In her new book Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming out Transgender, Kristin Beck chronicles her childhood, life as a decorated Navy SEAL and her decision to come out as transgender.
Beck, a former member of the elite SEAL Team 6, retired in early 2011 after 13 deployments and 20 years of service. Her retirement came just a couple of months prior to SEAL Team 6's raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The genesis of the book grew from a meeting between Beck and Dr. Anne Speckhard at a panel discussion "Leveraging and Understanding Irregular Warfare Capabilities across the Department of Defense" hosted by The Patuxent Partnership Jan. 13, 2013.
An adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School and former researcher and chair of a few task forces on counterterrorism for NATO Speckhard has also interviewed over 400 terrorists around the world over the past 10 years and designed the psychosocial and Islamic challenge part of the U.S. Department of Defense's Detainee Rehabilitation Program.
Speckhard was preparing a study of resilience within the Navy SEAL's (specifically the stressors SEAL's experience, PTSD and positive coping methods) and after hearing Beck speak about irregular warfare tactics she decided to ask Beck for an interview.
As they got to talking with each other they hit it off right away, noted Speckhard. During that conversation Beck came out to Speckhard as transgender and showed her pictures of herself as a woman. Beck also told Speckhard that she wanted to write a book and asked Speckhard if she would write it with her.
When Speckhard met with Beck for their first interview about military resilience, Beck arrived at the restaurant as Kristin not Chris which surprised Speckhard. They talked for five hours, Speckhard remarked. "I really liked her and my heart went out to her. She was in a lot of emotional pain and struggling with what to do and how to tell her story," said Speckhard. After that conversation, Speckhard agreed to help Beck and they began writing the book together.
Speckhard remarked that of all the people on the panel that day she felt a desire to talk to Beck. She thought that it was about the research project that she was conducting, however, Speckhard now believes that she needed to be present to help Beck during her time of need. "I hope I did that. Kristin needed to tell her story and maybe she needed someone psychologically oriented, non-judgmental and accepting of her struggle to talk with right before 'coming out' and I certainly provided that as we spent ten intensive hours talking about her life and upcoming decisions as we began to work together. It was privilege to be able to be there at that crucial time and also to be able to witness her coming out. I'm sure it took an amazing amount of courage and still does today.
Although this was Speckhard's first foray into LGBT issues, she has many LGBT friends. During the process of writing the book, Speckhard said that what surprised her the most was the fact that Beck was the exact same person that she met during the conference, just a different gender identity.
"I was really struck by Kristin's explanation about how it feels to be transgender and the pain transgender people experience when they encounter prejudice and condemnation," said Speckhard. "Gender identity is socially constructed in early childhood before one has narrative memory so for the person living it—their lived experience is that they were born that way. Years ago, I tried to raise my kids a lot more gender neutral but still today we find very binary divisions in the toy stores—pink Barbies for girls and Ninja Turtles for boys, but in fact my granddaughter who is four, at least loves to be a Ninja Turtle as much as pretend to be a princess, why should she be forced into either role?"
Since writing the book with Beck, Speckhard said, "I have received the most heartfelt letters from trans people all over the world thanking us for this book."
"Love is one of the most important values in life," said Speckhard. "Transgender individuals, as do all people, need to be loved and accepted as people. We need to understand souls have no gender and to love each other as we are, as we strive to be good and loving people."
See www.annespeckhard.com and www.twitter.com/healinggrounds to follow Beck.
