It's Your Week: The first transgender war journalist becomes a soldier

Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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A helicopter crash killed at least 14 people Wednesday in a Kyiv suburb, including Ukraine's interior minister. The final death toll in a missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro reached at least 44 people. There was a lot of news from the Ukraine-Russia crisis this week. Let's take a step back from the headlines and take a look at one personal story about a soldier fighting in the nearly one-year conflict.

👋 Nicole Fallert here and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for USA TODAY subscribers like you.

This week, we talk with Cady Stanton, a breaking news reporter at USA TODAY who focuses on the LGBTQ community. Stanton answered my questions regarding her story about the first transgender war correspondent who turned in her reporter's notebook for a weapon to fight on Ukraine's front lines.

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When a source at the National LGBTQ Task Force reached out to Stanton to share Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, the subject of the story, would be in the D.C. area in December to meet with members of Congress, Stanton leapt at the chance to meet her. The two chatted for a few hours about Ashton-Cirillo's path in Ukraine from journalist to member of the armed forces.

Cady Stanton, USA TODAY breaking news reporter reporting captures herself in the field.
Cady Stanton, USA TODAY breaking news reporter reporting captures herself in the field.

Stanton wrote the story over the course of a month in between writing breaking news stories for USA TODAY's Nation team. She said the processing "required a lot of pausing and returning" to the story.

Making sure not to include information that would endanger Ashton-Cirillo or any other sources "was a challenging aspect to the story, but worthwhile to maintain trust with Sarah and ensure my reporting was doing no harm," Stanton said.

For Stanton, the most difficult part of the reporting process was giving "a full lens" to Ashton-Cirillo's more than eight months in a warzone and her total shift in her position within the war.

"I was determined to give her story justice," Stanton said. "I feel I could have written thousands more words about her time in Ukraine and the anecdotes she shared."

The most surprising part of Ashton-Cirillo's story involved how her gender identity has affected her time in Ukraine, Stanton said.

"She told me that in her experience, the equity created in a warzone meant her transgender identity was a 'non-issue' to those around her and served as a welcome reprieve to her experience in the U.S.," Stanton shared. "I found that insight to be a surprising and interesting aspect of her time in a country and region that has been historically unfriendly to the LGBTQ community."

As the Ukraine-Russia crisis reaches the one-year mark, I asked Stanton how we can maintain attention to a prolonged issues. She said the best way is to focus "on the stories of the people affected and involved"

"We often find ourselves in a state of 'psychic numbing' during such a horrific conflict," Stanton said. "We are constantly inundated with unfathomable statistics in such a large-scale tragedy. Focusing on individual perspectives and evoking empathy through a focus on shared -- or relatable -- experiences can be effective [in providing] novel angles to lean into as reporters to ensure enough attention remains on an important, long-term story."

Ashton-Cirillo pictured outside the U.S. Capitol building in December 2022.
Ashton-Cirillo pictured outside the U.S. Capitol building in December 2022.

Thank you

Thank you for supporting our journalism with your subscription. Stories like the one we've shared today wouldn't be possible without you. I'm going to spend the weekend perfecting yet another winter soup recipe. Can't wait to chat again next week.

Best wishes,

Nicole Fallert

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: It's Your Week: The first transgender war journalist becomes a soldier