As an informed observer, the fun part is exposing the ignorance of the "reformers."
(Related side note: the Rathergate fraud was exposed because of several incredibly stupid mistakes the perpetrators made. One that receives less attention than the others is that official military letters are strictly formated in composition. The perps did not know this when they typed up the Rathergate fake letter and presented it to the public.)
Behold the irony.
Several Democratic lawmakers replaced the POW/MIA flags outside their Capitol Hill offices with transgender equality flags to protest President Trump’s new [sic] policy on transgender troops.
The National Center for Transgender Equality sent flags to all members of Congress, including Republicans, to commemorate “Trans Visibility Week,” Fox News reports.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tweeted a photo of the door to his congressional office with the transgender equality flag standing in place of the usual black-and-white flag honoring prisoners of war and Americans missing in action.Sanders’ tweet:
And many "forget" that it was President Obama who, in 2016, changed the military’s long-standing policy barring transgender individuals from serving in the military. President Trump simply reverted to the old policy.
Like almost all disqualifications for military service, the original transgender ban and the reinstated ban are strictly military-readiness issues. Simply, if your condition makes your presence dangerous for you and/or others in a war zone, you cannot enlist, not even as a Chairborne Ranger.
The old bans – those involving racial segregation and open homosexuality -- did not involve deployment risks and were merely sociological. That’s why they were discarded.
During my time of service, I served alongside several gay people -- Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell was a thing long before President Clinton made it official policy. I didn’t care about this and most people I know didn’t either. (As a matter of fact, several of my good friends have come out after leaving the USAF.)
The point is that these people served honorably and were not a hindrance to the missions of which they were a part.
And the notion that there is no place in the military for discrimination is laughable.
While I was active duty USAF, I had three career fields: Aircraft Armament Systems Specialist, Germanic Linguist, and Slavic Linguist (Russian). And – pertinent to this topic – in the Reserves, I was an Aeromedical Services Specialist and an EMT.
I have many talents.
As Reserve medics, we performed the paraprofessional part of annual physicals for both flight crews and ground personnel and for some new recruits; that is, immunizations, EKGs, hearing tests, eye exams, etc. (I was the NCOIC of the Immunization Clinic.)
And it was our duty to be familiar with the regulations regarding entry into service and continued service.
Those regulations list the terms of discrimination and the terms are manifold.
Here are a few which bar entry into military service:
- Any immunodeficiency
- Deafness
- Blindness
- Diabetes
- Pregnancy
- Absence of one kidney
- Being too short or too tall
- Asthma
- Previous cold injury (frostbite)
- Organ transplant recipient
So, all the Democrat congressional wailing about the military's transgender ban is mere floor-showing.
And, a patriotic and honest person who is transgender would understand the reality of his/her situation and that of the military. I bet there are such people out there.
One generality I read about people who are barred from enlisting is that if one MUST take medication daily, they cannot enlist. Asthmatic and diabetic people do, but they also have potentially life threatening illnesses. But what I read is that if people have a condition that may not involve potentially life threatening episode, but that that nevertheless must be controlled by daily medication, they are barred from enlisting.
ReplyDeleteUh transgenders must take hormones daily.
Correct.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew was barred, because he needed to take meds for his ADD.
ReplyDelete