14 DAY TRIAL // A 20-year navy SEAL has decided to change genders, becoming a woman and documenting her experience in a book launched over this weekend.
ABC News reported that Kristin Beck used to be known as Chris. Chris was an elite Seal, and according to all accounts, a "consummate guy's guy."
"Warrior Princess," Beck's autobiography carries you through decades of hiding behind an Army man's mask or, in this case, unkempt beard.
"For Chris the other SEALs were brothers and in the man's man warrior lifestyle,” the book reads.
It was co-authored by Anne Speckhard, who describes Beck turning off that side of herself in the service.
"[He] had considered living as the woman he felt himself to be for a very long time, but while he was serving as a SEAL he couldn't do it.
"Chris really wanted to be a girl and felt that she was a girl and consolidated that identity very early on in childhood," Speckhard says.
It wasn't until her retirement in 2011 that she began to consider making the change to womanhood. Chris decided to let his friends know via social media, posting "No more disguises."
"Now seemed the right time to go for it - to make his body match his identity -- or at least start by dressing like a woman in his regular life," Speckhard notes.
Beck wishes to send a message of self-acceptance and openness to all members of the LGBT community, whether they are out not.
By means of her book, Kristin intends "to reach out to all of the younger generation and encourage you to live your life fully and to treat each other with compassion, be good to each other, especially in your own backyard (where it be high school or your community)," Speckhard adds.