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Donald Trump Says US Military Will Not Allow Transgender People To Serve (theguardian.com)

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not allow transgender individuals to serve in the US military in any capacity. From a report: The US president tweeted: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow ... transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." He added: "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail." Trump's decision marks a sharp reversal of a policy initiated under Barack Obama, in which the Pentagon ended a longtime ban on transgender people from serving openly in the military. As a candidate, Trump cast himself as a supporter of LGBT rights and indicated he would uphold certain Obama-era policies designed to protect transgender people.

45 of 904 comments (clear)

  1. After consultation with "my Generals"... by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Full body shiver.

    1. Re:After consultation with "my Generals"... by haruchai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Full body shiver.

      Huh? The president is the commander in chief, and the military generals are in a real sense "his". This is civilian control of the military. The military is not some 4th branch of government on a par with the legislative and judicial branches.

      If Obama had ever said that, Lou Dobbs would have driven a car bomb through the White House gates

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    2. Re:After consultation with "my Generals"... by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Perhaps he's promoted Steve Bannon to General. After all, we know this is where it's coming from.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:After consultation with "my Generals"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The law doesn't say that the army has to be your personal psychiatry / cosmetic surgery benefactor. I don't think you understand what "equal protection" means. I'm guessing you are probably also deluded about a wide variety of other everyday subjects.

    4. Re:After consultation with "my Generals"... by lessthan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, yes it is. From a scientific perspective, it offers ultimate control. The average serviceperson's (less than E-5 in my experience anyway) life is so regimented that you could run experiments as dumb as "does starting brushing ones teeth on the left side improve hygiene?" completely possible. You could view seperate units as premade control and test groupings. The setup is practically begging for it.

      Of course, you mean "forcing" people to interact with people that they find strange as a social experiment, which is weird because that is the basis of a civil society.

      --
      Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
    5. Re:After consultation with "my Generals"... by BlueStrat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      For a president to call a supreme court stacked with his own picked justices "his court" is a perfectly logical expression. To call the generals "my generals" is an expression of a delusional man hoping to impress his power upon the credulous and naive.

      So you'd have us believe that calling supposedly unbiased and independent justices in **another freaking separate branch of government** "his court" because he did an end-run around separation of powers is okey-dokey, A-OK, but a POTUS you happen to disagree with is wrong to call the generals **directly under his freaking command as Commander In Chief** "his generals"!?

      0_o

      The actions of Wilson and Roosevelt in response to the political climate of their day...

      You mean being Oath of Office/Constitution-violating racist and bigoted Progressive Democrats as history clearly shows they were?

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    6. Re:After consultation with "my Generals"... by Obfuscant · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, yes it is.

      No, no it is not. The military has a job already, and "testbed for social policy" is not it.

      you could run experiments as dumb as "does starting brushing ones teeth on the left side improve hygiene?"

      That's not a social experiment, nimrod.

      Of course, you mean "forcing" people to interact with people that they find strange as a social experiment,

      That's a much better example than yours, but no, the experiment is "does allowing non-traditional gender identities in a military force improve the efficiency of that force".

      which is weird because that is the basis of a civil society.

      Civil society is a much better place to conduct social experiments than a non-civilian military force, the membership in which is a privilege and not a right.

      What absolutely flabbergasted me was the report I heard where some military officials said that trans members already in service would continue to serve despite the President's policy change. I don't care if you think the policy itself it bad or good, the policy that the military has a Commander in Chief who makes the ultimate decisions needs to be inviolate. This decision is not illegal or unconstitutional, so the military officials need to shut up and execute the orders of the commander appointed over them.

  2. It makes sense by Drollia · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If a soldier has to take Hormone replacement pills every day, and then they are suddenly unavailable, I could see it causing some issues.

    1. Re:It makes sense by Hebbinator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do yourself a favor -

      Spend a minute and look into the literally THOUSANDS of military jobs that are not in combat zones or areas of scarcity.

      This is not a logistical move - if it was, it would come from the pentagon and not from a loudmouth on Twitter.

    2. Re:It makes sense by Drollia · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I am a veteran. I deployed to Afghanistan. I was in a non-combat job. The push you out to some shitty places where things are not available to you all of the time. Things like running water, meals that aren't MRE's etc. It may be difficult for you to get the medication that you need if you were deployed. If you are unable to deploy because of a medical issue, then you have no business being in the Military.

    3. Re:It makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The military doesn't need to be at the forefront of social change. There is nothing wrong with the military lagging, and by doing so in minimizes internal disruption. Heck, greater society is still fighting bathroom policy, the military has other stuff to occupy its time.

