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Speaker 1: Mictor's Distillery has a passion for making the finest bourbon

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Speaker 1: rye and American whiskey possible.

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Speaker 2: When you only produce very small.

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Speaker 1: Batch and single barrel whiskeys as they do, each and

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Speaker 1: every barrel has to be perfect. No detail is too

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Speaker 1: small for their production team. They spare no expense in

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Speaker 1: pursuing their goal of making the greatest American whiskey, and

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Speaker 1: no Mixtor's gets bottled until their master distiller, Dan McKee

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Speaker 1: and the Master of Maturation Andrea Wilson say it's just Right's.

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Speaker 1: Fort Nelson Distillery in downtown Louisville, Kentucky is open for

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Speaker 1: tours and tastings. Book your visit on their website and

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Speaker 1: stop by the bar at Fort Nelson for a world's

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Speaker 1: class cocktail. For more information, follow them on social media

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Speaker 1: at Mixture's Whiskey or go to Micter's dot com or

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Speaker 1: visit your favorite bartender Mictor's Distillery.

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Speaker 2: It's all about the whiskey.

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Speaker 1: I want to let you know that this episode contains

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Speaker 1: some references to suicide. If you were someone you know

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Speaker 1: is struggling, please call eight hundred two seven three eight

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Speaker 1: two five five or visit suicide prevention Lifeline dot Org.

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Speaker 3: And whatever it is that I just said was really

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Speaker 3: really bad. You don't want to be one of those people.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to She Pivots. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman.

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Speaker 1: I had left my decade long political career in DC

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Speaker 1: after having my first two kids during the Trump presidency

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Speaker 1: and felt burnt out after having my third child, spending

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Speaker 1: a year in lockdown with my family, and another tough

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Speaker 1: and exhausting election. I began to find solace in the

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Speaker 1: stories of women who had made these big career decisions

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Speaker 1: and then found success and happiness and their change. I

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Speaker 1: began to realize that so many women had pivoted due

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Speaker 1: to personal reasons, and they still found success through non

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Speaker 1: traditional paths. This new show celebrates these stories, and I'm

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Speaker 1: so excited to bring them to you with she Pivots.

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Speaker 1: When I was just out of law school, I took

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Speaker 1: my first job in DC with a nonprofit called the

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Speaker 1: Service Member's Legal Defense Network, or SLDN. It was there

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Speaker 1: that I worked on the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

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Speaker 1: It was at SLDN that I met Paula. Paula had

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Speaker 1: been with the organization at that point for about five years,

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Speaker 1: working her way up from volunteer to the board and

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Speaker 1: every step of the way, offering an important perspective, the

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Speaker 1: perspective of a trans woman. Her experience transitioning in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties helped the Navy eventually overturn the ban on

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Speaker 1: trans service, but her journey into the advocate she is

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Speaker 1: today was not easy. She grew up in the nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixties when transgender was not even in the lexicon.

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Speaker 3: Well, the first conversation I had about it was with

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Speaker 3: my mom at about Agel eleven, and then the first

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Speaker 3: word that I learned was the term transsexual, which is

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Speaker 3: a very clinical term. Older generations may use it. It's

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Speaker 3: used more often outside the United States. Today today we

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Speaker 3: would say transgender here in the States, and transgender means

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Speaker 3: that your gender identity, that deep rooted sense of yourself

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Speaker 3: in a gendered way. It doesn't align with the sexual

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Speaker 3: were assigned to birth. And what people need to understand is,

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Speaker 3: for most of us, there's very little science that goes

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Speaker 3: into that assignment. Is when you're born, whoever delivers you,

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Speaker 3: it takes a quick look at your external genitalia and

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Speaker 3: says male or female and that's about it.

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Speaker 1: When she was watching an interview John Tesh did on

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Speaker 1: TV with Renee Richards, the trans athlete in the nineteen seventies,

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Speaker 1: a light bulb went off.

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Speaker 3: And he did story on Renee Richards and told her story,

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Speaker 3: and then the light bulb goes on. It's like, that's

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Speaker 3: what I'm dealing with now. Being able to put a

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Speaker 3: label on it and knowing what it is, knowing an

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Speaker 3: acceptance are not the same thing. I now had a term,

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Speaker 3: and I now had a framework of what it was

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Speaker 3: that I was wrestling with, but I still had all

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Speaker 3: of those societal signals of this is bad. You don't

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Speaker 3: want to be like this, this is this is shameful,

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Speaker 3: this is not somebody you want to be. And I

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Speaker 3: knew that it would preclude me from servant in the Navy,

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Speaker 3: you know, which was what I felt at that time

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Speaker 3: in my life was my calling in life, my purpose

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Speaker 3: in life. So it's trying to avoid accepting who you are,

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Speaker 3: even though you may know it is, you don't want

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Speaker 3: to accept it, and you know, and that's really you know,

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Speaker 3: where I was at until you know, until I was

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Speaker 3: what twenty eight.

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Speaker 1: You started your career at the naval Academy. Did you

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Speaker 1: know that you always wanted to be in the armed forces,

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Speaker 1: and particularly in the Navy.

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Speaker 3: Well I did, I can say with clarity from the

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Speaker 3: time I was like nine to ten, my sole purpose,

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Speaker 3: my sole folk, was to be an officer in and

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Speaker 3: to go to the Naval Academy. So at the same

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Speaker 3: time in my life when I'm starting to question my gender,

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Speaker 3: this other part of who I am comes into absolute focus.

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Speaker 1: She recounts a time as a child when she and

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Speaker 1: her family were traveling from where she grew up, Jersey City,

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Speaker 1: to Brooklyn when she saw the USS Fisk destroyer come

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Speaker 1: back into the New York Harbor And.

