Navy ’forced war veteran to quit after sex change’
By Michael Fleet
A FALKLANDS veteran who changed sex to become a woman claimed yesterday that she was forced out by the Navy because it was embarrassed by her new identity.
Lynda Cash was Leading Medical Assistant Brian Waling when she served alongside the Duke of York on the carrier Invincible in the Falklands. She was discharged after starting a course of hormone treatment and her long service and good conduct medal was posted to her rather than being presented at a ceremony.
Miss Cash, 48, yesterday began an action for sex discrimination, unfair dismissal, medical negligence and disability discrimination. But a tribunal in Southampton will first have to decide whether she is able to bring an action against the Ministry of Defence.
As a woman, she paraded with other Falklands veterans at last year’s Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. Yesterday, wearing a blue polka-dot dress, Miss Cash broke down as she gave evidence to the tribunal. She said her discharge was brought forward after she refused to go on guard duty at the main gate of HMS Sultan in Portsmouth.
She said: “This sudden order to go on guard duty was frightening and insensitive, particularly as the hormonal medication was now affecting my physique. I feared being inappropriately exposed to humiliation. I thought I had been set up to behave in a way which could justify a quick discharge. I felt like a problem who was being got rid of and I was discharged five weeks after this incident.
“I am proud to have served the Royal Navy and I do not regret joining. But I consider my method of discharge to have been discriminatory. I was born in the wrong physical body but had a strong desire to live as a member of the opposite sex.”
Miss Cash said that, while in the Navy, she was diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following the Falklands conflict but was not told about it until last July. “I have spent the 14 years since diagnosis without any treatment. I had no idea that I had an illness for which I should have been receiving treatment.”
The hearing continues.
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