Forced out because she’s transgender, Fairchild technical sergeant awaits ‘voluntary separation’

After President Donald Trump was elected, Tech. Sgt. Rylee Marcotte of the Air Force knew that despite almost 13 years of service, she would be a target.

“I saw the proverbial writing on the wall,” Marcotte said. “That’s when I knew something was coming.”

Two months later, Trump signed the executive order confirming transgender members of the military would be forced out.

As a transgender woman Marcotte, who was assigned male at birth, was given two choices: leave and receive separation pay, or pursue involuntary separation and receive less, possibly losing out on benefits.

“It’s like handing your executioner the gun, like, ‘All right, pull the trigger,’ ” Marcotte said.

A Department of Defense news release from May said that a transgender member of the military with 10 years experience and a rank of sergeant in the Army or staff sergeant in the Air Force could receive $101,000 of separation pay if the member volunteered to leave. But separation pay for trans people forced out will be half as much. Marcotte estimates she will qualify for about $100,000 in separation pay.

In the executive order signed by Trump in January, transgender military members were said to be not fit to serve due to the medical needs of gender-affirming care as well as adopting a “false ‘gender identity.’ ”

“For the sake of our Nation and the patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve it, military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty,” the executive order said.

The order requires all transgender members to begin separating. In the military, the difference between discharge and separation is the former releases the soldier of all unfulfilled duties whereas the latter sometimes requires further service in the Reserves. However, in a memorandum sent to Marcotte, it stated all service obligations would be waived. A subsequent memo released in February by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stopped the coverage of all gender-affirming care.

Two federal courts attempted to block the ban, but on May 6 the Supreme Court allowed the ban to be enforced.

Marcotte, who stressed she was speaking only in a “personal capacity,” serves at Fairchild Air Force Base. She provides information technology and communication support for the base and the nearby survival school SERE .

Marcotte was in limbo from January to May, still going to work, but knowing that the life she lived for the past 12 years could disappear.

“It was devastating,” Marcotte said. “There were days I went to my office and I just closed the door and cried. I knew that this was coming, but it’s still so painful to watch that train wreck.”

Marcotte said since the election she had been struggling with depression and even had suicidal thoughts.

Other transgender members on base suffered as well. Marcotte said there were about 10 transgender airmen that used to meet on base before the February memo but now meet on their own time. Four or five decided to go back into the closet, and some were glad to leave the military due to the anti-trans policies.

Marcotte said she was never approached by a supervisor about the separation process. Marcotte acknowledged that she is part of a small percentage of transgender airmen on the base but also said she felt unsupported.

When she approached her supervisor in January about the fear of losing her job she said she was told, “Don’t worry about the future. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Now, since May, Marcotte is on administrative absence, staying home and figuring out what the next steps are while still receiving pay for her contract. By Nov. 28, Marcotte will be completely separated from the military

However, Marcotte has also lost all health coverage from the military related to gender-affirming care. Marcotte now is in the process of finding an off-base facility to continue her treatment of hormone replacement therapy, which replaces her body’s testosterone with estrogen. Transgender women using hormone replacement therapy can develop feminine secondary sex characteristics, which often can be essential for an individual’s mental wellbeing.

Marcotte also receives mental health counseling and used to have gender-affirming counseling, but that has since also been slashed.

“It’s like they closed the door and turned on the air conditioning to make it chilly and cold and freeze us out,” Marcotte said.

Veteran Affairs coverage has changed as well.

For Marcotte, with a wife and kids to look after, she didn’t feel she could attempt to remain given the likelihood she would be forced to leave with fewer benefits. Marcotte instead chose to separate, although she said it wasn’t really voluntary as the other option could likely mean being forced out anyways.

Marcotte knew she was transgender since she was 6 or 7 but didn’t have a word for it.

“I knew, hey, this doesn’t feel right,’ but growing up in central Florida in the ’90s gay panic I was like, nope, I gotta hide it away,” Marcotte said.

Growing up, Marcotte worked a variety of odd jobs, but family tradition remained in the back of her head.

“You serve God first and then you serve the country,” Marcotte said her family always believed.

At 27, Marcotte was unhappy working a medical record retrieval job she didn’t like, but her wife was pregnant and their growing family needed stability – the type of stability the military once offered.

