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, F
light 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.
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