MPW Summit 2023: The Inclusion Imperative
Lt. Col Bree Fram, Chief, Acquisition Policies and Processes Division, United States Space Force Terri Burns, Investor; Board Member; Co-chair, Fortune Brainstorm Tech
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00:00 Today is National Coming Out Day, an annual celebration of LGBTQ+ identity and a reminder
00:06 of the ongoing journey toward acceptance and equality and the power of coming out.
00:11 It's a day that is undoubtedly meaningful to our next guest.
00:14 Lieutenant Colonel Bree Fram is the highest ranking out active duty transgender officer
00:19 in the U.S. Department of Defense.
00:22 She's an astronautical engineer in the United States Space Force and currently works at
00:27 the Pentagon developing space acquisition policy.
00:30 Bree also co-leads the Department of the Air Force LGBTQ+ initiatives team which eliminates
00:35 barriers to LGBTQ+ service.
00:38 We're thrilled to have Bree join us today to talk about trans rights under attack across
00:42 society and the importance of inclusion in the military, the business world, and beyond.
00:47 Bree joins Terry Burns, investor, board member, and co-chair of Fortunes Brainstorm Tech for
00:51 today's conversation.
00:53 Please welcome them to the stage.
00:58 All right.
01:06 So good morning.
01:07 Good morning.
01:08 What an honor to be here.
01:09 I love the energy.
01:10 Good morning, everyone.
01:11 Yeah, absolutely.
01:12 Okay, so let's get into it.
01:16 You are an active duty lieutenant colonel and astronautical engineer in the United States
01:22 Space Force.
01:23 What is the mission of the Space Force and why do we need defense in space?
01:27 Well, the mission of the Space Force is to secure our nation's interests in, from, and
01:32 to space.
01:34 So in short, that means we need to be sure that we can access the space domain.
01:39 We need to be able to protect, defend, and know what's going on in space.
01:43 And then we need to bring all those amazing capabilities that space delivers back down
01:48 to Earth, not just for our joint force and what we do to secure and defend the nation,
01:54 but to everyone.
01:55 You know, most people don't know that the Space Force runs, flies, designs GPS.
02:01 So anything that you do to navigate, anything that you do with a credit card, or the timing
02:06 signal that underpins every financial transaction in the world is supplied by the Space Force.
02:12 So all of you probably touch us every day in a way you'd never even conceive of calling
02:17 on a military service.
02:19 And understanding the fact that we actually need to protect these capabilities is so important
02:26 because there are threats out there.
02:29 And we couldn't even imagine a day without space.
02:34 Think of the capabilities it provides to just about every sector of the economy, from telling
02:40 farmers when to plant, when to water, the sensing that we do, the weather prediction
02:45 capability.
02:46 I mean, it is phenomenal what space brings.
02:49 And if we were to lose space capabilities, think of setting us back 70 or 100 years in
02:54 where we are as a planet.
02:55 It would be almost unsurvivable.
02:57 So you served 18 years in the Air Force before recommissioning into the Space Force.
03:03 Why do you serve and what made moving to the Space Force so compelling?
03:07 Well, I could easily tell a 30-minute story filled with family connections and events
03:12 that is a lot of emotions about why I serve and why the Space Force.
03:18 But I'll sum it up in three ways.
03:21 One, it is that ability to serve, that ability to give back and protect and defend the things
03:26 that I care about so much, support and defend the Constitution and the ideals of creating
03:31 a better nation.
03:33 It fuels my passion in space.
03:35 I have always been a space nerd.
03:37 And I like to say, if it's nerdy, I probably tried it and I almost certainly enjoyed it.
03:43 So being part of the space environment, being a technology developer, that really excites
03:48 me.
03:49 But as for the Space Force, being a new military service, wow.
03:54 Talk about fueling my other passion of building a culture, because we have this opportunity
04:00 to develop a 21st century military culture.
04:03 A new service does not come along very often.
04:06 This is once in multiple generations.
04:09 And we, through our founding documents and our core values, connection, commitment, courage,
04:17 character, are setting the foundation for a service that values all of us.
04:23 In fact, I'd encourage you all, if you actually have a few minutes, read a document called
04:27 The Guardian Spirit.
04:28 It is a short, like 16-page document on leadership and what we believe in.
04:33 And it is one of the best primers on leadership I have seen.
04:37 And it has words you wouldn't expect to see in a military leadership document.
