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Sheryl Weikal
Images Courtesy of Sheryl Weikal and Tehom Center Publishing

‘I was an abomination’: Trans lawyer shares difficult coming out experience in new memoir

Sheryl Weikal’s parents were deeply conservative, and for many years she and her sisters were homeschooled. At eight years old, she had never heard the word “transgender,” but she understood that there was a disconnect between who she was and what she saw in the mirror. She tried to come out to her family as a child. In the years that followed, her parents reacted negatively … often, violently. She talks about that experience and more in her upcoming memoir, “I Was An Abomination: A Story of Trans Survival in Conservative America".

A world war 2 military helmet on a sandy beach next to a white cross marking a grave. The cross is labeled
Left: Lt. Cdr. Charles Kerlee, USNR via Naval History and Heritage Command; Right: identification photo via Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Lost in war, found in time: How America accounts for unknown war dead

On Memorial Day, we learn about the ongoing work to identify missing soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines from America’s past wars. That includes Illinoisans who’ve finally been accounted for, like Marine Sgt. Robert F. Van Heck of Chicago, killed at age 25 during the Battle of Tarawa in World War II. Plus, we’ll talk about the enduring symbolism and mythology of soldiers thought left behind in Vietnam.

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