Pentagon ends transgender ban, by Jennifer Rizzo.
The Pentagon said Thursday it was ending the ban on transgender people being able to serve openly in the U.S. military. …
The decision comes as the military has witnessed major changes in the role of women and the inclusion of gays, lesbians and bisexual service members in recent years. …
Transgender service members will also receive the same medical coverage as any other military member … For current members of the military, the coverage will include hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery if doctors determine that such procedures are medically necessary. Incoming service members must be “stable” in gender identity for 18 months before joining the military. …
[Defense Secretary Ash] Carter said the decision was “a matter of principle.”
Here is an ex-Marine:
[From 2001 to 2005] I was a lance corporal not some officer. I humped a rifle out there where the consequences to the social re-engineering of combat units could mean death, not diminished career prospects. I didn’t have to serve with women, transgenders or assorted malcontents and deviants like the Army, Navy and Air Force is hell-bent on instituting in their units. In the Marine Corps of my day, only one thing counted: a close knit unit whose only purpose was to “locate, close with, and destroy the enemy.”
That meant weaklings, physically and morally, jeopardized us all. It meant that an unbreakable bond among each other had to be built, a bond based on the brotherhood of men who lived together, drank together, fought together and became one. It is a ruthless meritocracy where mistakes and weakness get someone else killed. …
I recall talking to a sergeant I had served with, who was commissioned from the ranks and was a captain in 2014 when the push for women to be in combat arms first reared it’s ugly head. … He said that the atmosphere was so stifling that he was getting out. … They spend more time on sexual etiquette classes than time at the rifle range, and bucking the reeducation program is a fast track to discharge.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
