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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has released an order banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under “limited circumstances”, following up on his calls last year to ban transgender individuals from serving.
The White House said retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” — those who may require substantial medical treatment — “presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality”.
Trump surprised the Pentagon’s leadership in a 2017 tweet when he declared he would reverse an Obama-era plan to allow transgender individuals to serve openly.
His push for the ban has been blocked by several legal challenges, and four federal courts have ruled against the ban. The Pentagon responded by allowing those serving to stay in the military, and began allowing transgender individuals to enlist beginning 1 January.
“This new policy will enable the military to apply well-established mental and physical health standards — including those regarding the use of medical drugs — equally to all individuals who want to join and fight for the best military force the world has ever seen,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said yesterday.
The new policy was promptly assailed by congressional Democrats and civil rights groups. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted:
No one with the strength & bravery to serve in the U.S. military should be turned away because of who they are. This hateful ban is purpose-built to humiliate our brave transgender members of the military who serve with honor & dignity.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organisation, accused the Trump administration of pushing “anti-transgender prejudices onto the military.”
“There is simply no way to spin it, the Trump-Pence Administration is going all in on its discriminatory, unconstitutional and despicable ban on transgender troops,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.
Joshua Block, a senior staff lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union LGBT & HIV Project, said the policy “effectively coerces transgender people who wish to serve into choosing between their humanity and their country, and makes it clear that transgender service members are not welcome”.
Trump received recommendations from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in February for dealing with transgender individuals serving in the military. The White House said Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen agreed with the policy.
Earlier yesterday, Major David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said the announcement of a new policy would have no immediate practical effect on the military because the Pentagon is obliged to continue to recruit and retain transgender people in accordance with current law.
The issue has become mired in a complicated string of political statements, court decisions and policy reviews since Trump first stunned his administration with his tweets last July.
It’s unclear how much impact the court decisions will have on Trump’s decision. Activist groups had worried the administration could enact such strict enlistment and health care restrictions that it would become all but impossible for transgender troops to join or continue serving.
Under guidelines presented in December, the Pentagon could disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, those with a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. Such recruits could be allowed in if a medical provider certified they’ve been clinically stable in the preferred sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.
Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy must be stable on their medication for 18 months.
The requirements make it challenging for a transgender recruit to pass. But they mirror conditions laid out by President Barack Obama’s administration in 2016, when the Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender troops serving openly in the military.
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Slightly off point but this behaviour starts with allowing a child to have a mobile phone and full internet access from early age. Ive seen kids as young as 3 years old with this. Are their parents insane???? Why not give them a loaded gun as well while theyre at it! No child needs a mobile phone while in primary school. There is no argument for it. Absolutely none.
@theupsidedown: I could not agree more..
@theupsidedown: 3 years of age ? Would you ever get a grip.
@theupsidedown: well if they don’t have one they will use their friends. It’s much better to educate them about the Internet rather than hoping they are abstaining.
@Deborah Behan: I would strongly disagree with your comment Deborah. We don’t allow 10 year olds to drink alcohol, or smoke tobacco, or drive in vehicles without seat belts, or get tattoos. it is our responsibility to keep our children safe. Giving young children smart phones, with full internet access is the absolute antithesis of good, responsible parenting. I think it should be a crime. I have seen with my own eyes what happens when young kids are left to their own devices on snap chat. Parents who do this are failing their kids and are unfit to raise them.
@Nucky: you get a grip. I know a family with four kids all under 8, all with smart phones with full internet access. The youngest is three. Fact. So pull your head out of your arse.
@Deborah Behan: that’ll sort the problem alright. Let’s give parents less responsibility by letting the internet babysit their kids. After they educate them of course.
@Susannah: well said. Unfortunately too many ostriches have become parents.
@theupsidedown: wow a 3 year old who can surf the net incredible . Probably can’t count or spell but has a smart phone. But if these 4 kids do actually exist how do you know they actually have internet? So stop being a toolbag its called Education why don’t you get one ! Just like alcohol in France etc they are educated and allowed to taste at a young age and how not to abuse it.
