Charlotte Clymer awarded prize by Military Reporters & Editors
WASHINGTON — During its annual conference for journalists, Military Reporters & Editors presented awards to winners of its 2025 MRE Journalism Contest. Earning this year’s Best Commentary/Opinion (Division 2) award is Charlotte Clymer who writes Charlotte’s Web Thoughts on the Substack publishing platform.
Award Summary
Five opinion articles on service and the military, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts, 5/26/2024 – 4/4/2025
Prize Category: Best Commentary/Opinion Division 2, Text journalism published in traditional print or online media.
Best work by a columnist who writes about topics covering the military, national security, or homeland defense on a regular basis, published by a news organization with fewer than 20 reporters.
Judges’ Comments:
As a member of the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) — the Army’s oldest active-duty infantry unit, serving since 1784 — Clymer did countless hours of training and duty in the ceremonial unit that provides military funeral escorts at Arlington National Cemetery, works with families of the fallen and manages their casket and remains in dignified transfers. She writes eloquently about the honor and the heartache of such tasks and how they must be done with precision and care, given the seriousness of their work. Her two outstanding pieces about this work stood out covering the work they do at Arlington, such as the duties of planting flags at each of the 400,000 graves on Memorial Day weekend, and removing them afterward. Her other pieces dealt with the politicization of the military and one in particular, about the attacks on Gen. Mark Milley, was very powerful—going over in great detail “The Anatomy of a Patriot’s Uniform.” She also wrote movingly of the training and responsibility of the elite soldiers in her unit who earn the right to help with the work of maintaining a 24-hour vigil at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Read the Winning Articles
- Opinion 1: Flags In, Flags Out, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts (5/26/2024)
- Opinion 2: In Praise of the Hardest Job in Arlington National Cemetery, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts (8/8/2024)
- Opinion 3: The Anatomy of a Patriot’s Uniform, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts (12/9/2024)
- Opinion 4: A Dipshit’s Excuse for Intelligence, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts (3/24/2025)
- Opinion 5: Trump Picks Golf Over Dead American Soldiers, Charlotte’s Web Thoughts (4/4/2025)
Journalist Biography
Charlotte Clymer
Charlotte Clymer is a writer, communications consultant, transgender activist, and military veteran.
She writes “Charlotte’s Web Thoughts,” a popular Substack newsletter about politics, religion, and culture. It was recognized with the 2024 EPPY Award for Best News/Political Blog, the 2024 NLGJA Award for Excellence in Blogging and named a finalist for Outstanding Blog at the 2023 and 2024 GLAAD Media Awards.
Her consulting clients have included national organizations, corporations, political campaigns, and Broadway shows, among other projects.
She was named to the 13th class of political fellows at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in the Fall of 2021 and previously served as the Director of Communications & Strategy at Catholics for Choice, a reproductive rights advocacy organization.
Prior to that, she was the Press Secretary for Rapid Response at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest civil rights organization dedicated to advancing LGBTQ equality. Her day-to-day work involved running the organization’s messaging in response to the White House and federal policy.
She served in the United States Army from 2005 to 2012, most of that spent as an enlisted soldier in the 3rd U.S.
Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard).
Her political and social commentary has been quoted by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and numerous other outlets. Her writing has been published in USA Today, The Washington Post, NBC News, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, GQ, The Independent, and other publications. She has also been a guest commentator on
MSNBC, CNN, BBC, CBS Sunday Morning, and various public radio programs.
In 2021, she became the first openly-transgender woman appointed to the Board of Directors for LPAC, the nation’s largest organization dedicated to advancing queer women in politics. In 2023, she was elected Vice Chair.
In 2022, she was nominated by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser—and unanimously confirmed by the City Council—to serve on the D.C. Human Rights Commission, the first openly-transgender person to do so. She previously served on the Commission for Persons with Disabilities as a Mayoral Appointee.
In 2023, she became the first openly-trans person elected to membership in the Council on Foreign Relations in its 102-year history as part of that year’s Stephen M. Keller Term Member Progam co-hort.
She also serves on the Board of Directors for Running Start, an organization that trains and empowers young women and nonbinary youth to get involved in politics. Additionally, she volunteers on the advisory councils for Modern Military Families of America, an advocacy org for LGBTQ service members and their families, and the Lone Star
Parity Project, which works to increase the representation of women elected officials in Texas.
She has also served on the Host Committee for the Elizabeth Dole Foundation’s Annual Gala, fundraising for the nation’s more than six million military caregivers.
She was selected for the Truman National Security Project’s Class of 2019 and has served as the co-lead of the D.C. Chapter and the Executive Committee for membership applications.
She was honored as “Best Transgender Advocate” in 2018 and “Most Committed Activist” in 2019 in the Best of Gay D.C. Awards by readers of The Washington Blade. She was named to Fortune Magazine’s 2020 40 under 40 list in the “Politics & Government” category and the 2019 40 under 40 Queer Women of D.C. by the Mayor’s Office and The Washington Blade. In 2022, she received Equality North Carolina’s Visibility Award.
She is a proud graduate of Georgetown University and resides in Washington, D.C