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Speaker 3: It was a cold, crisp fall day, you know, just

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Speaker 3: a the water was calm, the ship was coming in

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Speaker 3: with speed, the white bow wake at the at the

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Speaker 3: front of the ship, the national ensign at the top

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Speaker 3: of the mast was just stiff in the breeze. It was,

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Speaker 3: you know, a recruiting poster couldn't have, you know, captured

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Speaker 3: that that navy spirit anymore. And I remember sitting in

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Speaker 3: a car seeing that, looking at my dad and saying,

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Speaker 3: I want to be part of that. And you know,

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Speaker 3: for me, growing up, I always says, either arrogant or

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Speaker 3: stupid or both. When I applied to college, most people

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Speaker 3: have a safety school that they applied to. You know

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Speaker 3: that one place you know you're going to get in. Well,

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Speaker 3: my safety school was the Coast Guard Academy, and the

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Speaker 3: only place I applied was Coast Guarded Navy.

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Speaker 1: Was there one job in particular you wanted to do

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Speaker 1: in the Navy or it was just being part of

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Speaker 1: the force.

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Speaker 3: What growing up and in my essay that I had

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Speaker 3: to write when I was a junior in high school

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Speaker 3: is I wanted to be a tactical naval aviator. I

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Speaker 3: wanted to fly jets.

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Speaker 1: But after Paula found out she had an astigmatism in

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Speaker 1: her left eye, she had to reconsider so.

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Speaker 3: I couldn't be a pilot. So for my service selection,

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Speaker 3: I selected surface warfare. So I became what do you

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Speaker 3: know call in the service a tin can seller. I

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Speaker 3: was in on destroyers and I loved it. I loved

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Speaker 3: driving destroyers. I loved being on the small ships.

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Speaker 1: After five years in the Navy, she finally got her

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Speaker 1: opportunity to retake her flight physical and try for naval

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Speaker 1: aviation again.

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Speaker 3: So I got the opportunity I was selected for naval

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Speaker 3: aviation training. I get down to Pensacola, and when I

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Speaker 3: went for my flight physical there, what I realized was

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Speaker 3: that flying wasn't going to solve the gender problem because

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Speaker 3: it never went away. You know, it's and at the time,

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Speaker 3: you couldn't ask for help. Merely asking for help to

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Speaker 3: deal with, you know, with what you're dealing with, would

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Speaker 3: have ended my career. And I loved the Navy. I

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Speaker 3: didn't won't leave, and I had had a kidney stone

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Speaker 3: off duty, so it wasn't in my military medical records.

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Speaker 3: And most people wouldn't have shared that with the flight

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Speaker 3: surgeons because I know it would get to grounded, and

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Speaker 3: I did. I was honest about it because I realized

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Speaker 3: that flying wasn't going to solve that confusion about my gender,

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Speaker 3: and had I gotten my wings, it would have committed

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Speaker 3: me to the rest of my career trying to serve

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Speaker 3: in the closet. And you know, that's one of those

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Speaker 3: situations where you know you say the wrong thing to

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Speaker 3: the wrong person once in your career got ended, even

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Speaker 3: up to the point of, you know, a month before

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Speaker 3: I would have hit twenty years and would have qualified

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Speaker 3: for a pension I could have been thrown out if

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Speaker 3: i'd you know, had said the wrong thing. And also

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Speaker 3: I didn't know if I was lived that long, you know. Besides,

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Speaker 3: you know, you know the operational risks involved in you know,

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Speaker 3: being in the military is a dangerous business. But in

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Speaker 3: my time in the Navy, the one incident that you

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Speaker 3: know that I that I've shared now is that, you know,

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Speaker 3: as a surface warfare officer, I was on a ship.

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Speaker 3: You know, we would do what are called, you know,

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Speaker 3: security alert drills because we we had the capacity to

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Speaker 3: carry nuclear weapons. And those drills are not done with

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Speaker 3: blanks or you know, they're done with real ammunition. They're

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Speaker 3: done as if it was a real incident. And by

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Speaker 3: happ instance, I just happened to get issued a rifle

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Speaker 3: and was up on the signal bridge of our ship,

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Speaker 3: so at the very top of the ship, nobody's around,

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Speaker 3: and this little voice says, you know, you can load

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Speaker 3: this weapon and blow your brains out, and all of

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Speaker 3: the pain, all of the confusion, all of the torture

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Speaker 3: that you're dealing with, can end. And my reaction in

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Speaker 3: the moment was whiskey tango foxtrot. I told the flight

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Speaker 3: surgeon about my kidney stone that got me grounded, got

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Speaker 3: me sent to the and it gave me the option

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Speaker 3: of going into the reserves.

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Speaker 1: After being grounded, she went into the reserves and moved

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Speaker 1: to Connecticut. Having access to civilian medical systems for the

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Speaker 1: first time, she was finally able to receive the medical

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Speaker 1: attention she needed.

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Speaker 3: So I was able to at least start that conversation about, Hey,

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Speaker 3: what is this that I'm dealing with? What is you know,

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Speaker 3: you know, how to do a medical transition, that kind

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Speaker 3: of stuff.

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Speaker 1: But then in nineteen ninety, Kuwait was invaded by Iraq,

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Speaker 1: mobilizing US forces. It's important to note that having gone

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Speaker 1: to the Naval Academy, she was required to serve in

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Speaker 1: the Navy for at least six years, five years active

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Speaker 1: duty in one year on reserve, and she was determined

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Speaker 1: to uphold that duty. For what the Navy needed in Kuwait,

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Speaker 1: Paula was a natural fit given her previous service in

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Speaker 1: the Persian Gulf, so she decided to go back.