    4. Re:It makes sense by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But what do you think is going to happen if in an emergency they miss their hormones? It might be undesirable for them, but it's not going to put anyone's life in danger, it's not going to be a problem for anyone other than them.

      They should be free to decide whether that risk is worthwhile for them or not.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    5. Re:It makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      What happens when someone misses a dose of their hormones?

      In an emergency situation, the last thing you need to deal with is someone misses a dose of something and it causes them not to be at peak performance or distracted.

      We are not talking about a romp in the park or putting up a jungle gym. We are talking about being at the top of your game or being off your game is the difference between you and your buddies live or die. Something like this isn't a risk to themselves, it can be a risk to their fellow soldiers.

      The military requirements are strict on being medically able and prepared because at any point in time you will be in life or death situation and their decision just doesn't affect them, it affects others. If you are transgender and want to serve in the military, then make the choice to live as you are and drop the medications until after your service is done.

    6. Re:It makes sense by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can speak further about this because I was discharged from the Army for having a condition called Congenital Stationary Night Blindness. The way the military works is that no matter what job you have, combat or not, you still have to have a wartime duty, which applies to ANY military occupation. For example, the Army (music) band functions as enemy POW prison guards during time of war. All service members, including cooks, are expected to be able to fire weapons and throw grenades, because every single one of them are expected to be either in or very close to the combat zone.

      In my particular case, the logic is that if I was out in the combat zone (my MOS was 19D) or anywhere near it, and night came around, I would be ineffective and would end up being a liability to my battle buddies. Sure, there are night vision goggles, but what if they are damaged, batteries run out, etc? Doesn't work, hence discharge.

      In the case of a transgender, if the combat situation caused them to ever separated from their unit for a long period of time (something that happens often) they'd become a liability to their battle buddies. MtF trans would also have to carry other gear around if they've had bottom surgery, which also presents a logistical problem.

      At least, this applies to the Army, the same would definitely apply to the Marines, so those two would be right out. It would also likely apply to the Navy as well since they are out at sea for years at a time (definite logistical issues there,) and can and do approach combat zones. Air Force personnel are rarely in the combat zone (except for pilots) but they are typically near the combat zone where they can and do make contact with the enemy.

      Furthermore, in any service branch, they don't position you based on your military occupation, rather they position you based on wherever your unit is deployed to, and your unit has many different occupations within it. They aren't going to say "well, our unit can't deploy here because we have a transgender person in it."

    7. Re:It makes sense by Thruen · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In other words, there are already policies in place to handle this sort of thing and the ban is unnecessary. Thanks, this was very helpful.

    8. Re:It makes sense by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The military is already, apparently, the largest employer of transgender people in the USA. This is a political decision, not a practical one. How do we know? The DoD is telling reporters to go talk to the WH about this policy change, AND the Secretary of Defence is currently ON VACATION.

      This decision has nothing to do with whether the military can handle it or not; they have been.

    9. Re:It makes sense by Obfuscant · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The military is already, apparently, the largest employer of transgender people in the USA. This is a political decision, not a practical one.

      This also WAS a political decision, not a practical one. Political decisions get changed when the politicians change. Did you complain when Obama made his political decision? Then "it's a political decision" is a very unconvincing argument for you to make.

      This decision has nothing to do with whether the military can handle it or not; they have been.

      They were forced to handle it, now they are not being forced to handle it anymore. Just because they were forced to handle it before doesn't mean it was an optimal situation.

  3. PC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I personally know a former Marine. He loved serving. He was an NCO, a sargeant. He's one of these disciplined and athletic guys who actually likes all the running and training. He spoke so fondly of it that I asked him why he would have left. He told me that the political correctness was just becoming ridiculous. The female Marines just didn't have the physical performance capabilities of the males (the best among them were about equal to the average male, and those were exceptional) - this is the same reason sports and the Olympics have Men's and Women's events. It's just the nature of the sexes and beyond our control. The top brass kept trying to ignore these differences, to the point that it was harming combat effectiveness in many situations. Of course, in a military environment you do what you're told and you shut your mouth about it, so he and other NCOs had no voice and no ability to protest. Eventually he got tired of it so when his term of service was up, he got out. He told me he was not the only one, not by far. Politics was not why he signed up.

    People already generally have a hard time being rational about real, measurable physical strength/performance differences between men and women. And those can easily be demonstrated and proven. The whole LGBT topic tends to cause even more extreme irrational reactions and controversy. You really don't want this kind of bickering in a military unit where distractions and small mistakes get people killed. It's the one place you can't afford it.

