Monday, December 22, 2014

UK Transgender RAF Pilot Talks of Prince William's Support


The British royal family isn't know for its progressive position on social views although Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William seem to be changing that staid, conservative image.  Perhaps it's part of their mother's legacy, but on issues involving gay rights, both princes seem to be light years ahead of the grand mother, Queen Elizabeth II who is becoming more gay friendly.  In a recent piece in The Daily Mail, Flight Lieutenant Ayla Holdom, Great Britain's first transgender military pilot (pictured above), talks about the support she received from prince William as she was transitioning.  Here are highlights:

Flt Lieut Holdom, 34, is a decorated RAF officer who is Britain’s first and only openly transgender military pilot. She has been, she says, ‘one of the boys as both a man and a woman’. 

Among the colleagues she told in a series of emotionally gruelling one-on-one meetings was Prince William, who was at the time a fellow co-pilot within the tight-knit team of 20 at RAF Valley.

He showed support and understanding. The Royal Wedding in 2011 was one of Flt Lieut Holdom’s first work-related outings after transition. She attended as a woman, accompanied by her wife Wren, a doctor with whom she now lives in a lesbian relationship.

‘All my RAF colleagues were brilliant,’ she says. ‘I think they were surprised because I was pretty adept at pretending to be a man. I walked macho, I sat macho, I worked out hard and I like a bit of banter.

‘But when I came back as a woman there was complete acceptance and empathy. Even old and bold warrant officers who had grown up in the days when people like me would have been taken behind the bike sheds for a kicking, came to congratulate me.

She joined RAF Valley in 2007 and was fully operational by the end of 2009, co-piloting a Sea King – the same role as Prince William – along with a pilot, a winchman and a radar operator. Today she works 24-hour shifts responding to calls from the coastguard, mountain rescue teams and the three emergency services.
 The process of transition is over now, although it took two years, three major operations and several other procedures to achieve.  ‘I did as little as possible because I wanted to stay operationally fit and healthy, to remain a fully functioning military pilot throughout, she says.
One has to wonder when the Christofascists will admit that they have lost their anti-gay jihad.  When the heir to the British throne displays support and acceptance and when former conservative bastions such as the Hampton Yacht Club and the James River Country Club accept same sex married couples as members, the culture wars are truly over but for (i) those who want to fleece the ignorant and gullible for a while longer and, of course, (ii) Republican politicians who happily prostitute themselves to the Christofascists in a manner that would embarrassed a tawdry whore. 
Prince William

No comments: