Sparta Pride

08/21/2026

Tomorrow our Executive Director, Kara Corcoran, embarks on the Leadville 100 Trail Run in Colorado. Leading up to this, she raised $100 per mile for SPARTA Pride ($10,000)! Since we met this goal, we also received a $10,000 match from a generous donor. Thank you to everyone who contributed; we can now provide more emergency microgrants to service members and veterans in need.

While we met our goal, we still need financial support to continue our important work, from the emergency grants to support programs to advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill. Contribute now to make this fundraiser even more of a success: https://givebutter.com/leadvillepledge

You can follow Kara's progress tomorrow here: https://sites.chronotrack.com/event/91273/results/entry/79971572

08/20/2026

We know it's hard to keep up with everything in this wild timeline. That's why we started The Phalanx, an email newsletter that goes out every two weeks and covers the latest developments of the trans military ban, along with other updates for LGBTQ+ service members, veterans, and their families.

The SPARTA Pride team ensures each issue is loaded with helpful news, resources, and ways you can get involved. Signing up is easy; visit spartapride.org and fill out the brief form at the bottom of the page. All we need is a name and email. The next one goes out this Sunday!

08/16/2026

Don’t believe the lies, myths, and misinformation. Transgender service members have been deploying successfully for the past decade, including in austere environments and on combat missions.

As SecDef’s new testosterone announcement shows, hormone medication can be prefilled in advance to take downrange and doesn’t impact readiness or lethality. Studies continuously prove it. And SPARTA Pride’s members are living proof.

08/14/2026

The SPARTA Pride team is hard at work supporting and advocating for transgender service members, veterans, and their families, along with military families with LGBTQ+ loved ones. But we can’t do it alone.

Your financial support is what enables us to do this vital work. And your support is making a tangible difference for our community. Click through the photos to see exactly how.

Please help us continue this work that's needed now more than ever. Donate today at givebutter.com/leadvillepledge to help us secure a $10,000 donor match before 8/22.

08/12/2026

As our Executive Director Kara Corcoran awaits her forced separation from the Army, she's embarking on a challenge of her choosing: running the legendary Leadville Trail 100 Run in Colorado on August 22. And she’s doing it to raise money for the trans military community here at SPARTA Pride.

If we reach our goal of raising $100 per mile she'll run, for $10k total, a generous donor will match that. That would mean $20,000 going directly to supporting the trans military and veteran community.

We are just over 60% there and need your help to unlock the match and double the impact. Let's do this! https://givebutter.com/leadvillepledge

(Note: the donation tool shows all donations as automatically matched, don't let that confuse you!)

08/10/2026

Gender-affirming care isn’t just for trans people, and reducing access or furthering stigma around it hurts everyone.

According to the Hastings Center for Bioethics, strong examples are reconstruction procedures, such as post-cancer breast surgery for a cis woman following cancer or a post-injury testicular implant for a cis man:

“These common treatments allow cisgender people to live more comfortably in their bodies and to realize authentic versions of themselves. They help people recover their full humanity after traumatic injuries and life-threatening illness. Gender is an important part of that full human experience, and giving people the gendered bodily experiences that align with who they are contributes to overall well-being….”

But gender-affirming care for cis people can also be cosmetic or elective, the Center explains:

“Hair plugs, testosterone therapy for “low-T”, even surgeries like jaw recontouring–these help many cis men to feel more masculine. Of course, there are whole industries that help cis women feel more feminine and womanly. The marketing for these treatments is often eerily similar to the way gender-affirming surgeries are marketed to trans people.”

And we shouldn’t judge anyone who needs or wants evidence-based gender-affirming care, whether they are cisgender OR transgender.

Source: https://www.thehastingscenter.org/news/gender-affirming-care-for-cisgender-people-qa-with-theodore-schall-and-jacob-moses/

08/06/2026

It's not every day that your Executive Director is featured as The New York Times Quote of the Day!

This was from an article published the day prior; it followed our leader, Kara Corcoran, along with several other transgender service members through the secretive and unjust separation board process. While military separation boards are meant to be fair and impartial, even for those in the position due to misconduct, trans service members face a novel process that is dehumanizing, ignores their service records and character witnesses, and is rigged with a predetermined outcome. Read the full piece here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/us/politics/transgender-troops-ban.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2lA.X8HD.5ZGzpmt9lqbS&smid=url-share

08/04/2026

After receiving a significant number of reports about a new, accelerated effort to identify and purge remaining transgender service members through extraordinary and unethical means, we can’t stay quiet. Please read our press release to see the reports we’ve received from trustworthy sources — and why it matters. Then help us spread the word! https://spartapride.org/2026/08/press-release-sparta-pride-sounds-alarm-accelerated-removals/

08/03/2026

We're grateful for this important New York Times piece that features our Executive Director, some of our members, and one of our legal partners. We hope this helps spread awareness about the excessive cruelty of the involuntary separation policy and how the separation boards are far from the impartial, fair processes they are typically meant to be.

Capt. Kai Proce gave the Army 11 years – West Point, two deployments, praised by his own commander as one of the best officers he'd served with in 29 years.
A closed-door board discharged him anyway – solely because he is transgender. This is what the transgender military ban actually looks like: distinguished service records, erased by a process built to guarantee one outcome. This isn't about readiness. It's cruelty, dressed up as policy. We're fighting it in court. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/us/politics/transgender-troops-ban.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2lA._IFb.eFGrpHNkbLxX&smid=nytcore-ios-share

07/31/2026

Our nation’s justice system has moved too slowly to protect transgender service members’ Constitutional rights — the very ones they swore an oath to defend.

In this recent interview with Law360, new veteran Videl Leins shares her heartbreak and frustration at being kicked out of the military before all of the wins in the courtroom can actually help those the real world.
https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2494390