Bree Fram had just graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in aerospace engineering when Sept. 11 happened.
She knew at that moment she wanted to join the U.S. Air Force and use her degree to “be a part of something greater than [her]self.”
“It was a world-changing moment where, for so long, we had just taken so many things for granted,” Fram said of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. “That concept that we were protected by oceans and by a peaceful world, that we helped create, that there was no danger, but the world had moved on, and things had changed, and we needed to be wary and be able to protect and defend our way of life and the freedoms and opportunities again that are so important to who we are.”
Nearly 24 years after that moment, Fram will walk with Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown as one of the grand marshals for the Annapolis Pride Parade Saturday.
The parade begins at 11 a.m. at Calvert and Bladen streets, goes around Church Circle, up West Street and ends at Amos Garrett Boulevard, according to a news release. Following the parade, a festival will be held outside of Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and the Bates Athletic Complex.
“[Fram and Brown] are both on the front lines in the ongoing fight against the attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community from the federal government,” Joe Toolan, board chair for Annapolis Pride, said in a statement. “At this year’s parade and festival, we feel it’s more important than ever not only to celebrate our community, but also to get back to the roots of pride, as a protest, and work to defend our LGBTQIA+ rights that are under attack.”
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring current and future trans people from serving in the military.
A coalition of 20 states, including Maryland, filed amicus briefs in support of a lawsuit challenging the policy. The lawsuit, filed by seven active service members, sought to block the policy, which was temporarily successful, as reported by the New York Times. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in early May the Trump administration can enforce the policy, according to the Associated Press.
“As a veteran, former Congressman, and now Maryland’s Attorney General who has consistently fought for transgender Americans to serve openly in our military, it’s truly an honor to serve as Grand Marshal alongside Colonel Bree Fram,” Brown said in a statement. “She embodies the patriotic understanding that our servicemembers make sacrifices to preserve everyone’s freedom to be their true selves.”
Following the Supreme Court ruling, the Department of Defense and conservative lawmakers have moved to put Trump’s policy into action. A memo from the Department of Defense last week says that active service members with gender dysphoria, like Fram, have until June 6 to self-identify. Following a 30-day period, military services will start the process of “involuntary” separation, which will be conducted through medical assessments, according to the memo.
Legislation introduced in the House by Rep. Barry Moore, a Republican from Alabama, last week seeks to make the policy law.
“Transgender people have medical, surgical, and mental health concerns that limit their ability to sustain these standards,” Moore said in a statement May 14.
The Department of Defense did not return a request for comment.
It is unclear if Fram will begin the voluntary separation process or not. Fram said she plans to “serve as long as [she] is possibly able to do so because every day in uniform is a gift.”
Service members who voluntarily or involuntarily separate will be afforded “all statutorily required rights and benefits,” according to a U.S. Space Force spokesperson. However, members who voluntarily separate will be “paid at a rate that is twice the amount the service member would have been eligible for in involuntary separation pay.”
Despite taking pride in her accomplishments, Fram described the first 13 years of her career as a “mental tax” of concealing her identity.
“If anyone had found out that I was trans[gender ], I would have lost my ability to continue serving for something that had absolutely nothing to do with my ability to serve. And like so many others, I had to serve in the closet, and I had to put an incredibly strong filter in my brain that had to sit between who I knew I was and what I ever said or what I ever did,” she said.
That all changed in 2013, when then-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that transgender people could serve openly in the military. When she joined the U.S. Space Force in 2019, she described the moment as feeling “like a marriage proposal.”
“[Walking in the parade] really is about visibility. It is about showing our humanity, our capability to as many people as are willing to take notice of it. At a Pride event in particular, it really is about inspiring the future and seeing again that trans people and trans people in the military can thrive,” she said.
Fram is currently a colonel in the U.S. Space Force but will not walk in Saturday’s parade in uniform. She emphasized that she is speaking in her personal capacity and that her views do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.
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