A male Army veteran underwent feminizing procedures—and became known as Jessica Watkins, ’the transgender J6‘er’ who holds unexpected views on transgenderism.
While serving in the military, an Ohioan harbored a painful secret.
After being “outed” as transgender, the Afghanistan veteran was kicked out of the Army, took on a new name, and underwent feminizing cross-sex hormones and surgery.
Now, more than two decades later, Jessica Watkins, 42, expresses some surprising stances—including supporting President Donald Trump’s decision to bar transgender people from military service.
While pro-transgender groups oppose that policy as discriminatory and unconstitutional, Watkins said, “the military is no place for ‘transition.’”
“The military is not about the individual; you don’t matter. All that matters is the mission—period,” Watkins said.
“Our mission is to kill our enemies and to keep our country safe; that’s it.”
Watkins, who previously had remained low-profile, became known as “the transgender J6’er” after being prosecuted for the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021. Watkins was among hundreds of former Jan. 6 defendants who were set free when Trump became the 47th president and granted them clemency last month.
Stuck with this higher-profile status, Watkins is publicly pushing for prison reform. Watkins reports experiencing “horrific” conditions while incarcerated for four years and three days.
Watkins also wants people to understand how someone could serve in the military, then undergo gender-transition procedures, and yet support policies that many condemn as “anti-transgender.
Watkins never considered transgenderism desirable, yet felt compelled to go down that path. Since childhood, Watkins felt an unshakeable disconnect between self-perception as female and being born male.
“Being transgender is an anathema to me. I don’t like it. It’s not fun, a community, or a deviance,” Watkins said.
“I just want to live normally without pain, and the recent ‘trans’ agenda has made a mockery of people like me.”
Despite expecting backlash for going public with atypical views about transgenderism and Trump’s policies, Watkins said doing so is “important to our country.”
Still, Watkins said, “As a transgender woman and a veteran myself, it pains me to agree with President Trump in his executive order banning transgender individuals from military service.”
Opponents have filed lawsuits seeking to throw out Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order.
Attorneys general from 20 U.S. states are backing one of those lawsuits. They argue that their states—and the nation—benefit from “allowing transgender individuals to participate fully in society, including the military.” They say that the transgender military ban harms national security and that there is “no evidence-based rationale” for Trump’s decision.
Watkins suggests these arguments may not adequately consider how much transgenderism permeates a person’s life.
“The difficulties one faces during transition cannot be understated,” Watkins said. “It takes a lot of hard work, focus, and dedication to undergo transition.
“By its very nature, transition distracts the individual.”
A Difficult Journey Begins
While growing up in Ohio and New York, Watkins was born male but felt uncomfortable with masculinity.
At the age of 4, “my mom was pregnant with my sister … and I used to want to be pregnant,” Watkins said. “I put stuffed animals in my shirts and pretended to be pregnant.”
People thought that was a weird passing fancy. It wasn’t.
No matter how hard Watkins tried to suppress “gender dysphoria”—a disconnect between biological sex and self-perception of gender—it persisted.
For some people, transgenderism is a choice or an affectation, Watkins believes. True gender dysphoria causes an intense internal tug-of-war that defies description, Watkins said.
Offering an analogy, Watkins said: “Gender defines everything … if your ‘home’ is your life, your gender is your ‘foundation.’” A crack or misalignment in that foundation therefore affects the life built upon it, Watkins said.
Watkins came from a “very Christian” background, which considered transgenderism an abomination.
For Watkins, puberty began around 14, later than most peers—possibly indicating a biological component driving the gender dysphoria, Watkins said.
‘Gung-Ho’ for Military Service
In an all-out effort to become more manly, Watkins joined the military in 2001. “It was like a big purge,“ Watkins said. ”Like, ‘I’m gonna defeat this one way or another.’”
The Army’s “testosterone-fueled environment” squelched any hint of being gay or less-than-tough, Watkins said.
At that time, the U.S. military was in its “don’t ask, don’t tell” era. Service members were expected to keep sexual orientation and gender ideology under wraps. This policy, instituted under President Bill Clinton in 1993, replaced decades-old prohibitions against gays and people then known as “transsexuals.”
Deployed to Afghanistan in 2002, Watkins describes serving with a “very gung-ho” attitude.
While having a slight build—weighing about 170 pounds and standing 5 feet, 7 inches tall—Watkins was passionate about defending America.
“I was very, very, very upset about what happened at 9/11, like righteous anger,” Watkins said, referring to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, which happened while Watkins was in Army Airborne training.
“When I was on duty, I leaned into it hard. There was no door I couldn’t kick; there was no limit to how far I could go.”
Afterward came “the part that I’m not proud of,” Watkins said.
Watkins’s gender dysphoria hadn’t faded.
“I had no friends, so I wasn’t adjusting well. And then I’ve got this internal struggle,“ Watkins said. ”So I was spending a lot of time online, researching.”
In those days, very little information was available about gender dysphoria.