Marcotte decided to join the Air Force in 2012.

“It gave me hope,” Marcotte said. “It gave me a feeling like I was actually giving back to the country. I was doing something greater than myself and my family.”

It wasn’t until 2018 when she was deployed in Turkey that she began to socially transition, wearing dresses around her house when no one was around.

“I was starting to reintroduce myself to myself,” Marcotte said.

It was around that time that Trump won his first term and in his first year, he announced a ban preventing transgender admittance into the military. Marcotte was later moved to an Air Force base in Alaska when Joe Biden was elected and repealed Trump’s ban.

“At that moment, I was like, all right, I’m gonna go with it, because I want to be me,” Marcotte said.

Marcotte said her wife and children were supportive and on their 11th anniversary, Marcotte got her ears pierced.

However, Marcotte said after coming out she did experience harassment with multiple people calling her slurs and comments about her genitalia . But she said the worst situation was when somebody was speaking to one of her airmen and referred to her as an “it.”

“I don’t care whatever people do in private,” Marcotte said. “But the moment you start degrading, the moment you start demeaning and dehumanizing individuals to their subordinates, you start undermining that leadership.”

Despite harassment, Marcotte enjoyed the job and her responsibilities as a leader. Now, on administrative absence, Marcotte stays home preparing for her next steps before her separation date.

“It feels like goal posts have moved again,” Marcotte said. “I met standards. I’ve exceeded standards. I’ve received decorations. I’ve worked on named missions and now we’re being told that, ‘Hey, you’re not good enough.’ ”

Marcotte said she’s seen her peers being promoted, but since she’s transgender she won’t be. Marcotte also said she personally feels like a portion of the world sees transgender people as, “the bogeyman.”

Kassandra Forsman, vice president of Spokane Pride and a transgender veteran of the Marines, agreed.

“Nothing but hate and animus. That’s all it’s based on,” Forsman said.

Forsman and Marcotte also criticized the decision to cut care to transgender military members to save money.

Marcotte repeated the observation of a judge during a hearing against the executive order that the Department of Defense spends around $42 million on Viagra to treat erectile dysfunction, while only spending $5.2 million on all gender-affirming care.

Forsman noted that the military parade in Washington D.C. on June 14 cost taxpayers $25 million to $45 million.

Bret Bowers, local spokesman for the Department of Veteran Affairs, said he was required to route media queries to regional and national headquarters. Bowers said he was unable to find anyone to speak to the issue and was instead directed to share an article that stated all savings from cutting gender-affirming care will go to the treatment of injured veterans, including those who were paralyzed or required amputations.

Forsman said losing an estimated 15,000 transgender troops in the military will cause operational readiness to fall.

“They’re losing vast amounts of this institutional knowledge,” Forsman said. “It’s going to be horrible for the military.”

Capt. Alexandra Buckley chief of public affairs at Fairchild, said the base’s abilities won’t change.

“Every person impacts mission readiness to some degree, but as far as the overall readiness of Fairchild Air Force Base, those things don’t necessarily impact that.”

Despite estimates totaling around 15,000, the military released numbers in February from medical records that showed 4,240 members were diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Reporting from the New York Times said the diagnosis was the easiest way to track the number of transgender troops. But not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria, according to the American Psychiatric Association. Marcotte said things like shaving or getting a haircut are all forms of gender-affirming care to treat gender dysphoria.

“Any action that you take that makes you feel affirmed as who you are is gender-affirming care,” Marcotte said.

Forsman also criticized gender dysphoria being classified as a mental illness in the first place, comparing it to when homosexuality was also considered a mental illness.

“Gender dysphoria is a symptom of being trans. It’s not a mental illness,” Forsman said. “It’s literally just an excuse.”

Forsman encouraged the community to stick together.

“We have far more allies than we have enemies,” Forsman said. “We are stronger together and we are doing everything we can to protect each other.”

Marcotte now awaits her separation date of Nov. 28 at home knowing that her service will soon be over, even though the contract she took had her working till 2028.

“I want to be able to complete my contract, I want to be able to deploy and serve my country. It’s one of the small reasons why I joined,” Marcotte said. “That’s not something I can do now.”