Cate McGregor

Catherine Elizabeth McGregor is a prominent Australian writer, sports commentator and former Australian Defence Force officer.

She has worked as an Australian Army Officer, as a cricket commentator and writer, and as a speechwriter to former New South Wales Labor Premier Bob Carr, former Federal Labor Party leader Kim Beazley and to the 1993 Liberal Party election campaign. McGregor went on to serve in a number of junior command appointments in the 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane, and in an Instructor appointment at the Army's Jungle Training Centre in Canungra.

After re-joining the Army, and having deployed to East Timor, McGregor went on to serve in a number of staff appointments at Army Headquarters, including acting as speechwriter to the Chief of Army between 2001 and 2014. On Australia Day 2012, McGregor, then Lieutenant Colonel, was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Military Division for "exceptional service to the Australian Army as the Director of the Land Warfare Studies Centre".

When McGregor advised David Morrison of her intent to transition and offered her resignation, Morrison "refused to accept her resignation". McGregor went public with her transition in November 2013 and as a result became the highest ranking transgender person in the Australian Defence Force at that time.

Following her public revelation in 2013, there followed a number of acrimonious social media exchanges about McGregor, in which McGregor took an active part, that led to her being formally counselled by the Australian Defence Force for conduct that reflected poorly on her judgment and for which the Department of Defence made a payment in compensation to a complainant. McGregor subsequently decided to leave the Army, transferring to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Reserve on 20 June 2014 as a Group Captain, to work on projects for the Chief of Air Force. McGregor is no longer employed by the Air Force. a cricket commentator for The Australian, and the Australian Financial Review, and the author of a book, An Indian Summer of Cricket, published on 24 November 2012. In a 2012 review, Tony Abbott, then federal Leader of the Opposition, described the book as "the best sort of book about sport" for "those who think that sport can be a metaphor for life". Abbott called the Chief of Army's launch of the book "a fitting salute to [moral] courage"

In late 2016, McGregor resumed her cricket career playing for a Canberra women's cricket team, and stated she wished to play in the Women's Big Bash League. It is reported that she uses hormone therapy, has high levels of oestrogen and no longer produces testosterone. and as such became a finalist for 2016 Australian of the Year, which was subsequently awarded to her previous commanding officer, David Morrison. She described the selection of Morrison as a "weak, conventional choice", a comment for which she subsequently apologised.

In December 2016 McGregor was removed from the Australian of the Year honour roll at her request. She has stated that the awards are a "farce" and that she regrets having accepted one. McGregor has also argued that the awards are being used by activists.

Post-military career McGregor was a regular commentator on Sky News and in The Australian.

McGregor was for a time, patron of Kaleidoscope Australia, a not-for-profit organisation focused on promoting and protecting the rights of LGBTI people in the Asia Pacific region. In September 2016, however, McGregor was dropped as patron by Kaleidoscope Australia because of her criticism of the Safe Schools program. In May 2018, McGregor declared she had been wrong to oppose the Safe Schools program. "It's an excellent program, and it saves lives... I should have been a supporter from the start... I regret that I wasn't... Young trans people need an ally... I could have helped, and I didn't, and I regret that".

A 2018 production by the Sydney Theatre Company, Still Point Turning, is a dramatisation of the lives of McGregor and Royal Air Force helicopter pilot Ayla Holdom, who is also a transgender woman.