Pivotal Confrontation
In the summer of 2003, while stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a fellow servicemember borrowed Watkins’s computer—and discovered Watkins’s search history about transgenderism.
“He cornered me and shoved the laptop at me and said, ‘I know what you are!’” Watkins said.
For Watkins, the world felt like it was imploding; Watkins went numb and broke out in a cold sweat.
“I didn’t know if this guy was going to kill me,” Watkins said, wondering: “Is he going to tell everyone? Is he going to humiliate me?”
In a panic, Watkins went AWOL, or Absent Without Leave. Watkins caught a Greyhound bus and traveled cross-country before finally catching a flight to Alaska at the urging of a person who had offered support in an online chat.
Watkins had been so dedicated to serving.
“When I went AWOL, nobody believed it; they thought I was dead,” Watkins said.
After learning that the soldier who knew about the computer searches had left Fort Bragg, Watkins returned to face the consequences of going AWOL. Watkins hoped that the servicemember had remained quiet about what he knew.
Nope. He had blabbed to everyone, Watkins said.
That led to an “other-than-honorable” discharge for Watkins. It was a devastating blow.
“My military service meant everything to me,“ Watkins said. ”When all of this came out, it was like a piece of me died.”
After leaving the military under such embarrassing circumstances, Watkins felt exposed and alone. Some relatives and friends reacted badly, but a few were supportive.
Watkins then saw an opportunity to restart life with a clean slate.
“All the fear that I had about ‘coming out’ was stripped away from me,” Watkins said.
“The day I left the military, I had no clothes; it was kind of like getting out of prison,” Watkins said.
Bearing a Burden
Watkins went full-bore into self-reinvention mode: buying new clothing, using a new name, getting a court to approve it, and transitioning with hormones and surgery.
After being known as a female for two decades, Watkins feels less discontent. Still, Watkins said, “I hate being transgender, really I do.”
“If there was a magic pill to make me normal, I would have taken it. If they could alter my DNA/chromosomes so I could be a real woman, I would do it in a heartbeat,” Watkins said.
“But instead, I have to carry this burden of being a half-and-half,” Watkins said. “That’s all I will ever be in a society that hates me for it. But I can’t change it. So here I am, making the best of it.”
Because of transgenderism’s all-consuming nature, Watkins is convinced that it conflicts with military objectives.
People who are undergoing transition—or have done so already—are preoccupied.
“With transition, you need to think about yourself a lot—like the pronouns, your mannerisms, your vocal inflections,” Watkins said. “The military is no place for that. I’m sorry … it’s not about your feelings or what you need.”
About Trump’s Order
While disagreeing with some of the wording, Watkins agrees with the main purpose of Trump’s order.
It says: “The pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies.”
Trump pointed out in his order that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty.” He says transgenderism is comparable to those conditions.
Transgender people undergo lifelong hormone treatments, often suffer complications, and may require medical interventions that would interfere with military duties, Watkins said.
Trump’s order, titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” rescinded a policy that had been in effect for four years. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed an order permitting service members to be open about their transgender status and to obtain transition-related medications and procedures.
Taxpayers should not be saddled with those costs, Watkins said, while expressing compassion for transgender service members.
Watkins offered this message of support: “You serve our nation with distinction, and I am grateful for your service and selfless sacrifices made on behalf of our nation every day.”
However, Watkins agrees that Trump’s order must be implemented for the good of the military organizations.
Trump directed all military branches to revise their policies, but his order does not spell out the future of transgender people who are currently serving.
There are about 1.3 million active servicemembers, federal figures show. Several thousand of them are estimated to be transgender. Past studies, including one by global policy think tank RAND in 2016, estimated that transgender personnel constituted far less than 1 percent of the military.
During Trump’s first administration, he issued a similar executive order. But, when put into practice, that order allowed exceptions for transgender people “who joined the military in their preferred gender or were diagnosed with gender dysphoria before the 2018 policy,” the Defense Department wrote in 2019.
Although enforcement of the latest executive order is still taking shape, a Pentagon memo states that transgender servicemembers will be separated from the military by June, The Epoch Times reported.
Also, the Army stated that it would “no longer allow transgender individuals to join the military and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members.”
That Feb. 14 post on the X social media platform drew about 28 million pageviews and 14,000 comments.
People who applauded the order said it returns mission focus, readiness, and respect to the military. One opponent said the policy is “erasing trans people,” while another accused Trump of discrimination against “patriots that are perfectly fit to serve and fight for America.”
Asked about Trump’s policies on other transgender-related issues, Watkins agrees with his order to halt the gender-transitioning of children and also concurs with a second order that blocks biological, transgender males from competing in women’s sports.
Few transgender people are willing to come forward with similar views because they are “shamed into silence” for holding an opinion that is unpopular among activists, Watkins said.
“I feel for transgender people. I feel terribly for the pain that we suffer,“ Watkins said. ”But we need to approach every topic rationally and individually.
“We need to focus on what is good for our country.”