Julia Curlee spent nearly two decades doing the kind of work most Americans only see in movies.

She served in war zones. She worked inside the White House. She briefed Vice President Mike Pence on some of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence. She even briefed President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One.

And she did it as a transgender woman.

Now, after leaving government service, the former CIA officer is telling her story publicly. Her conclusion is painful: The agency she once encouraged LGBTQ+ Americans to join is no longer a workplace she feels comfortable recommending to them.

Two Dreams That Once Seemed Impossible

Curlee joined the CIA in 2007.

She had dreamed of becoming an intelligence officer since childhood. At the same time, she knew she was transgender during an era when positive transgender representation was almost nonexistent.

In 2013, Curlee transitioned openly while serving at the CIA. She has described herself as the agency’s first officer to transition openly and remain in service.

Her career did not stall afterward.

It took off.

Curlee eventually became a President’s Daily Brief briefer, one of the intelligence community’s most sensitive assignments. She also held leadership positions at the CIA and served as a National Security Council director during the Biden and second Trump administrations.

Her résumé made one thing difficult to argue: being transgender had not prevented her from doing the job.

Then Came Mike Pence

Perhaps the most unexpected part of Curlee’s story involves former Vice President Mike Pence.

During the first Trump administration, Curlee was selected to brief Pence daily.

The assignment understandably gave her pause. Pence had a long political record of opposing several LGBTQ+ rights initiatives.

Yet Curlee says her personal experience with him was surprisingly respectful.

She told CNN that Pence treated her “with great dignity” and took his intelligence briefings seriously. At the end of her assignment, Pence invited Curlee and her family to the White House. There, Curlee says he took her mother’s hand and told her she should be proud of her daughter.

The moment carried enormous meaning for Curlee.

She had once feared that living openly as a woman would destroy her dream of serving in intelligence. Instead, she found herself standing inside the White House as a transgender CIA officer trusted to brief the vice president.

For Curlee, it felt like proof that America had changed.

She Returned for Trump’s Second Administration

That experience influenced Curlee’s decision to remain in government when Trump returned to office in January 2025.

She believed career intelligence professionals had a duty to serve elected leaders regardless of party.

Curlee was then working on the National Security Council. She says administration officials knew she was transgender, and initially she continued doing her job.

However, the political environment surrounding transgender federal workers was changing quickly.

The administration issued policies recognizing sex as binary for federal purposes and moved against diversity, equity and inclusion programs across government. Curlee says she adapted to new restrictions, even leaving the White House complex to use a restroom rather than risk becoming a distraction.

Still, she kept working.

Then her identity became publicly useful to someone looking for a target.

Curlee Says Everything Changed When Her Identity Went Public

According to Curlee, a far-right activist publicly drew attention to her transgender identity while criticizing personnel inside the administration.

Soon afterward, Curlee says she was informed that her White House assignment was ending.

The situation had a remarkable twist.

Even after being removed from the White House role, officials asked her to return to work temporarily because she was still needed to help with an important budget matter.

Curlee later returned to the CIA.

She says that experience left her with a disturbing conclusion: her expertise remained valuable, but her identity had become politically inconvenient once it was publicly highlighted.

The White House did not publicly say Curlee was removed because she was transgender. Curlee has said she was given no official explanation for her removal.

That distinction matters.

So does the timing that led Curlee to tell her story.

From Recruiting LGBTQ+ Officers to Warning Them Away

Years earlier, Curlee had written anonymously about being transgender inside the CIA.

Her message then was hopeful.

She wanted young LGBTQ+ Americans to know they could build meaningful careers in intelligence without sacrificing who they were.

Today, her message has changed.

After watching LGBTQ+ support structures dismantled and experiencing the changing environment herself, Curlee says she can no longer recommend that LGBTQ+ Americans pursue CIA careers under current conditions.

That may be the most striking part of her story.

America did not lose an inexperienced employee who wondered whether she belonged in intelligence.

Curlee had already proved that she did.

Why Curlee’s Story Matters

This is bigger than one career.

Intelligence agencies compete for people who understand technology, foreign languages, military affairs, cybersecurity, economics and complicated international relationships.

Talent does not become less valuable because the person possessing it is transgender.

Curlee argues that politicizing the intelligence workforce can also damage national security. In separate writing for Lawfare, she has warned that firings and security-clearance actions can teach intelligence professionals that staying silent is safer than delivering uncomfortable analysis.

That is a dangerous lesson for an institution whose job is to tell presidents what is true, not simply what they want to hear.

A Story About Service—and Belonging

Curlee’s story complicates easy political narratives.

Mike Pence, despite a political record many LGBTQ+ Americans strongly oppose, treated her personally with dignity, according to Curlee.

Years later, an administration that continued using her expertise became a place where she concluded she could no longer remain.

That contradiction is part of what makes her experience worth hearing.

For nearly 20 years, Julia Curlee served her country while carrying secrets most Americans will never know.

Now she is sharing one thing that should never have needed to be secret:

A transgender American can serve at the highest levels of government, walk into the White House and do extraordinarily sensitive work.

Curlee already proved that.

The question now is whether the government will continue creating space for the next person like her.

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