be trans?
- It means authenticity,
even if the entire world is standing here and saying
this is who you are.
It means standing up and saying, no.
No, I know me (laughs).
I know me better than you do,
and that doesn't make me a bad person.
That doesn't make me bad at my job.
It just makes me me.
I'm Catherine Schmid.
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 HiHo
and watch more Kids Meet videos.