Although Henry began socially transitioning then — while engaged in a messy divorce and custody dispute — she did not begin any medical or physical steps until this past fall. At Whitman Walker Health, a Washington-based provider that specializes in LGBT-related health care, she began taking the additional steps. If the social transition was a risk, this posed a bigger one for a military officer. “The frank moment came with my command in an emergency department room, because I was afraid, as I was transitioning physically and medically, that I would lose everything.”

This wasn’t the case, as it turned out — despite having a new commander who she feared might harbor less positive views of transgender people. “My commander said, ‘I don’t care who you love, I don’t care how you identify, I want you to be healthy and I want you to be able to do your job,’” Henry said. “I was blown away … because of the stereotypes that I held, growing up in the South, growing up in a fundamentalist Christian family, that he would automatically think I was a freak, he would automatically think, ‘You need to be discharged just like the regs recommend.’”

But instead, he posed the question to her, asking what she wanted. “I said, ‘If I gave that up over that issue, knowing I can do my job and do it perfectly well, I feel that I’d be sacrificing my values and the Army’s values.’”