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Speaker 3: So I volunteered for recall to active duty because I

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Speaker 3: felt that it was my duty to do that. You know,

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Speaker 3: I'd been trained, I had experienced. You know, there are

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Speaker 3: very few people that were in that boat, and my

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Speaker 3: place was with the fleet, so I put my personal

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Speaker 3: stuff on hold.

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Speaker 2: Had you started hormone therapy at that point?

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Speaker 3: I had? I had by that point?

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Speaker 2: Did you have to pause it to be able to

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Speaker 2: go back on active.

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Speaker 3: Duty to some extent? As I always I mean, I

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Speaker 3: joke you that I deployed to the Middle East with

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Speaker 3: a bottle of estrogenitals. So the summer of nineteen ninety

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Speaker 3: when I volunteered, so I spent you know, the air campaign,

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Speaker 3: the ground war. Actually i'd gotten a sign to a

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Speaker 3: reserve ship in Newport, Rhode Island, so I say, you know,

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Speaker 3: we we defended Narragancid Bay against the Iraqi submarine threat.

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Speaker 3: And then in the spring of nineteen ninety one, I

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Speaker 3: got a phone call asking me if I was still

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Speaker 3: interested in coming back on active duty. They wanted me

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Speaker 3: to come back to participate in what turned out to

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Speaker 3: be the last surface combat operation of Desert Storm. Because

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Speaker 3: after the ground war, the naval mindes that the Iraqis

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Speaker 3: had planted off the coast of Kuwait. We still couldn't

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Speaker 3: sail to Kuwait because these minefields were slaughtered. So those

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Speaker 3: minefields needed to be cleared So I spent the summer

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Speaker 3: of nineteen ninety one as a staff officer on the

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Speaker 3: Mind Countermeasures Task Group in the Northern Persian Gulf.

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Speaker 1: During that summer, Paula also applied for a program that

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Speaker 1: is now called FTS Full Time Support, back then the

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Speaker 1: TAR program, which allows reserve officers to be recalled to

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Speaker 1: active duty full time. She could go back to see

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Speaker 1: and manage the reserves.

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Speaker 3: And I applied to it, not because I didn't finally

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Speaker 3: accept that I'm female. I'm a woman. It's I love

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Speaker 3: the Navy. That was still my calling, or how I

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Speaker 3: viewed in my calling. It was still my sense of purpose.

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Speaker 1: But she goes to the Gulf to fulfill her active

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Speaker 1: duty in the Desert Storm Mission, not having heard if

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Speaker 1: she was accepted into the program or not.

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Speaker 3: So I got home in September of nineteen ninety one,

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Speaker 3: and when I came home, I also realized that I

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Speaker 3: need to deal with this. I can't, you know, again,

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Speaker 3: I can't keep putting living authentic as who I am

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Speaker 3: on the back burn.

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Speaker 1: She returned to Charleston and resigned her reserve commission and

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Speaker 1: began to really think about her path forward. She was

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Speaker 1: at a point where she knew to live authentically, she

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Speaker 1: would have to leave behind the institution she loved and

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Speaker 1: looked up to her whole life. So she started working

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Speaker 1: at a local police station, and when she spoke to

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Speaker 1: them about her intention to transition to female, she was fired.

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Speaker 3: So that was the first civilian job I lost to discrimination.

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Speaker 1: Then in November, she received a phone call from the

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Speaker 1: Navy asking for a lieutenant NIRA, a title she thought

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Speaker 1: she had resigned after she left earlier that year, and

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Speaker 1: they wanted her back on active duty.

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Speaker 3: And I got the paperwork, and I would get up

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Speaker 3: in the morning and I would drive to the beach

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Speaker 3: at Sullivan's Island, which is around Charleston Harbor, and I'd

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Speaker 3: sit in the sand dunes and I would look at

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Speaker 3: the ships coming in and out at the harbor, and

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Speaker 3: my heart was breaking. Thirty some odd years later, my

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Speaker 3: voice still cracks sundown, drive home, get up the next day,

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Speaker 3: do the same thing. And I did that for a week,

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Speaker 3: and then on November fifteenth, nineteen ninety one, I filled

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Speaker 3: out the forum declining the recall active duty. So that

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Speaker 3: was the day that my service in uniform ended.

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Speaker 1: Paula was honorably discharged on September thirteenth, nineteen ninety one,

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Speaker 1: and left behind the career she had dreamt of as

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Speaker 1: a child and chose to live her true self as

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Speaker 1: a woman.

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Speaker 3: So ended my time on the Navy. So we talk

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Speaker 3: about pivots. That was probably the biggest pivot in my life.

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Speaker 3: So what do you do next?

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Speaker 1: So Paula picked up the pieces and applied to several

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Speaker 1: other jobs. She eventually applied to an organization that worked

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Speaker 1: with those who were mentally ill. She was competing to

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Speaker 1: have an important position during the application process, and.

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Speaker 3: It was to be basically the number two person in

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Speaker 3: the organization. And I competed against like sixty other leaders,

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Speaker 3: and you know was selected for the job?

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Speaker 1: Did you apply as Paula? And you felt that when

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Speaker 1: they did the background check they would find that all

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Speaker 1: of your past history would have been as male.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and the job offer was immediately rescinded. It was

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Speaker 3: that period in dealing with the job discrimination and so, okay,

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Speaker 3: what do you need to do next? And what is

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Speaker 3: it that you want to do? Is what eventually led

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Speaker 3: me into nursing. So I got a scholarship from the

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Speaker 3: Department of Veterans Affairs to go to nursing school in

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Speaker 3: exchange for obligated service and going to work in the

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Speaker 3: VA healthcare system.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety two, Paula began nursing school and her

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Speaker 1: social transition, asking others to recognize her as female.

