An Army Pride Month panel discussion on the 50th anniversary of the key gay rights stand it commemorates noted the inclusivity gains made in the ranks over the past decade but failed to mention the more recent transgender ban sought by President Donald Trump.

Maj. Gen. Tammy Smith, 56, the first openly gay general officer, spoke at the Oahu Army-wide event Tuesday at Fort Shafter Flats about the challenges she faced leading a dual life and her relief when the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy dating back to 1993 was repealed in 2011 under President Barack Obama.

Smith, Capt. Jennie Olson, a medical operations officer, and infantryman Sgt. Damien Fraser also were part of a panel that answered questions from the audience about the level of acceptance they’ve received as gay soldiers.

For 25 years “I did what perhaps many of you in this room did, is I became an absolute expert at doing what I call compartmentalizing my life,” Smith told the 80 or so service members and civilians present. “I had some great jobs in the military, but I knew that I needed to keep what I would call my off-the-grid life separate from what was my professional military life.”

That extended to her now-wife, Tracey Hepner-Smith, when the pair were shopping at a grocery store.

“If we heard somebody say, ‘Hey, ma’am,’ we knew the drill,” she said. “She would just peel off, as if she did not know me.” The pair would rendezvous back at the car.

“I lived this life, and I did it willingly, because I wanted to serve my country,” Smith said.

As a two-star general and assistant deputy chief of staff for mobilization and Reserve affairs at the Pentagon, Smith said she feels a responsibility to allow soldiers to be “authentic” so “they feel like they can be who they are.”

“This is important to me because when people don’t believe they can be authentic — regardless of what that is — they hesitate,” she said. “We build hesitation into our organizations, and it’s not just about being a member of this (LGBT) community. It’s hesitation about many things.”

In defense of the nation, “we can’t hesitate in our line of work,” she said.

The annual Army Pride Month event coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which followed a police raid on June 28, 1969, of the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York.

Repeated harassment erupted into protest and challenges to police and became a galvanizing event for LGBT activism. Pride Month honors the Stonewall uprising.

But the gains made by the LGBT community to serve openly in the ranks took an ominous turn when Trump tweeted on July 26, 2017, that after consultation with “generals and military experts,” the U.S. government “will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.”

“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” Trump added.

The Obama administration lifted a transgender ban in 2016. In 2018 the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard said there were no issues of unit cohesion or morale with transgender service. Former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus testified that a military study found the cost of health care for transgender service members amounted to “budget dust.”

However, new transgender rules took effect in April with a limited grandfather clause for those serving but also mandating that all serv­ice members meet military standards “associated with their biological sex.” The policy remains the subject of legal challenge.

Asked about the policy change after the panel discussion, Smith said, “I can’t really speak on the status of the transgender policy, but what I can say about transgender service members is that I’m really proud of their service.”

Local Army officials referred any questions about the policy to Army officials at the Pentagon.

Olson, 38, who came out as gay in 2013, said during the discussion the reaction was more about curiosity than an issue with her command.

“When I became honest with my leaders, they were like, ‘Wow, cool. What’s it like?’” Olson said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, man, you’ve got a disease.’”

Fraser, 29, who’s with the 3rd Brigade at Schofield Barracks, said he has dealt with more flak as a gay infantry soldier than his husband, who is in the Navy.

“One thing I’ve always tried to express to service members is judge me and look at me based off my work ethic,” he said.

He said he’s dealt with the “old style of the Army and what they believe.”

“It’s something that if I hear discussed, I will bring up in a very black-and-white ‘Hey, I don’t think this should be talked about at work,’” he said. “I just remove myself from the situation before emotions get involved, because you always want to keep it professional.”

Smith said when people become authentic about who they are, they become visible as a person and not just a stereotype.

“People hold biases and stereotypes in their head that until they have another picture to replace that with, that stereotype will stay in their head,” she said.