    There's plenty of things Trump has said and done that I don't like. This time though, I think he's making the right call and probably knows he's going to take a lot of outrage for it. I can respect that whether I like the guy or not.

    1. Re:PC by Kokuyo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I understand that part completely as well.

      I mean how much would it suck to be in a deadly situation during combat that the strength of a man would get you out of and all you have is a woman who doesn't quite cut it?

      Granted, if you lack the numbers, having women bolster them makes sense. But only then.

      For all the other jobs in the armed forces though, this does not apply. So banning women and transgenders from those jobs as well is... questionable.

    2. Re:PC by fropenn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You really don't want this kind of bickering in a military unit where distractions and small mistakes get people killed. It's the one place you can't afford it.

      This same justification was used for years to keep blacks out of the military. And women. And gay people. And on and on.

      Maybe instead the military could train people how to avoid "distractions and small mistakes," instead of thinking that those issues could be avoided by excluding certain 'undesirable' people.

    3. Re:PC by lbmouse · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The large majority of jobs in the U.S. armed forces are not fighting or even physical roles.

  4. Social Experiments by Templer421 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't belong in the Military. They have a job to do.

    1. Re:Social Experiments by fropenn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What's the experiment? There have been transgender people living in the world as long as there have been people.

  5. This is just a distraction by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From the healthcare vote going on right now. Worked too. This crap is now front page on CNN while our Congress Critters are dealing in the back.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:This is just a distraction by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They've found something even worse with the healthcare vote, too. A partial measure? That's not a plan; it's ridiculous. Either repeal it all and put down a structured, planned bill; leave it in place; or improve upon it. Just clipping pieces for politics will cause destabilization of the healthcare industry and severe economic fall-out with worse consequences than even rolling back Obamacare in full!

      It's ludicrous that we have people who aren't trying to improve the situation, but rather are just fucking around with healthcare. This isn't even a policy issue; it's plain reckless behavior and puts the American people at risk.

  6. 2 reason why by randomErr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are two reasons for this:

    * Physiological - There's enough issues with men and women serving together in high stress situations. This would be another distraction.
    * Political - Just like his attacks on his attorney general this is a distraction from the fact that the Republicans could not get Repeal and/or Replace of ObamaCare through again.

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
    1. Re:2 reason why by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I also wouldn't rule out that this is simply another check box on something Obama did that he can undo. It does seem that he is super OCD about trying to undo everything he possibly can that Obama did.

  7. Woosh.... by DrYak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He is commander in chief.

    Yup, and I think that's what causes most people to "full body shiver" :
    phrasings such as "my generals" make painfully aware that your orange troll with a twitter account *is* "the commander in chief" and "*his* generals" are indeed under *his* command.

    sad~

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  8. Re:This is what WINNING looks like! by mark-t · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even accepting your so-called logic, and further even accepting that US enemies are "not afraid of girly men", there would not be any way in practice to notice any so-called "girliness", because at least generally speaking, the soldiers of opposing sides do not routinely socialize with eachother enough to know them well enough to associate such traits to them. There is no objective standard by which anyone can say that your notion is acceptable... I can't even call it an argument, it is so abysmally flawed.

  9. Re:This is what WINNING looks like! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Amen!

    We need to disallow gays in the military also. It's important that our enemies fear our military and they are not afraid of a bunch of girly men.

    By the way, the Spartans (well, actually the Sacred Band of Thebes) were gay, a fact conveniently left out of the movie "300". And they were quite feared on the battlefield for a number of decades.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

  10. Re:Well, that is support by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can 0.3-0.6% of the population really do anything "in droves"?

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  11. I couldn't join...why should they? by freak0fnature · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I was rejected for mild scoliosis....I would think being born with the wrong genitals would be a more severe condition than that. I require no treatment and rarely ever even feel discomfort...compared to someone who will require treatment for the rest of their lives.

    1. Re:I couldn't join...why should they? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't know much about scoliosis, mild or otherwise, but I assume it is a consideration when lifting heavy objects, whereas genitals really have no bearing on that activity.

  12. Re:Contentious issue by Kohath · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Hopefully that happens right before an election so people have a chance to decide whether transgendered issues matter more than issues that affect the other 99+% of people.

  13. Re:GOOD! by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The purpose of the military, is to break things and kill people. It needs to be a tight cohesive bunch, not with a bunch of "my gender of the week" types.

    I don't know why you think someone having a different gender identity than their assigned at birth identity somehow must make them "weak." Heck, for that matter, even if you did have someone whose gender identity changed every week as you suggest, I don't see why that would them have trouble killing people or being part of a cohesive fighting force.