04:41 It talks about embracing diversity and engaging inclusively.
04:46 It talks about the value of openness, authenticity, and vulnerability.
04:51 I mean, vulnerability in a military leadership document, that's wild to think of.
04:57 But vulnerability, the ability to show ourselves that we're human, is that opening to connection.
05:03 And embracing that connection with our teams makes us all better.
05:09 So I could not be more excited than to be part of the Space Force and the culture that
05:14 we are building.
05:15 - That's awesome.
05:16 And to that point, in that spirit, vulnerability, openness, diversity, inclusion, today's National
05:22 Coming Out Day, you have said before, quote, "It took me a long time to get to the point
05:27 of this is who I am."
05:30 So I want to ask you, what gave you the courage to come out into your full self and tell the
05:34 world who you are?
05:37 - My journey to authenticity was a long one.
05:40 And for most of my military career, I was prohibited by policy from coming out, from,
05:45 in fact, even letting a word slip that might get to the wrong ear that I was trans.
05:51 Because if it did, I could have lost my career for something that had absolutely nothing
05:55 to do with my ability to serve.
05:58 But still, when that moment came, when I could come out, I was afraid.
06:04 I didn't know what the reaction was going to be when that message got out into the world.
06:10 And it took a lot.
06:11 Because when the Secretary of Defense in 2016 finished speaking to say trans people can
06:16 now serve openly, I had a Facebook message ready to go to the world and a letter to go
06:20 to my colleagues.
06:22 And once I got up the courage to hit post, to hit send, I ran away.
06:27 I went and found the gym underneath the Pentagon, got on the elliptical machine, and I went
06:32 nowhere faster than I'd ever gone anywhere in my life with all the nervous energy I had.
06:38 But eventually I did have to go back to work.
06:41 And I sat down at my desk, and one by one, my colleagues walked over to me, shook my
06:45 hand and said, "It's an honor to serve with you."
06:49 And I was floored.
06:57 That was a moment that will live with me forever, because it was truly my honor to serve with
07:01 them.
07:02 And what we're trying to do, trying to accomplish, is so important.
07:07 But still, that courage to come out is something that everyone has to face.
07:11 And for anyone on National Coming Out Day, coming out is not a single event.
07:15 It is a process.
07:16 It is something people do over and over again.
07:19 With the picture that sits on their desk of their family, or talking about the pronouns
07:23 of their spouse, it is something that happens again and again.
07:26 And you always have to do that risk management to think through that process of, "Am I going
07:32 to be okay if I come out in this situation?"
07:36 So for me, a lot of it was, "If not me, then who?"
07:40 Because there's almost a sense of duty, a sense of obligation to take care of the others
07:44 that are going to follow me.
07:46 As one of the senior-most trans folks in the military, we embrace that leadership ethos
07:51 of leave no one behind.
07:53 How do we bring people along behind us?
07:56 How do we make sure that they don't face the barriers that we had to face?
08:00 And that if we can do that by cutting down the trees and paving the road behind us, so
08:05 that the people joining the military today can get to the places that I've been to with
08:10 the energy to go further, that's success.
08:13 That's leadership building.
08:14 That is what we need to do in the military to deliver capability far into the future.
08:19 Absolutely.
08:20 And your point around the act of coming out as a continual act throughout one's life really
08:25 resonates with me.
08:26 My partner is non-binary, and I think a lot about when and how it is okay to share that
08:31 information.
08:32 So that is really resonant.
08:34 In just a moment, I want to open up questions to the audience.
08:37 But first, I want to lean a little bit more into some of the barriers and challenges that
08:42 still remain today.
08:44 What are some of the challenges that remain specifically for transgender service members
08:48 in the military?
08:49 Well, I think one of the biggest barriers that is out there are the stereotypes of who
08:53 trans people are and who trans people in the military are is an even wilder and more outlandish
08:58 stereotype.
08:59 The concept of people like me is that we're weeping messes who could never return fire
09:04 from our foxhole because we're too busy thinking about what we're going to wear that night
09:08 or our gender identity or that transgender men are steroidal rage monsters.
09:13 They're going to charge at the hill at the wrong place and get everyone killed.
09:18 And nothing could be further from the truth.
09:20 But even at a more mundane level, I had a boss who I worked for for about six months
09:25 after coming out, and he retired.
