Thank you, Chair.
I am Sergeant Nina Usherwood. I am speaking to you from the unceded territory of the K’ómoks and Pentlatch first nation.
I come from a military family. My dad, mom and sister have all served. I joined in 1979, and I am still serving 42 years later.
Growing up, my parents knew I was dressing in my sister's clothes. My parents were worried about how I'd be treated if I joined the forces. My dad gave me the military policy before I joined, so I knew I would be immediately discharged if I was discovered.
Hiding who I was from the military so that I could serve Canada has cost me my health. While I am aware the military policy on transgender members was changed in 1999 and that I would no longer be discharged, I saw transgender service members suffer vitriol and extreme hostility. I stayed hidden. It was not until 2009, after 30 years of service, that I felt safe to tell the military who I really was.
My health has continued to deteriorate, and I will now be medically released from the forces in August. I applied to Veterans Affairs. I have not been assigned a caseworker. When I log into My VAC Account, it pulls up my old file with my old name and gender. My medical records do not use that name or gender. It took a number of phone calls, secure messages and two uploads of my legal documents to get my name and gender corrected at VAC to match my legal name and gender. Each time, I had to explain to a new person at Veterans Affairs why my name and gender were incorrect.
In the military, the form DND 1209 for self-identification is used to take a census of serving members. On it, you indicate if you're indigenous, a visible minority or disabled. You cannot indicate that you are a member of the LGBTQS+. The military has no idea how many members are LGBTQ2S+. Likewise, Veterans Affairs has no idea how many veterans are LGBTQ2S+.
Thank you for listening. I look forward to any questions the members have.