Carla Lewis has become an viral sensation after posting a photo on Facebook wearing a t-shirt reading "Transgender veteran: I fought for your right to hate me."

The image has been shared nearly 10,000 times and generated numerous news stories.

Lewis, 44, was discharged by the military for being transgender—a prohibition that is still in place four years after the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell. (The Pentagon, however, says it plans to lift the ban on trans servicem embers next May.)

A parent of two twentysomethings, Lewis now works in computer service and lives in the blue-state bastion of Blount County, Tennessee.

The shirt is just an expression of her deep-felt advocacy.

"Whenever a citizen volunteers for the armed services they immediately make the conscious decision that they will sacrifice their life if it means securing freedom for their fellow citizens," Lewis told the Huffington Post.

"Every right, every privilege enjoyed by an American citizen is paid with the currency of soldiers’ lives—even if the rights and privileges secured enable others to lobby against me and my transgender brothers and sisters. Freedom matters to us.”

Lewis' journey to acceptance was not an easy on.

While in the Air Force, and before her transition, she saw an on-base therapist about her gender identity issues.

Their discussion was reported during an extensive background check and Lewis was discharged 18 months after enlisting.

“They tried to court martial me for being gay, but they couldn’t," she told the Knoxville Sun-Sentinel.

"So my discharge papers say that I’ve got mental disorders. In the eyes of the military, being transgender is a blackmailable offense."

Her marriage began to crumble and, before leaving her, Lewis' wife outed her to coworkers and family.

Distraught, Carla attempted suicide by dissolving 240 sleeping pills into Kool-Aid, and drinking it.

"When people say it’s selfish to contemplate suicide, I think, 'It’s the most selfless thing [trans people] think they can do,'" she added. "All the pain trans people feel is what we put on them, the expectations they can’t meet. They don’t do that to themselves. We do that to them."

After leaving the hospital, Lewis found a transgender network online and sought out allies.

"I’d never heard the term 'drag queen' or 'transsexual.'" she says. "Growing up, I thought I was the only person who felt this way."

Two years ago Lewis married Jaime Combs, a trans woman she met at her first support group meeting in 1999.