"By this new regulation, the Pentagon has gotten out of the business of deciding when service members are fit or unfit for duty, and that's a big policy change. . . . We're closer to transgender service than we've ever been."For background, read Cross-dressing Soldiers Look Good to President Obama and also read President Obama Tells Generals: Back My Gay Military, or Resign
-- Diane Mazur, Air Force veteran and professor of law emeritus at the University of Florida College of Law
UPDATE 8/18/15: So Few Transgenders in Military, Costs Negligible
UPDATE 4/24/15: Sex Assault in Obama's Military Mostly Homosexual
Also read of President Obama's LGBT Transformation of the American military -- what was once the greatest force for good in the world.
UPDATE 3/17/15 - CBS News Pushes For a Transgender Military (video):
-- From "Report: Loophole could allow transgender troops to serve under new DoD policy" by Patricia Kime, Staff Writer, Military Times 11/26/14
The update — to Defense Department Instruction 1332.18, Disability Evaluation System — provides a loophole for the services to let transgender troops serve instead of requiring administrative separation, the Palm Center says.
The old policy listed transgender identity as a "congenital or developmental defect" that mandated administrative separation.
The instruction issued Aug. 5 drops that provision, which the activists, including three retired flag or general officers, representatives from the ACLU, the Transgender American Veterans Association and others, say means the services now can discharge individuals with perceived defects only if those defects interfere with their performance or duty assignment.
A March 2014 report from the Transgender Military Service Commission estimates that nearly 15,500 transgender individuals serve in uniform across all branches.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "US military urged to allow transgender troops to serve openly" by Lydia Wheeler, The Hill 11/26/14
[Because] the Department of Defense deleted its list of medically disqualifying and administratively disqualifying conditions in August. Now only conditions that impair fitness for duty or deployment qualify [for discharge].
In a joint statement issued Wednesday, retired Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, Maj. Gen. Vance Coleman, Rear Adm. Jamie Barnett and seven LGBT leaders urged the military to update their noncompliant rules.
“Ultimate authority for ordering the elimination of discriminatory military policy rests with the President of the United States, and if the Services decline to comply with DOD rules, or if DOD declines to eliminate discriminatory policy, the Commander-in-Chief should take executive action to effect the change,” the statement read.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Transgender troops say they want to serve openly" by Patricia Kime, Staff Writer, Military Times 10/24/14
[Traditionally,] Transgenders are barred from serving openly in the U.S. military by Defense Department Instruction 6130.03, which prohibits people with "current or history of psychosexual conditions, including but not limited to transexualism, exhibitionism, transvestism, voyeurism and other paraphilias."
But transgender service members who spoke at "Perspectives on Transgender Military Service from Around the Globe," sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Palm Center, a California-based policy think tank, say sexual identity is neither a mental nor physical barrier to serving.
In late 2012, the American Psychiatric Association approved a revision to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual that eliminated the term "gender identity disorder" in favor of "gender dysphoria" to describe men and women whose biological sex conflicts with the gender in which they identify.
The drop of the word "disorder" is seen by many as an acknowledgment that the condition is not pathological, and any distress or anxiety associated with gender identification issues may be related to the angst of living in a body one doesn't believe is gender-correct and outside stressors related to the stigma of falling outside gender norms.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Retired US generals come out in support of allowing transgender soldiers to serve openly in military" by Robert Rizzuto, The Republican (Springfield, Mass.) 8/26/14
The three retired generals are Major General Gale S. Pollock, former acting Surgeon General of the US Army; Brigadier General Clara Adams-Ender, former Chief of the US Army Nurse Corps; and Brigadier General Thomas A. Kolditz, a Yale University professor and Professor Emeritus at the US Military Academy at West Point. They note Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's statements in May that he is open to reviewing the military's ban on transgender service members.
"We spent three months serving on a research commission that investigated administrative aspects of transgender military service, with a view toward maintaining readiness and alignment with core military values of dignity and respect. Today, our commission releases a report, which focuses on how to implement inclusive policy in allowing transgender Americans to serve their country," the three retired generals said in a joint statement. "Our conclusion is that allowing transgender personnel to serve openly is administratively feasible and will not be burdensome or complicated. Three months have passed since Defense Secretary Hagel announced a willingness to review the military's ban on transgender service, an effort the White House indicated it supports. Our new report shows that implementation could proceed immediately and will be successful in its execution.”
Following Hagel's statements on the topic, the administration of President Barack Obama voiced support for such a review.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Will the Military Lift Its Ban on Transgender Troops?" by Tierney Sneed, U.S. News & World Report 10/22/14
Many people don’t realize that when Congress and President Barack Obama repealed the military’s ban on openly gay, lesbian and bisexual service members – a policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” – its prohibitions on transgender people openly serving remained in place. In fact, even members of the military are at times unaware of the ban, according to some panelists’ accounts of coming out.
But the pressure to change the policy appears poised to grow, as the broader transgender rights movement takes a more prominent societal role. . . .
The military’s transgender policy is embedded in medical regulations dating back to the outdated notion that gender nonconformity equated to mental illness . . .
Concerns have been raised about changes needed to be made to military protocols if the ban is lifted – from the specific health care needs of transgender people to the so-called shower question, or what would happen in scenarios that require non-transgender troops and their transgender colleagues to disrobe together.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Transgenderism is a 'Delusion' According to Victim as well as Media Admit Propaganda Overstating Gay Population
