House Votes to End Trans Military Ban

[Carolyn Marie]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnstaceyennis/2020/07/30/house-votes-to-end-trumps-transgender-military-ban/#5c4651da3c28

 

Carolyn Marie

[QuoraQ]

This is great! Once it passes, the only reason the military can reject me for is the tattoo on my left ring finger... So dumb.

[KathyLauren]

Not sure on how your system works down there.  Does this bill with the amendment still have to pass the Senate?  Could be a rough ride if so.

[Jackie C.]

1 hour ago, KathyLauren said:

Not sure on how your system works down there.  Does this bill with the amendment still have to pass the Senate?  Could be a rough ride if so.

 

That's exactly right. So, assuming it gets voted on at all, it's not going anywhere.

 

Hugs!

[Cyndee]

but, but, they came on here and told us how great he was for trans people.....

[Jackie C.]

I lost track, which one of the 20,000 documented lies (so far) was that?

 

Hugs!

[Wichita]

A blanket end to the ban would be a bad idea. 

[Jackie C.]

4 hours ago, Wichita said:

A blanket end to the ban would be a bad idea. 

 

Reasoning please? I'm not ex-military so I'm honestly curious why you think that.

 

Hugs!

[Wichita]

11 hours ago, Jackie C. said:

 

Reasoning please? I'm not ex-military so I'm honestly curious why you think that.

 

Hugs!

I am as well. Seven years, Air Force. And it’s from that experience in a “less combat intensive branch” that I make my statement. I posted this in the thread titled Study: More than “2/3 of the military support trans service members.” I didn’t want to just spam the same thing here, unless some actually asked me for clarification. I’ll try and summarize so as not to repeat the novel:

 

In regards to allow trans members to serve, specifically down range, I find my opinion a bit mixed. If the individual in question is already completely “finished” transitioning, and only needs maintenance via hormone pills...sure. I don’t see much issue... to a point.

 

But in my (admittedly) brief bit of research since I came out (now adding a month of HRT to this research), I don’t think “in the middle of a transition” is an ideal time for most to serve.

 

To the military, humans...no matter if they’re cis, trans, straight, gay, bi... are “tools in a toolbox.” We are little different from a hammer or screwdriver. And when we break, we’re discarded for the next one in line. As I’m sure you’ve heard, that’s where the term “G.I.” comes from. We are “general issue” equipment, expendable and maintained so long as we’re useful. The moment that ends? Bye-bye.

 

While it’s true that a struggle for one person isn’t necessarily a struggle for all, the military has to operate on a lowest-common-denominator mindset. It’s why the entire military now must go through hours of computer training on “how not to r*pe” — because a small percentage of psychos decided they were entitle to another’s body. 

With combat deployments and hundreds or thousands of troops to manage, the battlefield is hardly the place to treat one or two people with kid gloves because of their individual needs.

 

And I may be very early on in my process, but from what my research has uncovered, missing medication in a deployed environment would be potentially catastrophic, since even a few days off female hormones causes menopause-like symptoms...that’s no time to be in a firefight. And that doesn’t even consider an active (in progress) transition.

 

I was discharged from the Air Force for issues relating to my depression — dysthymic disorder — that I was initially told “wouldn’t interfere with service”...up until it did...and they gave me the boot. I was later denied re-enlistment into the Army due to, presumably,  my worsening OCD as well as worsening depression.

 

And my discharge and subsequent denial was before I even admitted my gender dysphoria.

 

If OCD is enough of a disqualifier, I can’t imagine that gender dysphoria would ever be overlooked for organizations that exist to make war. The psychological community can debate until the end of time whether gender dysphoria is or is not a “mental disorder.” But that’s really just semantics. It is “a condition.”  And it’s a condition that comes with way too many variables. 
 

I think the problem with this debate is that many transgendered people claim the military is “discriminating against the trans community.” But it’s not. It’s disqualifying people based on a pre-existing condition for which transition is one possible treatment.

 

It’s no different that being disqualified for asthma, prior bone injuries, flat feet...etc. It’s one more “condition” that commanders in a combat zone don’t need to be preoccupied with.

 

Add to that the timeline and recovery needs of the various surgeries...

1 month or longer with no talking for voice feminization;

Up to 6 months no heavy lifting for breast augmentation;

Easily 1-2 months for facial surgery and;

The big one... up to a year for bottom surgery?

