SPC Martinez leaves the his Battalion for the last time. He’s a little nervous, but confident.
After receiving his DD 214, last week, “I feel like I can be who I was born to be.” SPC Martinez tells KOMO News. He expected the Army to become more sensitive towards transgender troops, but with the recent transgender ban, he knew it was his time to ETS.
Last year, Martinez under went reassignment surgery. But during recovery, President Trump came out with his proposed ban. “I thought there would still be a chance to serve with my brothers, being an opened transgender soldier.” SPC Martinez hasn’t came out to his family and fellow battle buddies in fear of not being accepted.
Martinez is also a DACA recipient. In 1992 his mother brought him from Mexico as an infant, to have a better life in America. “I’m a Dreamer too!” SPC Martinez states. But with Congress failing to find a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers, SPC Martinez has no where to go, but maybe back to Mexico. “I have nightmares that ICE is going to capture me and take me back.”