@Deborah Behan: exactly Deborah it’s about education which clearly is missing with most of the people who comment here
@Nucky: 1. I never said anything about them surfing the net. Children learn to count/spell from a young age. I’d imagine you’ve struggled with this thus far as you clearly have difficulty with reading. I know they have internet because I’ve witnesssd it. I’d imagine you don’t know these people so you are in no position to say they do not have internet access or that they don’t exist. I never said they abuse the internet. You don’t have to abuse the internet to be abused on the internet. I don’t know you (thankfully) but you should consider anger management & reading classes plus a healthy dose of medication. I actually feel sorry for you. Do a bit of research and educate yourself. This should enable you to reach the bank at the shallow end of the gene pool before you drown, little man.
@Nucky: Just so everyone knows – You’re 3 years on twitter and you only managed to muster one follower in all that time. I’ll bet you’re following yourself. God love you.
Just my opinion but i always feel these articles are directed at girls not to send naked pictures but how about teaching boys to treat girls with more respect and not ask/pressurise girls in to sending them.
In my experience it has been boys / men requesting these type of pictures and instead of having porn as their idea of what sex is like, start teaching both boys and girls what a real sexual relationship is and the respect and responsibility that goes with it.
@Louise Tracey: how about teaching parents to be proper parents ..
@Louise Tracey: I agree. But unfortunately by and large unfettered access to the internet given to them by their parents from a young age as a substitute baby sitter has been destructive. Idiot parents who think their children are cool and tech savvy. Do they really know what goes on when their child is on the internet with no supervision?
@Terry O’Callaghan: well said.
@Terry O’Callaghan: I’m a parent and I hope when the time comes I’ll be able to have a proper conversion with my kids about sex and relationships but if society doesn’t do the same then it’s not going to change.
You can’t blame everything on bad parenting , we have to look at sex culture- celebrities, tv, etc
@Terry O’Callaghan: Perfect example of what I’m talking about – look at the article on the journal sit down Sunday- headline is a sex story. We need stories about healthy sexual relationships not selling your sex life online
@Louise Tracey: you HOPE you’ll be able? That more than likely means you won’t. If you have a daughter bring her up strong independent and unwilling to be pressured. And society starts in the family. Don’t blame society for poor parenting.
@H0tt3rBank3r: yes of course blame women, we need to be strong enough to fight the men off – how about teaching boys be respectful and not be always pushing for what they can get from girls
You seem to have a healthy hatred of men in general there, Louise.
@Cranium: I don’t think that’s a a fair comment. My point is that we need to teach boys to have a different view of women and it isn’t really just to teach girls to not send those pictures
The problem with this is that people have the false notion that just because you are sitting privately in your house/car/the school bus…where ever, posting and texting privately, that anything you post on the Internet is also private, IT ISN’T. It can be viewed, shared and even go viral. Whilst technology may have given us a window to view the world, the world can also now view us, warts and all.
@Brian McDonnell: well said.
What teenagers get up to these days is shocking .what is wrong with them.. have they no cop on at all.. have they no parent that will stand up and say..no you cannot have it ..or no you are not wearing it.. they want everything ..and want to do everything and to hell with the consequences… I see how some are dressed and it’s nothing short of vulgar..some will say that’s fashion..i say it’s very bad parenting..putting images on line.. to show your boyfriend/ girlfriend. And the world. Consequences will be paid for such a stupid pointless act..
@Terry O’Callaghan: I agree with you 100% Terry. But I don’t blame the children. They are simply an unfortunate byproduct of their home environment. The parents should be the ones on trial here, literally. For failing their children so miserably.
Recently I was asked to send an undraped picture of myself to someone I had met online. Out of (basic) decency I covered my (although I say it myself, generous,) manhood with a (biggish) fig-leaf. Somehow it went viral and I find myself being summonsed for creating a disturbance of the “piece.” Be careful of what you put out there.
P.s. I am 87 in September.
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