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Speaker 3: But my nursing career started with me standing up in

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Speaker 3: front of my entire nursing class, school and faculty and

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Speaker 3: explaining to them what this all was. My mindset was,

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Speaker 3: because we're all healthcare professionals, you know, we're healthcare providers,

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Speaker 3: we're nurses, to take an education approach to it is. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: this is something that I'm aware you've probably you know,

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Speaker 3: it's not part of the official curriculum. It's not something

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Speaker 3: that you might encounter. But you're going to encounter patients.

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Speaker 3: So if you got questions, you might as well ask me,

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Speaker 3: and I'm going to tell you what's up, so that

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Speaker 3: you know, you don't have to be sitting around and saying, well,

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Speaker 3: I wonder what this about. Just ask me. And by

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Speaker 3: doing that, I wanted with two hundred dollogs. Several of

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Speaker 3: the students in the school had had served with me

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Speaker 3: in the navy. Uh, you know, they were some of

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Speaker 3: the enlisted folks that knew me as an officer on

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Speaker 3: the ship the same thing, you know, saying hey, this

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Speaker 3: is what this is, this is what the situation is,

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Speaker 3: this is what I'm dealing with, you know, And I

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Speaker 3: really really didn't have that in that setting issues. You know,

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Speaker 3: people were were pretty accepting and pretty welcoming. This is

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Speaker 3: still you know, ten to fifteen years before anybody was

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Speaker 3: going to challenge any of these policies in court. And

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Speaker 3: you know, Charleston in nineteen ninety two not a bastion

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Speaker 3: of progressive thought. It wasn't you know, it wasn't the

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Speaker 3: battlefield to fight in. And that, you know, And that's

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Speaker 3: one thing is that in pivoting and looking at how

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Speaker 3: you how you deal with situations is I'm a firm

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Speaker 3: believer in keeping your autonomy. Is I'm not a big

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Speaker 3: fan of victim and feeling like you're a victim. It's like, yeah,

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Speaker 3: society has stigma, and society discriminates against you, and I

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Speaker 3: don't I don't lessen the impact of what that can

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Speaker 3: be because you know, I'm very privileged.

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Speaker 1: Paula acknowledges that her position and experience as a woman

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Speaker 1: is rooted in the privilege. Having been raised as a

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Speaker 1: sis white man.

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Speaker 3: You know, which gives me some of the armor and

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Speaker 3: the weapons to be able to deal with that in

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Speaker 3: a way that other people can't. But every single one

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Speaker 3: of us has the capacity to make the decisions for

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Speaker 3: how we're going to live our life. If you want

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Speaker 3: to be free, if you want to live authentically, you've

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Speaker 3: got to be willing to pay the price to do that.

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Speaker 3: You know, freedom isn't free, you know. Obviously living authentically

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Speaker 3: was important enough for me to make a decision to

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Speaker 3: live authentically and pay the price, you know, sacrifice my

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Speaker 3: career in the Navy deal with discrimination. I was willing

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Speaker 3: to pay that price.

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Speaker 1: So you continued your or I guess began and then

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Speaker 1: continued your nursing career. What did you do as a nurse?

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Speaker 1: Where did you work as a nurse?

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Speaker 3: The first year, I did what's called medical surgical nursing.

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Speaker 3: My desire was always to get into the emergency room

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Speaker 3: to do trauma resuscitation. So I did a year in

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Speaker 3: mid surge and then I transferred down into the emergency

338
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Speaker 3: department at the VA, and I saw I finished my

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Speaker 3: three years at the VA, and then I went took

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Speaker 3: a job at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston,

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Speaker 3: which was a Level two trauma center, and I was

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Speaker 3: there for about six months, and I knew, you know,

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Speaker 3: by that time, I wanted to eventually go to law

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Speaker 3: school because I'd been a nurse for five years. At

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Speaker 3: the time. The medical establishment still rather hierarchical, still like gendered,

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Speaker 3: you know, physicians, nurses or the handmaidens and all that

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Speaker 3: sort of stuff. And it's you know, well, if you're

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Speaker 3: not going to listen to me as a nurse when

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Speaker 3: I tell you something, I know you'll listen to me

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Speaker 3: as a lawyer.

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Speaker 2: So I love that thinking.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's really it's really interesting in the gender

353
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Speaker 1: dynamics that you went into a profession, like your first

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Speaker 1: first job profession as female, a traditionally female dominated profession nursing,

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Speaker 1: where they often complain about it being very gendered in

356
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Speaker 1: terms of decision making and hierarchy. Did you ever feel

357
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Speaker 1: like you were almost missing that male privilege.

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Speaker 2: I guess i'll call it.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I guess I can't say that it was missing.

360
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Speaker 3: It was more that realization that it you know, I mean,

361
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Speaker 3: I always knew it existed. It's more of the hey,

362
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Speaker 3: this isn't right and you know that gender really is

363
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Speaker 3: irrelevant to leadership ability capacity, you know all the things

364
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Speaker 3: that you know you want to, you know, measure someone

365
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Speaker 3: in the workplace on.

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Speaker 1: Paula recognized early on that her view of the world

367
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Speaker 1: differed from other women in her generation.

368
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Speaker 3: You know, there are different perspectives because of the way

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Speaker 3: that we're socialized.

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Speaker 1: She knew that she was not socialized in the same

371
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Speaker 1: way as women her own age, which was as a

372
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Speaker 1: benefit even after her transition. Growing up as outwardly male,

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Speaker 1: she was not socialized to be deferential to men or

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Speaker 1: to measure her worth by her looks.

375
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Speaker 3: It was much more on being aggressive, assertive, those skills.