09:27 But before he did, he called me into his office and said that I broke his stereotype of who
09:31 a trans person was just by showing up to work every day.
09:36 Whoa, that is a really low bar.
09:40 Let me just step right over that one.
09:45 But it's crazy that a lot of people think we have second heads growing out of our shoulders.
09:49 I mean, we are a small portion of the population and too easily conceived of as this last boogeyman
09:56 that's out there, the scary people that no one knows.
09:59 So I take every day, every day as a gift to meet people, to interact and to show that
10:05 we're not monsters.
10:07 We're here.
10:08 We're serving for the same reasons as anyone else.
10:10 And it's just an amazing opportunity we have every day to change hearts and minds.
10:14 Do we have any questions from the audience?
10:17 I'm curious to know a little bit more about, of course, inclusion in the military, which
10:25 is super important.
10:26 And this is women's -- Fortune's Most Powerful Women.
10:29 So how do you think about the importance of inclusion, not just in the military, but in
10:33 business as well?
10:35 >> So inclusion is a national security imperative.
10:41 We fight today, and we are going to fight in the future using brain power.
10:46 And if that brain, who's going to revolutionize the way we fight in space, we fight in cyber,
10:52 just happens to be in a trans body, you should want them all serving alongside me.
10:58 And for your organizations, it's the same way.
11:01 Those perspectives that we get from a diverse set of individuals, it's been talked about
11:05 on stage a lot regarding the science behind high-performing teams.
11:09 We need those perspectives.
11:11 But it's inclusion that actually drives that.
11:15 Because you can bring people in, and if they don't feel safe to speak up, if they don't
11:19 feel safe to bring their full selves to work, you're not going to get the value of the diversity.
11:25 So for us, it is absolutely critical to drive our future success as an organization and
11:31 potentially on the battlefield.
11:33 And I think it's the same way for all of you, because we can't leave that talent that is
11:37 going to revolutionize the way we do business behind.
11:39 >> I think we have a question right here.
11:41 >> Hi.
11:42 My name is Beth DePaola with European Scientific.
11:44 I just want to say thank you for being you and for your role model leadership and for
11:50 your service.
11:51 What was the name of the document that you said we should all read?
11:54 I apologize.
11:55 >> It is The Guardian Spirit.
11:57 >> The Guardian Spirit.
11:58 Thank you so much.
11:59 >> Yes.
12:00 So it talks about our core values, what each of them mean, what team members should believe,
12:03 what team leaders should believe, and talks about all those amazing concepts that we are
12:08 trying to do to build high-performing teams, because it's how do we connect with one another,
12:13 how do we embody those values, and again, how do we build a culture, which is such a
12:17 cool opportunity.
12:18 >> Thank you so much.
12:19 >> I think we have one question over here, and we're running a little low on time, so
12:22 let's keep it a little concise.
12:23 >> Thank you for your service.
12:24 My name is Jameika Aaron.
12:25 I'm a CISO at Okta.
12:26 I wouldn't be a CISO without my friend Joan, whom I've shared this story with a little
12:30 bit.
12:31 My question to you is what can we do to help continue to push your message forward and
12:36 support you while you are in service?
12:39 >> So one of the things I think all of us can do is tell stories, share stories, share
12:46 with people that you know LGBTQ individuals, and highlight them in your companies, in the
12:54 work that you do, because representation truly does matter, and that ability to see someone
13:01 who's done something incredible and to see that from a young person's perspective and
13:06 give them that opportunity to say, "I can do that."
13:10 And it's not a new concept.
13:11 In fact, we can go all the way back to Frederick Douglass in 1881, standing at the right hand
13:16 of the president while serving as marshal of D.C., and he remarked about how valuable
13:21 that was, how not even the hoary locks of time could remove that image from people's
13:27 minds and give something that people can strive to.
13:31 So highlight us, tell our stories, show the achievement, and watch possibility bloom in
13:39 young people's imaginations.
13:40 One of the most rewarding things I ever do is give speeches, and I see a young individual
13:47 come up afterwards and speak with me and say, "I never knew that was possible for me."
13:53 And that touches me, because it's amazing to see that open up for someone.
13:58 >> Lieutenant Colonel, thank you so much for your service.
14:01 It's been an absolute pleasure.
14:02 >> It has been so much fun.
14:03 Thanks for having me.
14:04 >> Thank you.
14:04 [ Applause ]
14:05 [ Silence ]