In partnership with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, the Evanston History Center hosted Col. Bree Fram, one of the highest ranking and longest serving openly transgender officers in the United States military, for a Tuesday lecture on the past, present and uncertain future of transgender military personnel.
Fram was introduced by the museum’s founder, Lt. Col. Jennifer Pritzker, a businesswoman, philanthropist and first cousin of Gov. JB Pritzker. The world’s first openly transgender billionaire, Pritzker stressed the need for a military that recruits capable soldiers regardless of their gender identity.
“Now more than ever, it is critical that we have an open conversation about why a merit-based approach to hiring is essential for building the strongest possible military,” Pritzker said. “Just like in the business world, we cannot afford to exclude any group due to personal biases.”
Speaking to about 35 community members, Fram, who serves in the U.S. Space Force, delivered a lecture titled “Transgender Service in Turbulent Times.” She appeared in a personal capacity and clarified that her views may not represent those of the Defense Department or the federal government.
Fram reflected on her experience coming out as a transgender woman and navigating years of shifting Pentagon policies.
She recalled the day the DOD lifted its ban on openly transgender individuals serving in the military in June 2016. Fram said she quickly sent an email to her co-workers and posted on Facebook to come out publicly.
“I hit send, and then I ran away,” she said. “I found a gym buried underneath the Pentagon. I hopped on the elliptical machine, and I went nowhere faster than I have ever gone anywhere in my entire life because there was so much nervous energy about what was going to be different.”
But when she returned to her desk, she said, her colleagues walked over one by one, shook her hand and told her it was an honor to serve with her.
That support was tested when President Donald Trump reversed the policy in 2017, banning most transgender people from enlisting in the military. The policy only allowed personnel to continue serving with an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines gender dysphoria as the “distress that may accompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s assigned gender.”
Former President Joe Biden lifted the ban on transgender service members in 2021, but on Thursday, the DOD updated guidance requiring active members with gender dysphoria to self-identify by June 6 and begin voluntary separation in the following 30 days.
Fram also discussed the long, often overlooked history of LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. military. She pointed to historical figures like Civil War soldier Albert Cashier, who some historians have identified as a transgender man from Illinois.
“Sharing these stories is incredibly important to highlight how we’ve contributed and how other groups have contributed, despite discrimination,” Fram said. “When their nation called at its most dangerous times, they answered, and we were stronger because of it.”
Fram said her inspiration to serve came from her grandfather, a Jewish German refugee, who escaped Europe in the 1930s and later returned as a U.S. soldier to help liberate Nazi concentration camps.
Evanston History Center Executive Director Deborah Kasindorf said she was approached by Pritzker, and the museum was honored to provide a space for Fram’s story.
“It was a very quick decision,” Kasindorf said. “We wanted to do this and give Col. Fram and the museum a venue here on the North Shore.”
In the end, Fram urged audience members to keep challenging stereotypes about transgender people and to call their legislators opposing policies that restrict transgender service in the military.
If the Trump administration’s proposed ban is implemented, it will have serious consequences on families, young people’s perceptions of the U.S. military and national security, she added.
“This moment is heartbreaking,” Fram said. “We are seeing lives disrupted. National security is going to be impacted by this, not just today but far into the future.”
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