In 2013, she became the first US service member to succeed in petitioning the Defense Department to publicly change her gender identification on all her military records.
[2] Her father is Jack Sandeen, a film and television costumer and later the wardrobe department head at Walt Disney Studios.
[6] Sandeen worked with OutServe-SLDN to determine the required documentation for changing one's gender in Department of Defense databases.
Sandeen's change established a procedure for transgender veterans who have completed reassignment surgery to alter their gender identity on Pentagon records.
[7][8] She received a letter officially confirming her identification as female in Department of Defense records effective April 12, 2013.