    The military should be EXEMPT from all of this political correctness garbage, which, is set up on purpose, to reduce morality, and destroy the best fighting force in the world.

    Or this is about people who genuinely want the right to fight for their country. You appear to be jumping from the fact that you disagree with other people to concluding that they must have nefarious goals. Incidentally, it is worth noting that the exact same arguments you are making now have now been made twice before. They were first made when we desegregated the military to have black and white people in the same units. This argument was again made only a few years ago when we let gays and lesbians openly serve. Why is it different this time?

  14. Re:GOOD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The purpose of the military, is to break things and kill people. It needs to be a tight cohesive bunch, not with a bunch of "my gender of the week" types. The military should be EXEMPT from all of this political correctness garbage, which, is set up on purpose, to reduce morality, and destroy the best fighting force in the world. (I have thick skin /. types, fire away)

    You don't have a thick skin if your hang-ups about other people's bodies requires everyone who is not like you to have their rights restricted. You are the most delicate snowflake of all.

    It's your attitude that needs to be drummed out of the service. It smacks of poor discipline and a fragile psyche.

  15. Re: No surprise. by Verdatum · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good job dehumanizing people that you don't agree with.

  16. We need to impeach Trump RIGHT NOW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    His actions have degraded the character of the highest office. He is a corrupt businessman with connections to the mafia. His nepotism has no bounds. He willfully and enthusiastically cedes American pre-eminence to Russia, and deals secretly with our adversaries, but banning trannies was the right decision.

  17. Re:Contentious issue by Train0987 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Trump is the elected Commander in Chief of the armed forces. He has sole authority to do this. The 9th circuit has zero say.

  18. I am sorry? by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is this in any way relevant for a tech site?

  19. Re:This is what WINNING looks like! by haruchai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Amen!

    We need to disallow gays in the military also. It's important that our enemies fear our military and they are not afraid of a bunch of girly men.

    The US military should make their uniforms as girly as possible. Imagine the humiliation of having your ass handed to you by a bunch of guys in pink taffeta

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  20. and? by s.petry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You don't think you can be medically discharged for an inability to perform duties for _any_ reason in the Military? You don't know jack about the Military. I'm a US Army vet, and have zero problems with this ruling but not simply because of the medication. I'll give two easy examples.

    First, as GP stated above, the Military has to be a very cohesive bunch. In back line situations you have communal showers and bathrooms with little privacy. In front line situations, you have a canteen and hole that you dig. You put the majority of the military at a very compromising position with transgender soldiers. The twig and berries don't vanish because a person believes they are a woman, any more than breasts and bush vanish when a women believes they are man. So should the women in the military be forced to look at a twig and berries in the showers? Do you think it's fair to the men to stick a naked women who thinks they are man into a shower with them? Not that people want things to happen in either of those circumstances, but you are providing a very high risk and completely unnecessary situation for soldiers.

    Next, you have PT rules by gender because _biology_ differences give us different limitations and abilities. The military loses effectiveness due to some of those differences already but has learned to cope. What they can't cope with is a completely arbitrary set of restrictions for every potential soldier. How do you cope with a guy who claims to be a woman? Do they get to do PT based on woman's rules or men's rules? Can the woman be medically discharged because the believe they are a man but can't do 80 pushups in under 2 minutes? Don't you believe more and more soldiers would not just try to drop out medically, but claim to be a more convenient gender for things like PT testing and promotion consideration?

    The Military is not about "me", it's about "the force". Since we do not force service people who want "me" don't have to serve.

    For the person who claimed not all jobs in the Military are combat, I say bullshit! Every soldier is trained on how to kill the enemy and defend against attacks. Even if your job isn't going out on patrol looking for enemies, you are at risk simply by being a soldier. Your first job and first responsibility in the Military is to be a Soldier. Your secondary job is to be a medic, mechanic, etc... (See Jessica Lynch, or any of the other people attacked, wounded, killed, or captured away from the front lines.)

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:and? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "First, as GP stated above, the Military has to be a very cohesive bunch. In back line situations you have communal showers and bathrooms with little privacy."

      Isn't that the same argument that was once used against mix-race units?

  21. Re:No surprise. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The NIH called the paper you cite by Dr. Hugh "pure balderdash".

    And that other study you cite was Dutch, not German. It was based on DSM-IV, which is outdated. The diagnostic criteria presented in that study is outdated; it had cause and effect backwards.

  22. Re:Playing leftists like a violin by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Exactly how does demonstrating some tolerance for transgender individuals go against the 'needs' of the rest of Americans? It does not affect them at all.