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Speaker 1: So you applied to law school when you were a nurse.

377
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Speaker 1: Did you keep working as a nurse when you started

378
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Speaker 1: law school?

379
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Speaker 3: I tried. I actually had this wonderful notion, and hey,

380
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Speaker 3: maybe a weekend a month, like being in the reserves,

381
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Speaker 3: a weekend a month, I'll go work at the local

382
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Speaker 3: trauma center while I'm in law school, just to make

383
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Speaker 3: some money, kind of keep my hand in.

384
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Speaker 1: Paula saw firsthand the inequities between nurses and doctors. She

385
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Speaker 1: told me a story about her experience at the hospital

386
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 1: where she was questioned on a life saving procedure she

387
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Speaker 1: performed when there was no doctor in the room. She

388
00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:58,879
Speaker 1: felt as if there was a clear division between the

389
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,200
Speaker 1: trust and respect and would receive compared to a doctor.

390
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Speaker 3: You know, the notion of getting up out of your

391
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Speaker 3: chair at the nurses station so the doctor can sit down.

392
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Speaker 1: Paula found it difficult to work among people who were

393
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Speaker 1: both cavalier and hierarchical about their duty as a doctor

394
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Speaker 1: or as a nurse. So she moved on to law school,

395
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,600
Speaker 1: but always thought she would stay in the healthcare field.

396
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Speaker 3: You know, I thought that I was going to probably

397
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Speaker 3: get into some type of health law, and so I

398
00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:28,919
Speaker 3: was on the law of you and I had to write,

399
00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 3: you know, a law review article, and this was around

400
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:36,040
Speaker 3: two thousand. So I wrote about the Navy, the Supreme Court,

401
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:40,560
Speaker 3: and the donastone telepolicy. So I reached out to Service Members'

402
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:43,879
Speaker 3: Legal Defense Network in Washington, and SLDN was the group

403
00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:47,040
Speaker 3: at the front of the fight to repeal the donas

404
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:51,560
Speaker 3: don't help policy in the military. And that's what got

405
00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:54,280
Speaker 3: me into that, you know, that fight.

406
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,639
Speaker 1: The Service Members Legal Defense Network or SLDN, was the

407
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,680
Speaker 1: leading organization that I ought to overturn the donass, Don't

408
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:06,280
Speaker 1: Tell law, which was the archaic policy that barred openly gay, lesbian,

409
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:10,200
Speaker 1: or bisexual person from military service. At the same time,

410
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,320
Speaker 1: trans service was fully barred due to medical regulations. She

411
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:17,560
Speaker 1: continued to work with SLDN to write her paper, which

412
00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:19,680
Speaker 1: eventually led her to do an internship with them.

413
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:22,360
Speaker 3: When we talked about donas Don't Tell, and you know

414
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:24,679
Speaker 3: that that pivot is that it was another pivot to

415
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 3: actually get involved in this fight, to really use that

416
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:30,479
Speaker 3: background that I had, which is unique. I mean I

417
00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 3: stayed away from the issue when donas dontell was put

418
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 3: in place in ninety three. You know, I was in

419
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,080
Speaker 3: nursing school. I was in the process of my own transition,

420
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,280
Speaker 3: and I stayed away from the issue of getting involved

421
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:49,000
Speaker 3: because I didn't want people to conflate gender identity and

422
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 3: sexual orientation. But I didn't want any negative reflection on

423
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:59,280
Speaker 3: the service on the academy because of you know, you know,

424
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 3: my past. But by the late nineties, the turn of

425
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,960
Speaker 3: the century is I realized that I did have this

426
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 3: unique perspective of these unique skills, so I needed to

427
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 3: get involved.

428
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,879
Speaker 1: Paula had come to yet another inflection point in her life.

429
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:19,040
Speaker 1: She was not yet officially working for SLDN and needed

430
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: to make a choice. Once again, she was confronted with

431
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 1: challenging the very organization that she cared so much about,

432
00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 1: the Navy.

433
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:30,119
Speaker 3: I actually went back to the Naval Academy. At the

434
00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 3: Naval Academy in Bancroft Hall, which is where the brigade lives,

435
00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 3: there's a memorial Hall and it's one of the more

436
00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 3: revenant places. And in memorial Hall there's the list of

437
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 3: all of the graduates that have been killed in action,

438
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 3: and then there are plaques around on the walls from

439
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 3: each class of their classmates that have been killed in

440
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 3: operational accidents. So for me, it's always been the place

441
00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 3: where the history, you know, we talked about this in tradition,

442
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 3: you know where it's real, you can touch, Where are

443
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:14,680
Speaker 3: uh the core values on our courage commitment aren't just words.

444
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 3: It's it's where me, as a graduate, I can make

445
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:25,919
Speaker 3: that connection to that bigger history, that bigger sense of purpose,

446
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 3: that that bigger thing that I as an individual or

447
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:35,440
Speaker 3: part of. And I remember asking, you know, the heavens,

448
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:39,240
Speaker 3: the spirits, it's you know, where does my duty lie?

449
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:46,280
Speaker 3: Is getting involved in this fight to change the military.

450
00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:52,480
Speaker 3: It changed the Navy for me, is this where I'm

451
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:55,720
Speaker 3: supposed to be? Is this the right thing to be doing?

452
00:25:57,119 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 3: And the answer that I walked away with was a

453
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:00,040
Speaker 3: renoundant yes.

454
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 4: Good evening. A landmark vote on Capitol Hill today appears

455
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 4: to signal a new era in gay rights in this

456
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 4: country while abolishing long held military tradition and policy. The

457
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 4: Senate linked today voted to repeal that don't ask, don't

458
00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:17,960
Speaker 4: tell policy against gays serving openly in the military, meaning

459
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:19,639
Speaker 4: for the first time, gays would to be able to

460
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 4: acknowledge their orientation without fear of being kicked out of

461
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 4: the service.

