Pride Month – Our Truth Keeps Marching On
One Veteran’s Journey in These Trying Times
By Christopher Hooper
My name is unimportant. My journey, the story of the experience of one LBGTQ+ veteran, is!
I joined the US Navy in 2002 as a Delayed Entry Program recruit. In 2003, I went on Active Duty. During my time in service, I found my community. Not out in the open, but hidden in plain view!
We served this country while a discriminatory law called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – or DADT – was in effect. We WANTED to serve and felt the call to serve, no matter the consequences!
Then came 2007. I lost a dear friend, someone who I cared about deeply, to false allegations and suicide. This changed my life forever. Because of his death, I knew I had to speak up, to tell his story and mine.
So in 2009, I got into LBGTQ+ advocacy, big time. I led the Virginia Chapter of OutServe before co-founding SPARTA, a nonpartisan nonprofit that supports a community of transgender service members, veterans, their families, and their allies.
Through the diligent efforts of those and other like-minded VSOs, we won the fight to repeal DADT so transgender service members could openly serve this country in the military. That right to serve openly changed the trajectory of my career. I no longer had to hide who I was, and I loved serving my county even more.
Then, in 2015, my community achieved the right – finally – to marriage equality. Things seemed to be falling into place. In the words of Star Wars, all was right in the force.
But with the election of Donald Trump for the first time in 2016, the attacks on transgender personnel began. Upon taking office in 2017, Trump tried to ban transgender troops from serving. Thankfully, this never fully came into policy.
In 2019, I married another Navy man. He is amazing, the love of my life. In 2020, I was medically retired as a 100% permanent and totally disabled veteran after undergoing three back surgeries. I moved from Active Duty to military spouse – a dependa, if you will!
Then came 2025. Upon taking office for the second time, the Trump Administration relaunched their attack on the transgender community, including those serving in the military. They reinstated the transgender ban policy, while also targeting lesbians, gays, bisexuals, women, people of color – any “other,” it seemed, who didn’t match their vision of a military that was white, heterosexual, and male
This became personal for me, blasting right through the front door of my own home. For the past year, I’ve witnessed the discrimination that I once thought was gone. I have suffered the immense hurt at a personal level. My heart has been weighing heavy.
Bullied No More
This year, I decided I would no longer be bullied. I would no longer be made to be ashamed of who I am.
Throughout June, Pride Month, I have stood loud and proud with my community, my friends, my family, my service, and myself! I participated in Pride celebrations in our Nation’s Capital – first Military and Veterans Pride, and then marching with my old SPARTA friends in the DC Pride Parade.
Military and Veterans Pride was amazing. To reconnect with soooooo many leaders who fought alongside me to openly serve our country was like reaching back into history.
The next day I marched with SPARTA. It was truly overwhelming to be marching side-by-side with so many transgender servicemembers – especially those who over the past year lost their careers and have had so much uncertainty thrust upon them. They still stood proud. They would not let their lights be dimmed, standing tall like lighthouses on the rocky coasts of this nation. It was great to see another co-founder of SPARTA, Sue Fulton, and together we fully embraced the impact our advocacy has had in helping those shunned aside by this hateful regime.
In both parades, I wore my “Retired Navy” hat. So many people came up to say “thank you for your service.” These simple five words – thank you for your service – today have more meaning than ever with the hateful political climate we are suffering from. The recognition of a gay man who honorably served his country. Not hiding anymore, but out in the open.
It means the world to me.
Rays of Love & Acceptance
Later in June, I marched with a transgender retired Army veteran, Alleria Stanley, who is running for Maryland Statehouse District 4. She is another advocate and proud veteran who like me believes in the call to service. Seeing how her community in Frederick, MD, welcomed her and accepted her during the primary campaign was amazing. She now advances to the general election in November. It opened my eyes once again to see that — even in these trying times — we see rays of love and acceptance.
Afterwards, my husband and I joined Alleria for a few drinks before we headed home. We were up nice and early the next morning to join a former Pentagon official at her home for a Pancakes & Pride Brunch.
Again, getting to see a lot of familiar faces from the movement like Bree Fram, a retired Space Force Colonel, brought me great joy! To see these amazing humans not just surviving but thriving in their own ways brought me a new sense of ease I hadn’t realized I needed. It made the next event I had that day a lot easier.
After leaving the Pancakes & Pride Brunch, my husband and I attended Alexandria Pride with our neighbor. There we were – one veteran and two Active Duty military personnel – enjoying a Pride celebration. Not hiding. Celebrating. Doffing my ever-present Retired Navy cover, again, the “thank you for your service” comments I so badly needed came flowing over me again.
The Light of Liberty & Freedom for All
Look, these are hard times for the LBGTQ+ community – in the civilian world, in the veteran world, in the military world. But to experience so much joy during these trying times, to see so much light when we are in a dark place, to bring together the LGBTQIA+ community with the support of the public when we start to doubt ourselves – that gives me and so many others the energy we so desperately need to continue to fight for our rights. We will make it through to the light of liberty and freedom for all.
Happy Pride Month. Thanks for being you. And thank you for supporting me. I’ll leave you with this:
It is through my service that I found my strength, and it is through my sexuality that I learned love!
50501 Veterans is a proud supporter of the Veterans Against Fascism coalition that will hold a Freedom Over Fascism march in Philadelphia this July 4th.
Other communities across the nation are also holding protests in the true American revolutionary spirit, including the 7 Days in DC protest that begins this week.
If you can’t make it to Philly or DC, you can find more events that may be close to you with compatriots fighting to keep our Republic at Mobilize and PolRev.
If nothing else, Hegseth, and in extension, Trump's, forced expulsion of trans soldiers from active duty and efforts to not pay out benefits and retirement pay purely because of their bigotry is abominable and needs to be punished and reversed. On a long enough timeline they will push out gay soldiers again. These assholes have no honor.
We are supporting the Candidates REGARDLESS OF PARTY among their rivals campaigning to Hold any one of the People's Local (State) and General (Union of State-Governments in Congress assembled) Offices of Our Governments:
Who move first to acknowledge the "Supreme and Original Will" (John Marshall, the Great Chief Justice, 1803) of the People to (Self) Govern that is the "whole fabric upon which the American system has been erected" (Marshall).
As soon as just one (1) of the Candidates running for 3-4% of the Offices of Our Governments up for reelection this November makes a convincing public statement that they are onboard » up to 15% of November's voters will shift in their favor » which is more than the margin in nearly every contested race of the upcoming General Election.
This will all but instantly neutralize special interests and put our Natural Rights back in the able and rightful hands of the People--where they reside anyway!
Please share this and Join US! [For an end to Citizens United and to see the Epstein Files fully disclosed once and for all ~ Delivering the expectation of Natural Justice to victims, as well as supporting survivors and respecting our veterans who have endowed us with the privilege of doing so!]
https://republia.substack.com/p/in-response-to-the-death-of-linda