Meet Juliana

When you first meet Juliana Paradise, it’s hard to imagine the decades of resilience and transformation behind her calm presence. At 66, she “hides it well,” she says with a smile. Her story spans continents, identities, and battles both seen and unseen.

Juliana joined the U.S. Army in 1980, serving until 1984. The military was strict, she recalls, full of rules she followed to the letter. Yet she often found herself shuffled into unexpected roles — like becoming a general’s driver, piloting a camouflage-clad vehicle outfitted with a bed and refrigerator across the European training fields. Her time stationed at Garlstadt, between Bremen and Bremerhaven in Germany, left her with lasting scars: tinnitus from unprotected tank fire and frostbite from winter field maneuvers that were never properly treated or acknowledged.

When she returned to the U.S. after her service, the job market in her hometown of Columbus, Georgia, was “very, very iffy.” So she went back to Germany, where she spent 13 years working with boats, planes, and submarines, repairing metalwork for Dutschke Installation Technique. Yet while she had steady work, she was also navigating the trauma of discrimination and the pain of living as someone she could not fully express.

“I read an article about San Francisco and how people were freer here,” she says. “I was coming from Columbus, Georgia. At that time, back then, there was no support for LGBT people.” If she was going to live in the U.S., Juliana decided she'd have to live in the Bay Area. She made the move in 2005 —and it was life-changing: “I felt so happy putting on my first pair of women’s shoes and walking around. I just felt so freed.”

But freedom didn’t erase the wounds of her past. The physical pain of tinnitus and frostbite was compounded by the psychological weight of trauma and stigma. “The stresses build up,” she says. Juliana figured out that she’d need to find community support to make it.

Juliana’s journey with Swords to Plowshares began in 2015. At the time, she was living on SSI and struggling to stay afloat. She had already been active in searching for and supporting the trans community in San Francisco, getting connected to the city’s Transgender Resource and Neighborhood Space, St. James Infirmary, the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, and others. But she needed a bridge to stability and affirmation of her disability.

Juliana found that bridge with Swords’ legal services, which helped her upgrade her other than honorable (OTH) discharge status to honorable, unlocking long-delayed disability benefits. “The team really helped me,” she says. “They produced evidence, got my records, and showed that the military had my discharge status wrong.”

Beyond paperwork, Swords helped Juliana connect to mental health resources that have allowed her to rediscover her own worth. “I have struggled with depression and drug use,” she says. “At Swords, I had the support I needed to see that I am a real person—not just some number or my gender. They helped me realize that I matter, that I am a person who truly matters, and that what I have learned I can pass on to others.”

Juliana Paradise has traveled far; from military bases in Europe to a life she can live authentically in San Francisco. And though she’s faced discrimination, injury, and hardship, she has also built a life rooted in advocacy, support, and hope for the generations who follow. She remains connected to the organizations and groups based in the Tenderloin and Transgender District in San Francisco. Though she is worried about the current state of political prejudice trans people are facing, Juliana is hopeful that younger generations are going to lead the way to a more equitable future.

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