Trump bans transgenders from military service

[Brittain33]

The only thing I have to say is that Twitter is an inappropriate platform to make this kind of announcement.

Seriously. Where's the policy? Are they going to expel all TG people from the military? What kind of discharge? Too many questions.

[Brittain33]

I'd be curious to know if there are more transpeople in the military or people who are uncomfortable with transpeople in the military. Those figures ought to be sought out.

True! It would also be helpful to know if there are more Jews in the military or people who are uncomfortable with Jews who serve in the military, too. I bet that would be eye-opening.

[Brittain33]

Gov. McCrory commends the politics of this tweet.

[Brittain33]

The hypothetical that trans people would join the military for surgery needs to take into account how much risk trans people are exposed to, of violent attack and murder, by the social situations they engage in.

In 2017, I expect the potential for "free surgery" would be heavily outweighed by the intense fear and risk associated with joining a tightly-knit group drawn from all parts of society where many people are likely going to hate or fear trans people, with zero expectation of personal privacy.

Many trans people who can't afford surgery, simply live their lives without surgery and using only visible methods to represent their gender. E.g. lots of FTMs can't afford top surgery for $10k so wear binders.

This seems even less probable than an outbreak of "Chuck and Larry" marriages to get free health care through same-sex marriage.

[Brittain33]

I'm pretty sure that Trump was announcing a delay on lifting the ban on transgendered people joining the military, which is a hot issue right now, and was so confused that he inadvertently tweeted out a ban on transgendered people serving in the military.

Just like how the Travel Ban was so sloppily worded that it canceled the visas of permanent residents and people then in flight to the U.S. with valid visas.

I expect the ban on transgendered people from joining to stay in place, but that no ban on current members of the service to actually materialize—especially not with all of the Republican senators (McCain, Ernst, Hatch (!), Shelby (!!!)) declining to back up Trump. Also, Trump doesn't care about this issue the way he hates other groups.

[Brittain33]

Meh, when I enlisted you couldn't even be openly gay. This isn't that controversial to me or many other people.

A.) You probably never enlisted.

He did enlist some time ago, but it didn't work out.

[Brittain33]

Everyone, read this Politico story now for back story.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/26/trump-transgender-military-ban-behind-the-scenes-240990

A band of House Republicans were upset that their ban on gender-reassignment surgery for the military was getting blocked in Congress, and also that Mattis didn't take their side. So they went directly to Trump and threatened to blow up funding for The Wall and the military if he didn't take their side. He went one further and announced he wanted to kick all trans people out of the military, which they weren't asking for.

Now there's more confusion in the deal, Mattis is pissed off, no one knows what to do next.

[Brittain33]

Just out of curiosity, any estimates as to how many transgender actually serve in the armed services?

15000  The largest employer of trans people in the United States.

I think that's a high estimate; I've also seen several thousand. Regardless, more than a few.

[Brittain33]

Just out of curiosity, any estimates as to how many transgender actually serve in the armed services?

15000  The largest employer of trans people in the United States.

I think that's a high estimate; I've also seen several thousand. Regardless, more than a few.

CNN just estimated 1600 to 3400, which seemed very low.

I'm intrigued you would say that. I know a lot of transgendered people (I'm gay, spend lots of time on the Internet) and I would still expect the number of out trans people in the military to be a low number. No doubt it will grow over time, but not yet.