Recognizing the 10th Anniversary of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOULTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding.

Hanna Tripp served in the Air Force from 2009 to 2013. Hanna is also a Team Moulton alum, where she did extraordinary work for veterans in Massachusetts' Sixth District. Today, as a senior policy adviser at Minority Veterans of America, she continues to advocate for veterans everywhere.

I am grateful to be here on this year's 10th anniversary of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and I am honored to share Hanna's story with you all.

This is her story, in her words: ``I graduated flight school at the top of my class; flew 20 combat missions in Iraq; and later brought back the remains of our fallen from Afghanistan.

``Objectively, I was a good airman. However, nothing that I did or could do would supersede the fact that I was trans. In coming out, my service to this country would have been made irrelevant simply by this one aspect of who I was.

``So, in order to remain, I chose to bifurcate myself; to project a facade of the person the military expected me to be. The catch-22 was that while I heard members of my squadron talk about how `the gays' would destroy our combat effectiveness, I was unable to demonstrate that it didn't. This is the most enduring aspect of Don't Ask, Don't Tell for me. It was not that people like me were banned. It is that we were denied the opportunity to show our worth.

``Being trans in the Air Force was to live two versions of a lie: the lie you showed to the world in denying this fundamental truth and the lie that you told to yourself in doing so.

``There was also a feeling of betraying the community. How can I expect change if I don't have the courage to be the change I want to see? Why would those who had negative perceptions of `the gays' think any differently if I was too cowardly to show them?

``With absolutely no hubris, I can say that my service to this country was both valuable and needed. I enlisted in the middle of a war to serve in a career field that guaranteed I would be sent to the front lines. I recognize the contributions I made, but I can't say I am proud of my service, as I failed to stand up for the very values that I was fighting for.

``What is strange to me is that being trans is such a small part of who I am, but because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, it has become a large part of how my service is perceived.

``I still feel the legacy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell even to this day. At the VA, I was denied emergency care for no other reason than I was trans. Even now, I remain cut off from most of the people I served with.

``When squadmates died from suicide, when Iraq fell to ISIS, and while I battled my own experiences from the war, I did so alone. To this day, people with no service in the military still freely challenge the veracity of trans service.

``For people such as myself, Don't Ask, Don't Tell meant that our accomplishments, our stories, and our service was hidden because we were forced to remain hidden.''

That is powerful testimony from Hanna Tripp, an American hero.

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