‘This is about our humanity’: Transgender Air Force member at Fairchild worries about her employment due to Trump ban

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Rylee Marcotte has served 12 years in the military, including the last three at Fairchild Air Force Base.

But, Marcotte, a member of Trans Spokane, fears she will be kicked out in the coming months because of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from serving or enlisting in the armed forces. A federal judge recently blocked that order. 

“I have served this country with pride, honor and commitment, with the last three years here at Fairchild Air Force Base,” Marcotte said Saturday at a March for Gender Freedom at Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. “Since the end of the last transgender military ban, I have been actively and openly transitioning while continuing to fulfill my duty.”  

Marcotte and a handful of other transgender people and allies spoke to a crowd of a few hundred early Saturday afternoon near the red Radio Flyer wagon, voicing their opposition to the Trump administration’s executive orders that they say attack the transgender community and its way of life. 

Some of the orders include ending federal support for children’s gender transitions and backpedaling efforts to broaden gender identity designations.

Trans Spokane and Spokane Pride sponsored the march, which proceeded from the park to City Hall.

People held signs like, “Equality for ALL Genders,” “TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS” and ‘SAVE GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE.” Some held signs along Spokane Falls Boulevard and received supporting honks from drivers passing by. 

“We’re here in defiance, celebrating trans lives, mourning those lost and showing solidarity against a regime that seeks to eradicate us,” Trans Spokane Executive Director Louis Stay said.

Stay noted two transgender people who were killed in the wake of Trump’s executive orders against the transgender community.

“These deaths are unacceptable,” Stay said. “They are the acts of people emboldened by hateful rhetoric and anti-trans actions. They are the result of the hate the trans and gender expansive community is facing from the government that is supposed to be for the people. We raise our fist against this injustice. We will not stand for the government taking our lives, our ability to travel, our healthcare, our participation in sports and the military.”

Stay encouraged people to love the transgender community they’re fighting for more than they hate their enemy.

“We hate Donald Trump, we hate Elon Musk, we hate (Robert F. Kennedy) and JD Vance, but love the people you’re fighting for more,” Stay said.

Beyoncé Black St. James, who last year was crowned the first Black Latina Miss Trans USA, said she worries about transgender children growing up not being able to live authentically because of Trump’s orders. She told the crowd they need transgender allies now more than ever.  

“We want equality for all,” she said.

Ari Dean, member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said Trump and his administration believe they can wipe the transgender community “off the map.” 

“They think they can scare us into submission, chase us into the forgotten corners of society and leave us to rot,” Dean said. “What this administration and ruling class of billionaires don’t seem to understand is that trans existence is impossible to erase, and our resistance will never be crushed. … They can scrub our legacy from every website, they can vilify and ostracize us, but they will never make us disappear.”

Marcotte said she believes transgender people should be able to live openly, serve proudly and exist without fear. But since Trump took office, they’ve watched their rights, dignity and existence called into question and erased.

“We have felt the weight of cruel rhetoric and executive orders designed to strip us of our place, to push us out of spaces we have fought to be in, to tell us that we are somehow unworthy and incapable,” Marcotte said. “Let me be clear: We are still here, and I am still here.”

This year has been one of the hardest Marcotte faced because of “relentless attacks” from Trump who sees her existence as nothing more than a political talking point, she said.

“I am not a debate, I am not a distraction, I am a person,” she said. “An American citizen who has willingly given 12 years of my life to this country.”

Marcotte said she’s watched friends and colleagues wondering whether they will be able to keep doing the work they love or if they will be forced back into the closet.

“I have spent countless hours fighting battles that I should not have to fight, battles just to exist, battles just to keep doing my job, battles just to be treated with the same respect as everyone else who wears the uniform,” Marcotte said. “And yet, how many times do we must prove that we actually belong? How many times do we have to prove that we are not a threat to others?”

Despite her long military career and the policies that once allowed transgender people to live more openly, Marcotte said, “we once again are being told that our place is conditional and can be erased with the stroke of a Sharpie.”

This is not about executive orders, Marcotte said.

“This is about our humanity,” she said. 

Marcotte said she feels a “deep, unshakeable pain” that her hard work, sacrifice and existence are seen as less valuable because of who she is, not what she has done.

“It is isolating, dehumanizing, it is exhausting and unfair, and yet I am still here, we are still here,” she said.

Marcotte said they cannot let these federal orders break their power. 

“We must find ways where we are heard, we must advocate, we must be louder than their hate, bolder than their bigotry and more united than ever before,” Marcotte said. “Because no matter what they do, no matter what laws they pass, no matter how hard they try to erase us, we will still be here.”

Stay told the crowd it’s not alone in this fight against the “storm of oppression.” 

“Take a look at the people around you who are here to fight with you,” Stay said.