Is This America's 'First Female Navy SEAL'? Transgender Former SEAL Comes Out in New 'Warrior Princess' Book

Photo Credit: Kristin Beck

Kristin Beck's story is a fascinating one. A former Navy SEAL, Beck was born a male (Chris), but changed genders decades after beginning a celebrated military career. She documents her harrowing -- and surprising -- tale in a new book, "Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming out Transgender."

A description of the book divulges that Chris, who played high school football, rode a motorcycle, served the U.S. on thirteen deployments and earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, had a secret. Despite his past -- one during which he was perceived as a "warrior" and a "man" -- he was transgender.

"Warrior Princess" documents his transition from male to female and, as the official overview proclaims, the book "is about a fight to be free inside one’s own body." The description continues: "This is the journey of a girl in a man’s body and her road to self-actualization as a woman amidst the PTSD of war, family rejection and our society’s strict gender rules and perceptions."

Beck, according to the Atlantic, started hormone therapy in 2011, following retirement from the Navy. Then, the gender change was announced to colleagues when the former SEAL posted a picture of herself dressed as a female on LinkedIn.

The outlet has more about the "Warrior Princess" book and its purported impact on military policy:

According to the book's author biography, Beck worked in the private sector as a military consultant before being tapped by the Secretary of Defense to develop technology used by active-duty soldiers. Beck's openness about her post-SEAL life makes her something of an anomaly among SEAL memoirists, who tend to write behind pseudonyms, especially when discussing classified military intelligence. By contrast, Beck includes dozens of pictures from her deployments and her life at home, pre- and post-transition, in Warrior Princess.

Having retired a few months before SEALs dispatched Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Beck's memoir is also something of a welcome relief from the proliferating genre of Navy SEAL memoirs, particularly those centered on the details of the bin Laden raid.

In an article written for SOFREP, Navy SEAL Brandon Webb called Beck the "first female Navy SEAL." While Webb was apparently aware of the transition prior to the book's release, he originally declined to do a story. But now that Beck has come forward, Webb plans to get an exclusive with the former SEAL.

"I first met Chris when she was at SEAL Team One. While Chris was always a little different I had no idea what was lying under the surface, as I’m sure a lot of people will have the same experience," Webb wrote. "I do know that Chris went on to serve out a full retirement, and finished his twenty years of service as an E-8 at US SOCOM, and a tour of the recently scandal-clad ST-6."

TheBlaze will have more about this fascinating story as details emerge.

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