462
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 3: Two nine six five is adopted with sixty five votes,

463
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 3: eight of them Republican. The Senate voted to end the

464
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 3: ban on gays serving openly in the military, for.

465
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 4: We are not a nation that says, don't ask, don't tell.

466
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 4: We are a nation that says, out of many, we

467
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 4: are one.

468
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:46,160
Speaker 3: The fight to change the military regulations to allow LGBTQ

469
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:52,119
Speaker 3: people to serve authentically. Those policies were always grounded in prejudice.

470
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 3: They were never grounded in the military needs. They were

471
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 3: always grounded in ignorance and prejudice. They hurt the country,

472
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:03,399
Speaker 3: they undermine and the military. They were a cancer on

473
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:04,480
Speaker 3: the core values.

474
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:17,919
Speaker 1: So she joined the fight, eventually ending up on the

475
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:20,200
Speaker 1: Board of Directors and as co chair of the Military

476
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 1: Advisory Council. Her work with SLDN was pivotal in repealing

477
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: donas don't Tell, but still the ban on trans service

478
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,440
Speaker 1: members remained. Now the ban on trans service has been lifted.

479
00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,880
Speaker 1: After a bit of back and forth between presidencies. After

480
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: later working at a few law firms, she eventually made

481
00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 1: her way back to nursing.

482
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:43,440
Speaker 3: My current paying gig is I'm the clinical program director

483
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:47,680
Speaker 3: of the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health. March will

484
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 3: be our fifth anniversary and we've already interacted with over

485
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 3: twenty eight hundred patients and have performed over six hundred

486
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 3: gender affirming surgeries of various types at Hopkins. So it's

487
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 3: only been a success and has really been able to

488
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 3: try to meet a real access to care need for

489
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 3: the community. It's a work in progress. Obviously the pandemics

490
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 3: had an impact. You know, we're in a period of

491
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 3: transition right now, but it just goes to show the demand,

492
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:24,040
Speaker 3: the patient volume, the need for care far outstrips any

493
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:29,159
Speaker 3: program's resources, so it's always wanting to do more, do more,

494
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,239
Speaker 3: do it faster, do it better. I mean, obviously, the

495
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:38,840
Speaker 3: pandemic has exposed known healthcare disparities for lots of marginalized communities,

496
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 3: the transgender and gender diverse communities just being one of them.

497
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 3: You know, we've known that access to care is an issue.

498
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 3: Providers often lack cultural and clinical competency. Insurance challenges are

499
00:28:55,360 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 3: long standing. The level of discrimination instigma in society. You

500
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:07,280
Speaker 3: can see that particularly transgender youth are being targeted with

501
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:11,040
Speaker 3: legislation at the state level in many states trying to

502
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:17,280
Speaker 3: bar them from accessing medically necessary care simply to appease

503
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 3: partisan political interests and really appeal to people's ignorance about

504
00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 3: what the care actually is. And in particular when we

505
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 3: talk about transgender healthcare, particularly about gender firm surgeries, is

506
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 3: that often healthcare systems view those as elective and they're

507
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 3: not elected. Really, the term I would always use is

508
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 3: they're non emergent. In most cases. Now, this is definitely

509
00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,920
Speaker 3: medically necessary care for some transgender people. It's absolutely life

510
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 3: saving care. Because of the increased risk for being the

511
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:59,200
Speaker 3: victim of violence. Transgender people have a lifetime probability of

512
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 3: being physical or sexually assaulted because of their gender identity

513
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 3: in their lifetime is one out of two. And suicidality,

514
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:12,800
Speaker 3: you know, forty percent of transgender adults have attempted suicide.

515
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:16,240
Speaker 3: And what people really need to understand is being transgender

516
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 3: doesn't make you suicidal. Obviously, being treated like crap by

517
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 3: society can add to that. And when you think about

518
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:26,360
Speaker 3: it was only a year ago that the Supreme Court

519
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 3: even said that our civil rights laws and employment apply

520
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 3: to LGBTQ people. So this is you know, an ongoing

521
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 3: struggle for many people to just be able to access

522
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 3: housing and employment and healthcare.

523
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:46,000
Speaker 1: The discrimination endured by the trans community throughout history is

524
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:50,160
Speaker 1: heartbreaking and seems to have no end. Right now, states

525
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 1: across the country are considering and passing legislation that takes

526
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: away basic rights for transgender and gender nonconforming people. So

527
00:30:57,760 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 1: Paula knew there's still tremendous work to be.

528
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:04,680
Speaker 3: And you know, stayed involved in the fight because once

529
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,240
Speaker 3: don't Ask, don't tell was over everybody a lot over

530
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 3: many people said Okay, hey we won. Well they wait

531
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 3: a second, We need to still deal with transgender service,

532
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 3: and even that fight is obviously still ongoing. We saw

533
00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 3: what happened under the last administration. But also is the

534
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 3: recognition of non binary folks, folks who don't view themselves

535
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 3: as exclusively male or female. And you know, this shouldn't

536
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:31,120
Speaker 3: come as a shock to anybody. There are non binary

537
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 3: people that serve in the military, and they are non

538
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 3: binary people that want to serve in the military because

539
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:41,360
Speaker 3: it really gets to the question of who is able

540
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 3: to serve and what's the criteria we use to make

541
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:51,280
Speaker 3: that decision, And you know, the criteria can't be well,

542
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 3: what made a good soldier or sale or in nineteen

543
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 3: forty four, Diversity and inclusion is a strength, it's not