 

A standard enlistment being only 4 years means that someone who undergoes transition on active duty will be non-deployable and out of action for up to 1/4 of their enlistment. When I served, I was in training for the entire first year of my 4-year contract. I graduated my technical training school on my 1-year anniversary. There are some jobs that take much longer, some that are shorter. But if you add training in with surgery recovery, suddenly a 4-year contract can be 2. And that’s a reduction in value, from a command perspective, compared with someone who doesn’t need a year of surgical recovery.

 

The military mindset is that the unit is only as strong as the weakest link. Having people join and serve with the advanced warning of them being non-deployable is not conducive to a war fighting unit. The military exists to deploy...to fight wars...and it can’t do that with people stuck at home station mopping floors because he or she isn’t deplorable. 
 

 

[Jackie C.]

Ok, honestly transitioning DURING service didn't occur to me. I always assumed it would be a before or after thing. Though thinking about it, it would certainly be after because the military loses interest in you rapidly as you age past eighteen.

 

Controlled asthma wasn't a deal-breaker in 1988. They only lost interest in me when I told them HOW I controlled my asthma.

 

Timeline is a little off for when menopause symptoms kick in. For me it took about two weeks. Then it got brutal.

 

Other than that though, yeah, those are good points from the military point of view.

 

Hugs!

[Wichita]

26 minutes ago, Jackie C. said:

Ok, honestly transitioning DURING service didn't occur to me. I always assumed it would be a before or after thing. Though thinking about it, it would certainly be after because the military loses interest in you rapidly as you age past eighteen.

 

Controlled asthma wasn't a deal-breaker in 1988. They only lost interest in me when I told them HOW I controlled my asthma.

 

Timeline is a little off for when menopause symptoms kick in. For me it took about two weeks. Then it got brutal.

 

Other than that though, yeah, those are good points from the military point of view.

 

Hugs!

I had a coworker at my last job tell me he felt “a little pain” in his knee when squatting down and ironing his uniform on a makeshift ironing board while in Navy basic training. No other issues...he ran, marched, etc. just fine. But he made the mistake of going to “sick call” over it and was promptly booted out. He had a...minor tendon issue, if I recall correctly.

 

They told him “get surgery to fix it, and you’re fine to enlist again.” He did...then promptly got denied enlistment for “prior knee surgery”...which they *told* him to get/he needed.

 

That’s a denial for a “minor surgery” for a “minor issue.” Yet trans ban opponents want them to allow people who have had multiple major surgeries. I’m thinking a “minor knee surgery” pales in comparison to a complete restructuring of our downstairs parts, breast areas, faces, etc.

 

I know (currently) of one Marine who’s trans and serving. But she’s not only an officer, she’s also in the JAG corps. They’re the epitome of desk jockeys (much like I was in my journalism field...but even I deployed once). 
 

Personally, I’m not completely opposed to someone “all finished” serving...but it still comes back to the prior surgery thing for which my friend and many others get denied for “minor surgery.” Trans surgeries are anything but minor. So why would my cis male friend get denied his dream job over a minor leg surgery, but trans activists want trans people’s surgeries “overlooked” so they can serve?

 

I just think the activists are going the route of Jurassic Park scientists...”so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

[Wichita]

58 minutes ago, Jackie C. said:

Controlled asthma wasn't a deal-breaker in 1988. They only lost interest in me when I told them HOW I controlled my asthma.

When I was in, it was a severity thing. Minor asthma maybe acceptable, but there was definitely a limit.

 

And now I’m curious...how’d you control yours?

[Jackie C.]

A very large amount... I can't give specifics because dosages rule... of prednisone every day. It worked but I'm lucky it didn't kill me. How did I get it? My egg donor gave it to me (Veterinarians and Medical Doctors shop out of the same catalogs. Drug companies don't care.) because while I was on pred, she didn't have to bother with doctor's visits. I was just "healthy."

 

I mentioned my dose to the recruiters and the calls stopped cold.

 

Hugs!

[Wichita]

1 hour ago, Jackie C. said:

A very large amount... I can't give specifics because dosages rule... of prednisone every day. It worked but I'm lucky it didn't kill me. How did I get it? My egg donor gave it to me (Veterinarians and Medical Doctors shop out of the same catalogs. Drug companies don't care.) because while I was on pred, she didn't have to bother with doctor's visits. I was just "healthy."

 

I mentioned my dose to the recruiters and the calls stopped cold.

 

Hugs!

Ahh. See I had an inhaler as a early grade schooler, but it was “past” enough and “minor” enough that when my recruiter asked about medical history and my mom mentioned it, he asked again in a tone more akin to “so no medical issues in the past...at all?”