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  "path": "/newsletter/advocate-nl-6-22-26",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-22T21:20:07.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.advocate.com",
  "tags": [
    "tells The Advocate's Christopher Wiggins",
    "wants to do",
    "as profiled by Wiggins",
    "In July, Ireland will officially retire after more than 15 years in the Air Force",
    "Ireland stood before more than 100 people on the deck of the USS Missouri in Hawaii,",
    "In the crowd was McCallister",
    "Don't miss the full story from Wiggins"
  ],
  "textContent": "“I just wanted to serve.”\n\nThat's what Air Force Master Sgt. Logan Ireland, who is being forced to retire due to the Trump administration's military trans ban, tells The Advocate's Christopher Wiggins. And serving his country is what Clayton McCallister, a 25-year-old firefighter and EMT from Tennessee, wants to do.\n\nHello folks, Audience Editor Edgar Ramirez back in your inbox after a long weekend, here to share with you the stories of Ireland and McCallister, as profiled by Wiggins.\n\nIn July, Ireland will officially retire after more than 15 years in the Air Force, leaving behind a career that took him from basic training, to combat deployments overseas, to the White House, to the center of a national fight over who gets to serve their country. He deployed to Afghanistan. He helped crack open the military’s ban on open transgender service. He built a career around proving that performance, not politics, should decide who wears the uniform, Wiggins writes.\n\nHe did not want to leave. But after the Trump administration moved to push transgender people out of the armed forces, the man who had spent a decade and a half making himself indispensable was left to choose the least painful of a series of impossible options.\n\nIn late May, Ireland stood before more than 100 people on the deck of the USS Missouri in Hawaii, and tried to end another chapter of his life with grace.\n\nThe guests had come from across the Pacific and the Atlantic, from around the world, some in person and some through screens — friends, family, colleagues, and people who understood that this was not merely a retirement ceremony. It was a handoff.\n\nIn the crowd was McCallister, who had flown to Hawaii with his wife and daughter to honor a man he had known for years through SPARTA, the transgender military advocacy organization, but had never met in person until that week. Ireland had mentored him as McCallister pursued one of the most demanding career fields in the Air Force. Now Ireland’s career was closing, and McCallister’s was unfinished.\n\nDon't miss the full story from Wiggins.\n\nWe'll back in your inbox tomorrow, folks.\n\n### Forced by Trump to retire, a trans airman is ‘passing the torch’ to a firefighter waiting to serve\n\n\n\n\n### Opinion: Michelle Obama’s beauty and decency are everything the ugly & vile Donald Trump hates\n\n\n\n\n### LGBTQ+ immigrants struggle to prove relationships they had to hide to survive\n\n\n\n\n### Grand marshals demand NYC Pride shut out hospitals that abandoned trans kids\n\n\n\n\n### Trump Education Department investigates Michigan schools over trans-inclusive policies\n\n\n\n\n### Baseball team forfeits Pride Night game after players refuse to wear rainbow jerseys\n\n\n\n\n### Tim Bagley shares how James Burrows' 'empathy for LGBTQ people' revolutionized TV\n\n\n\n\n### Meet NYC Mayor Mamdani’s LGBTQ+ avengers\n\n\n\n\n### Opinion: What it feels like to teach through an era determined to erase trans lives\n\n\n\n\n### 'Leviticus' director Adrian Chiarella reveals 'the real terror' in his conversion-therapy horror film\n\n\n\n\n### Jewel's Catch One was 'open to everyone' in an era of Black queer exclusion\n\n\n\n\n### Most Americans still prefer candidates who support LGBTQ+ rights\n\n\n\n\n### Gilbert Baker’s original Pride flag takes a trip to Ireland\n\n\n",
  "title": "Advocate NL 6/22/26"
}