Project 2025 and Military Service

[Abigail Genevieve]

If you are not familiar with Project 2025 you should be.  If the Republicans win in November it is very likely to be implemented.  Thanks @MaeBe for bringing this to my attention.

 

https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-04.pdf

 

"Reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the
military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military
service,"

 

Therefore it is reasonable to ask our veterans here whether they received an honorable discharge, whether they received medals of commendation, etc., that would serve to show that the second statement is simply not true.   Let's document.  We have a number of veterans here.

 

Yeah, I am nosy.  They would maintain ya'll got bad conduct discharges for conduct unbecoming.   I suspect we have here mostly honorable discharges, perhaps medals for valor, combat ribbons, etc.

 

This is information that might be used to refute the quote, so it would be good if you stood up and were recognized, for your service to this country and your courage in coming forward here and being recognized. 

[Lydia_R]

I'm on the ballot being mailed tomorrow for an open US Rep seat.  I have both an honorable discharge and an other than honorable discharge.  I told the Navy that I was smoking pot every day right after Y2K.  I told them that while I was in the Navy, I substituted alcohol for marijuana and that the alcohol was making me violently sick.  After 5+ years of that, I said enough is enough and I went back to smoking pot.  I got better and I felt like the quality of my work was improving.

 

I certainly wasn't the perfect military member, but I excelled at my job and earned a promotion in boot camp.  They drug tested our unit several times after I told them I was smoking pot and I may have never tested positive.  I was opening smoking pot in the Navy for 3 or 4 months before they decided to kick me out.  At my captain's mast, the captain tried to shame me by saying I looked bad in uniform and that I was a disgrace, but all my evaluations said that I looked great in uniform.  I took great pride in looking good in my dress blues and whites.  Sure, I had grown my hair out a little bit (you know, it's not like I became trans in my 50's all the sudden) and I was enjoying some green anodized eye glasses :)

 

I think that people get very emotional about these kinds of issues when they should be concentrating more on engineering things and work performance.  I think we should take the lead and talk about our professional lives more instead of focusing on this type of politics.  That's a great document and I saved the PDF to my hard drive.  I think we should have more respect for the production that China is doing instead of concentrating on raising a military defense against them.  I personally disliked the hazing rituals in the Navy and think our military would be better off with being more accepting and intelligent.

 

[Lydia_R]

That is, it's a great document in that it seems to clearly define things, not that I'm in agreement with it.

[Ivy]

Well, I am a veteran.  I did manage to get an honorable discharge - just barely.  I was drafted to start with, and I wasn't wild about it.  But I figured it was my duty as a citizen, so there's that.  TBH I find it hard to stomach people who dodged the draft, going on and on about being such "patriots" and all, and literally hugging the flag.

My egg hadn't cracked yet when I was serving, so I don't think being trans directly affected my time in uniform.  But there was most likely some subconscious stuff.

Sorry, I don't think this is much use to you.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

12 hours ago, Abigail Genevieve said:

"Reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the

military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military
service,"

 

I have never been in the military, but my husband was in the National Guard.  Sometimes I wonder, based on the few things he tells me, how some of the "demands of military service" might be somewhat artificial.  For example, the military won't allow a man who is missing a testicle (like from an accident) to serve.  Even though a man with only one testicle still has all functions and plenty of testosterone.  So, why that requirement?  Seems like banning trans folks is similar, in that there's no particular physical reason. 

 

Also, some requirements are detrimental to the physical health of many people in the services.  Soldiers end up with back issues from carrying too much.  My husband has a bad disc in his back, primarily from service.  Even military medical personnel and researchers have talked about this sort of preventable injury for a long time. 

 

Not everybody is in the special forces, or even in the infantry.  Even if trans folks have some sort of physical weakness compared to others, surely there are still plenty of duties they can perform?  I would be interested to know the experiences of some of our military members on this forum - how much physical exertion and risk was actually necessary for fulfilling your duties?  How much difference is there in exertion/risk between one MOS and another?

[Lydia_R]

4 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

I would be interested to know the experiences of some of our military members on this forum - how much physical exertion and risk was actually necessary for fulfilling your duties?  How much difference is there in exertion/risk between one MOS and another?

 

Most jobs in and out of the military have a physical aspect to them.  As a musician in the Navy, I have moved gear all over the world.  I almost got killed from an anvil amp rack case falling off the side of a Navy destroyer at night, in the rain, falling on the small boat we were on in rough water.  It fell right on the plexiglass windshield of the boat.

 

I got a lot of crap from members of the band for being such a lightweight.  I weighed 120 pounds until I was 35 and I still only weigh 132 pounds.  They interpreted that as being weak, but with my strong will, strong cardiovascular system, and strong legs from being a bicycle commuter, I was able to do almost anything the bigger people could.  And I'm probably in much better shape than they are now.  I've been going on 5 hour bicycle rides lately.

 

One point is though that the military is a job, much like any other job.

[Ivy]

I was in the field artillery in the early 70's.  At times we had to hump ammo.  A projo weighed around 200lbs.  There were very few women, they seemed to be mostly in the medical roles.  I suppose if you were openly trans, you'd have been kicked out for being gay.

But I suppose things are a lot different now.  There are more technical jobs for one thing.  One of my daughters was in the Air Force for a number of years.  Started as an "airman", and came out as a captain (nurse).