Gotham Artists
 

Transgender Veteran & Activist

Laila Ireland
Speaking Fee: 4785

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Laila Ireland At A Glance:

Veteran Laila Ireland courageously came out as a transgender service member by sharing her story in the Emmy-nominated short film "Transgender, at War and in Love." Today, Laila advocates for LGBTQIA equity by speaking across the country and establishing safe spaces for this critical conversation.

Laila Ireland is a Retired Army Healthcare Management & Administration Supervisor.  She enlisted into the Army in 2003 as a Human Intelligence Collector and re-classed to become a Combat Medic after her first tour during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005-2006. Her passion in advocacy for LGBTQ2 Youth and Veterans is very evident in her work today.

Laila is a native to Hawaii and comes from a long legacy of military members.  She fashioned her life after her father, grandfather and great grandfather whom all served. A small town girl, she was well known for being outspoken and always took initiative to help others around her.  She even made it a point to be a part of Hawaii’s Young Ambassadors for Change, making her the first in her family to be recognized by the state of Hawaii for creating a no-bully program at her local school. Her desire to serve in the military came during her time in high school, as she quickly worked her way through the ranks and served on her JROTC Battalion as their S-1 OIC.

Always a soldier, Laila’s activism began in 2012 with the LGBT military advocacy organization OutServe-SLDN Trans. She then joined and helped build SPART*A  in 2013 where she served as the Membership Director of SPART*A until early 2021, managing over 1100 members across the world. Through these non-profit organizations she talks about the intersections of being transgender, female, a person of color, a veteran, Asian American Pacific Islander, Hispanic and a spouse to a transgender service member while actively serving in the military.  She has always conquered and excelled in the tasks that were given to her; making a career in public speaking, advocacy, and activism surrounding LGBTQ2, transmilitary and veterans equality.  Laila now serves on the Board of Directors for Minority Veterans of America.

Laila was given the 2016 Military Spouse Leadership Award by the Modern Military Association of America, honored as the 2017 and 2019 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year for Peterson Air Force Base and the US Space Force, received the 2018 LGBT Bar Association of Oregon Innovator Award and was  the 2018 American Veteran’s for Equal Rights – Rocky Mountain Chapter LGBT Veterans Champion Award recipient.  She is also a featured character in the 2018 SXSW Audience Award winning film, TransMilitary, which has served as one of the educating tools surrounding transmilitary equity issues.

  • Laila Ireland shares her personal stories from the front lines of the fight for equality. Some of the topics her engagements cover include:

    -TransMilitary
    -Veterans, Minority Veterans
    -LGBTQIA Veterans Equality
    -LGBTQIA AAPI
    -Diversity and Inclusion
We absolutely LOVED her! Her entire personality, message, and just general presence felt like you were talking to a friend. I’m not going to lie, I’m disappointed we couldn’t be in person to see her speak because she seems like such an amazing person.  Definitely high-marks received from our group and some great questions during the Q&A portion.

— Jaime Costilow, VP of Marketing, Direct Employers Association

In ‘TransMilitary,’ troops fight for the country, banned or not

A recent documentary “TransMilitary,” follows four trans troops in their military journeys as the federal government flip-flops on whether they should be banned. As the battle over the ban continues in ... Read more

by PBS

Gotham Artists

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