544
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 3: a weakness. And whenever we've wanted more diversity in the force,

545
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 3: more inclusion of the force, whether we're talking about you know,

546
00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:12,280
Speaker 3: racial integration. In the nineteen forties, they expanded opportunities for women,

547
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 3: the end of don't ask, don't tell. Now the transgender

548
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:34,800
Speaker 3: folks can serve the force has gotten better. And in

549
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 3: my case, it was the first time the Navy ever

550
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 3: issued the order to change that paperwork by Order of

551
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 3: the Navy, So my you know, officially officially as far

552
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 3: as the Navy's concerned, I am Lieutenant Paula NEU. What

553
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 3: it was important for me is that when I die

554
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 3: right now, my ashes rate going to Arlington, and that's

555
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 3: where my parents and if Arlington is full or the

556
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:07,320
Speaker 3: you know, my ashes can go to the Columbari and

557
00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 3: at the Naval Academy. And it was important to me

558
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 3: to make sure my right name is on another little

559
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 3: piece of marble.

560
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 1: Recently, the Navy honored her by asking her to be

561
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 1: the sponsor of the USS Harvey Milk, the first ship

562
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 1: named after an LGBTQ icon. Paula is also the first

563
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 1: ship sponsor who is a former officer and able to

564
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:33,280
Speaker 1: actually run the ship.

565
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 3: You know, for me, it's been a very surreal and

566
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 3: humbling experience. Did not anticipate, did not envision christening a

567
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,360
Speaker 3: ship and being a ship sponsor. When I graduated from

568
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:47,800
Speaker 3: the Naval Academy.

569
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, Paula got a call while working in

570
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,120
Speaker 1: the emergency room at the hospital and it was the

571
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:54,479
Speaker 1: Secretary of the Navy.

572
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 3: So an hour later I get a call from Secretary

573
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:03,160
Speaker 3: NATS and and I remember, you know, in the conversation

574
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 3: said but I only have one question, and really it's

575
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 3: a request, is that when the ship is built, I

576
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,399
Speaker 3: want to go to sea with my ship. And it's

577
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 3: one of the things that's been an interesting part of

578
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 3: this whole process. Most sponsors are either the wives of

579
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:22,799
Speaker 3: prominent government officials, or they are prominent government officials themselves,

580
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 3: or they're the female relative of a ship that's named

581
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 3: after somebody. Because I think of the work that I've

582
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 3: done in trying to advance diversity inclusion within the military

583
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 3: and then now within healthcare for transgender folks, I think

584
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 3: that was the motivation for being given this opportunity to

585
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 3: really represent and it really is, it's an opportunity to

586
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,400
Speaker 3: represent other people that really I always say it's a

587
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:49,799
Speaker 3: little to do with me. It's you know, I'm the

588
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:56,799
Speaker 3: one that gets to represent the LGBTQ community, particularly the

589
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,360
Speaker 3: military community, which is you know, there's over a million

590
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:03,960
Speaker 3: GBTQ veterans, about one hundred and thirty four thousand of

591
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:08,399
Speaker 3: them are transgender. To really send that message that we've

592
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:13,240
Speaker 3: always been part of the military, that history and tradition

593
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,960
Speaker 3: is just as much ours as it is anybody else's.

594
00:35:17,600 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 3: So that's where it's been very very humbling, and I

595
00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:27,839
Speaker 3: certainly feel the gravitas of that responsibility, but so I'm

596
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:32,360
Speaker 3: aware of the importance to the community in these things.

597
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 3: But for me, it's also just as important that, as

598
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:36,480
Speaker 3: far as I've been able to tell, I'm also the

599
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 3: first surface warfare qualified woman to be the sponsor of aship.

600
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 3: And what that means is that, besides breaking the champagne bottle,

601
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 3: is I also could drive if I actually had to.

602
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 3: But you know what I've said about why it's so

603
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:53,840
Speaker 3: important for me to want to actually get underway with

604
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,799
Speaker 3: the shop, The selfish reason is I want to get

605
00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:03,720
Speaker 3: underway for the folks that have done it. Yeah, standing

606
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 3: out on the bridgeway watching the stars, that sense of

607
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 3: wonder of how vast the universe is that you can

608
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 3: get at sea, you know, feeling the engines through the deck,

609
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 3: you know, seeing sunrise, seeing sunset, seeing the ocean. Because, yeah,

610
00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:28,560
Speaker 3: I want to get a chance to do that again. Oh.

611
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 3: My job as the sponsors to support the crew and

612
00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:36,280
Speaker 3: the officers that are going to sail in the ship

613
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:39,640
Speaker 3: for the life of the ship. So the crews are

614
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:43,240
Speaker 3: going to change over time. I'll always be the ship sponsor,

615
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,360
Speaker 3: and my job is to make sure that they know

616
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:53,760
Speaker 3: that their sacrifices are appreciated by our country. My job

617
00:36:54,200 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 3: as a sponsor is to really support them so that

618
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 3: they can accomplish their mission.

619
00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 4: And now I like to direct your attention to the

620
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 4: striker platform. Paula, would you please cresten the ship.

621
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 3: In the United States of America I christened the Harvey Milk.

622
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 3: May God bless the ship and all who sail in her.

623
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 3: The other thing that I would say with the experience

624
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:35,239
Speaker 3: has been a reminder to me that, well, I guess

625
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 3: two things. One is that you know, a decade or

626
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 3: so ago, if we were having this conversation, I would

627
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,799
Speaker 3: have said that pivot point of leaving the service would

628
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,719
Speaker 3: have been giving up my calling in life because I

629
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:52,240
Speaker 3: viewed my purpose. I viewed my calling solely in terms

630
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,600
Speaker 3: of serving as an officer in the Nevy in uniform.

