--- title: Transgender Military Members Walk the MTV VMA Red Carpet description: MTV invited six transgender military members to attend the event and walk the signature blue carpet alongside the president of GLAAD. canonical: https://time.com/4917765/vma-red-carpet-transgender-military/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-28T00:28:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:49.339Z og:title: Meet the Transgender Military Members Who Just Walked the VMA Red Carpet og:description: They were accompanied by the president of GLAAD og:url: https://time.com/4917765/vma-red-carpet-transgender-military/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90737f12361a0611/6988db5c86f68e19746e62d9/mtv-video-music-awards-07.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MTV-VMAS-2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Transgender Military Members Who Just Walked the VMA Red Carpet twitter:description: They were accompanied by the president of GLAAD twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90737f12361a0611/6988db5c86f68e19746e62d9/mtv-video-music-awards-07.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meet the Transgender Military Members Who Just Walked the VMA Red Carpet  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 28, 2017 12:28 AM UTC  President of GLAAD Sarah Kate Ellis and transgender military members attend the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Aug. 27, 2017 in Inglewood, Calif. President of GLAAD Sarah Kate Ellis and transgender military members attend the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Aug. 27, 2017 in Inglewood, Calif.John Shearer—MTV/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 28, 2017 12:28 AM UTC MTV is already making a statement at Sunday night’s [Video Music Awards](http://time.com/4903945/mtv-vmas-2017-watching-guide/), inviting six [transgender](http://time.com/4916871/donald-trump-transgender-military-ban/) military members to attend the event and walk the signature blue carpet alongside the president of GLAAD. “Any patriot who is putting their own life at risk to fight for our freedom and stand for equality is a hero at MTV, and to young people everywhere,” said MTV president Chris McCarthy [in a statement](http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7942128/trans-military-members-mtv-vmas-red-carpet-bios) provided earlier, according to _Billboard_. Among those who walked with GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis were Brynn Tannehill, Laila Ireland, Akira Wyatt, Jennifer Peace, Logan Ireland and Sterling James Crutcher. “Historically, the VMAs have been a huge platform for social issues that are currently happening, so being able to have that platform and share our stories is important to us,” retired Army vet Ireland [told _Billboard_](http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7942128/trans-military-members-mtv-vmas-red-carpet-bios) ahead of the event. > [](https://twitter.com/MTV/status/901932233216233472) > [](https://twitter.com/TheShadyFacts/status/901931712715911170) [On Friday](http://time.com/4916871/donald-trump-transgender-military-ban/), President Trump made a formal order for the Department of Defense to stop allowing transgender individuals to openly serve in the U.S. military. The order means the military cannot accept new transgender troops and has six month to plan how to handle transgender troops currently serving openty, [the White House said](http://time.com/4916871/donald-trump-transgender-military-ban/). Although there is no official number for how many transgender people serve in the military, a 2016 commissioned by the [RAND Corporation](https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research%5Fbriefs/RB9900/RB9909/RAND%5FRB9909.pdf) estimated between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender service members are in active duty and another 830 to 4,160 are in the reserves. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4917765/vma-red-carpet-transgender-military/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4917765/vma-red-carpet-transgender-military/"},"headline":"Meet the Transgender Military Members Who Just Walked the VMA Red Carpet","datePublished":"2017-08-28T00:28:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:49.339Z","description":"MTV invited six transgender military members to attend the event and walk the signature blue carpet alongside the president of GLAAD.","url":"https://time.com/4917765/vma-red-carpet-transgender-military/","keywords":["Newsfeed","onetime","MTV VMAs 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90737f12361a0611/6988db5c86f68e19746e62d9/mtv-video-music-awards-07.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt90737f12361a0611/6988db5c86f68e19746e62d9/mtv-video-music-awards-07.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MTV-VMAS-2017","caption":"President of GLAAD Sarah Kate Ellis and transgender military members attend the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Aug. 27, 2017 in Inglewood, California.","creditText":"John Shearer—MTV/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4917765/vma-red-carpet-transgender-military/","name":"Meet the Transgender Military Members Who Just Walked the VMA Red Carpet"}}]}] ```