TO GO WITH AFP STORY US-MILITARY-BOOK-GENDER
A woman looks online at the book cover of “Warrior Princess” on June 5, 2013, in Washington, DC. A decorated former US Navy SEAL is now living life as a woman after undergoing hormone therapy and has written about her gender struggle in a new memoir titled “Warrior Princess.” Kirsten Beck has published the eBook recounting her inner turmoil while she served in the all-male SEAL Team 6, which she retired from months before the unit killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his Pakistan hideout in 2011. Beck’s book comes more than two years since the US Congress repealed a ban on openly homosexual troops serving in the American military. But openly transgender men and women are still barred from service and activists hope the memoir could help lift the prohibition. The book went on sale on Saturday on Amazon.com and has the subtitle, “A US Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming out Transgender,” with a cover photo of Beck looking like the quintessential SEAL warrior in the field, complete with bushy beard, dark sunglasses and a camouflage uniform. AFP PHOTO/Paul J. Richards (Photo credit should read PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
