Organizer: Esprit Mistress Badge
Olympic/Juan de Fuca, on Sat May 17 at 12:00PM
The Esprit Committee is pleased to announce Zane Alvarez as our Esprit 2025 Keynote Speaker. He will share his journey being Trans in the Military and his educational support in the Community.
Zane Alvarez (he/him) was assigned female at birth, but as a child, he prayed to become a boy. At this young age, he didn’t know what to make of these feelings, and he certainly didn’t have the words to explain it since gender issues were still far from the mainstream.
Alvarez came out as a lesbian in his teens and began dressing more masculine, but this identity still didn’t feel completely right. He graduated high school, and six years ago, he went on to join the Army as a behavioral health technician.
He was stationed in Augusta, Georgia, and one day, when a Starbucks barista accidentally addressed him as a male, it just felt right. This gave him an intense epiphany. He talked to some of his transgender friends and began to realize why something never felt right: he wasn’t a lesbian. He was a transgender man.