631
00:37:56,719 --> 00:38:00,040
Speaker 3: And now I don't say that the price that I

632
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 3: had to pay was the sacrifice of my career, but

633
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:09,560
Speaker 3: not My calling was broader. My calling was deeper. My

634
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:13,400
Speaker 3: calling my purpose has been to serve of the country,

635
00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:17,800
Speaker 3: to live up to the obligations of my oath. And

636
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 3: you know, everybody in the military takes an oath of

637
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 3: office everybody has heard the you know, protecting defending Constitution

638
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,759
Speaker 3: against all enemies foreign and domestic. That's the phrase that

639
00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:31,080
Speaker 3: most people know. The next phrase in the oath is

640
00:38:31,640 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 3: and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to

641
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 3: the same. And it's that bearing true faith, it's having

642
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:43,560
Speaker 3: that allegiance to those values. That was my purpose, that's

643
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:49,719
Speaker 3: my calling. And I've been blessed to serve in a

644
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:55,439
Speaker 3: way that very very few people with my background going

645
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:58,879
Speaker 3: to the academy in an academy ground have been able

646
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 3: to serve. And lots of folks with my background I've

647
00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 3: had commandt's see, lots of them have gone on to

648
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:10,920
Speaker 3: be flag officers. Always joked, my classmate right now is

649
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,280
Speaker 3: the chief Enaval Operations. Fewer of us have been able

650
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 3: to say that our job, our contribution to those traditions,

651
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:27,919
Speaker 3: was to make the core of values real for more

652
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 3: people and to change the environment so that thousands of

653
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:38,520
Speaker 3: other people could go on to contribute to the mission

654
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:44,239
Speaker 3: as they're authentic selves. So yeah, I'm definitely blessed and privileged.

655
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:49,719
Speaker 3: And no matter how much there's pain at my philossom,

656
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,560
Speaker 3: my career, the change and what I you know, the

657
00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 3: movie script that I had in my head. The fact

658
00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:58,719
Speaker 3: at the end of the day is that, yeah, I've

659
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:01,160
Speaker 3: been blessed to do some things that most people will

660
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 3: never get the opportunity to do.

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00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 1: Looking back, is there something in your career that at

662
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 1: the time you saw it as a setback or a

663
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:12,719
Speaker 1: negative and now in retrospect you see that it was

664
00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 1: actually a positive.

665
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean there's this whole process of having to

666
00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 3: end my time in uniform for decades, I viewed that

667
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:28,439
Speaker 3: through the lens of loss and pain. But yeah, it's

668
00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:33,319
Speaker 3: it put me on a different path that led me

669
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:37,320
Speaker 3: to nursing. You know, I have lost count of the

670
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:41,000
Speaker 3: number of people that I've been involved and saved in

671
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:45,319
Speaker 3: their lives and trauma base the sacrifice that I had

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00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:51,440
Speaker 3: to make in order to advance freedom. What was my

673
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 3: career in uniform? Uh? Again, on the grand scale, let's see,

674
00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:02,960
Speaker 3: fairly small price to pay for what the outcome has

675
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:05,040
Speaker 3: been this give me, you know, me and my own

676
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:07,600
Speaker 3: life is it's you know, I've gone on to two

677
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 3: additional professional careers that you know, I highly doubt you

678
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 3: and I would have ever met had I stayed in

679
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 3: uniform as a serving office. You know, would not have

680
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:22,680
Speaker 3: had the impact that I've been able to have, I mean,

681
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:28,879
Speaker 3: with no false modesty, is that I know that I've

682
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:34,840
Speaker 3: been able to give the greatest service to the country

683
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 3: and my Navy after I put away my uniform. You know,

684
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:42,399
Speaker 3: when you when you try to hold yourself out as

685
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 3: someone who took an oath and wanted to live up

686
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 3: to the oath, you really can't complain when you look

687
00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:54,239
Speaker 3: back and see that you've actually had the opportunity to

688
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 3: do it, and those pivots, you know, those those changes

689
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:02,320
Speaker 3: that look like jarring loss, Oh my god, what the

690
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 3: heck am I going to do next? Or really sometimes

691
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 3: that opportunity and you just have to have the courage

692
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:14,239
Speaker 3: to look around and say, is that okay, let's do this.

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00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:30,920
Speaker 1: After careers in the Navy, nursing, and law, Paula's pivots

694
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:34,840
Speaker 1: have clearly been steeped in her own personal experiences. Paula

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00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:37,720
Speaker 1: works as the clinical program director at the Johns Hopkins

696
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 1: Center for Transgender Health. Her work at the center has

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00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:45,360
Speaker 1: impacted countless transgender people and educated medical professionals to treat

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00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:49,279
Speaker 1: trans patients with the patient's centered care they deserve. I

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00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:52,120
Speaker 1: want to quickly note that since our interview Paula was

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00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:56,840
Speaker 1: actually promoted. She's now the program director of the LGBTQ

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00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:00,800
Speaker 1: Plus Equity and Education and the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office

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00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:05,480
Speaker 1: of Diversity Inclusion and Health Equity. Thank you for listening

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00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 1: to this episode of She Pivots, where I talk with

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00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:12,879
Speaker 1: women about how their experiences and significant personal events led

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00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,839
Speaker 1: to their pivot and eventually their success. To learn more

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00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 1: about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she Pivots

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00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:23,600
Speaker 1: the podcast. Leave a rating and comment if you enjoyed

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00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,359
Speaker 1: this episode wherever you listen to podcasts to help others

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00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 1: learn about it. A special thank you to our partner

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Speaker 1: Marie Claire and the team that made this episode possible.

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Speaker 2: Talk to you next week.