If one is in fantastic shape and full of a patriotic desire to serve but is also on attention, anxiety, or depression meds, one is not permitted to enlist. Does the NYT understand that fact? Does the NYT comprehend the sheer numbers of young men and women on the meds mentioned above vs the number of young men and women who consider themselves transgender? Where are the articles advocating their cause? Where is the constant drumbeat of advocacy on behalf of the interests of a large segment of the population? I haven’t even mentioned the fact that fit and patriotic diabetics are ruled out of service. This is the kind of “cause” journalism that drives people up a wall. Transgender men and women have to take daily hormones to maintain their desired status. That puts them in the exact same category as all the rest of the people who are ruled out of service for medical reasons.
47
In the 80’s when the issue of gay marriage first arose, I was 100 percent for it while almost every one I knew, family, friends and co-workers were against it. No, I’m not giving myself a pat on the back for being ‘woke’ so young, but I’ve had enough of trans this and that which is now monopolizing too many features of this newspaper. What percentage of the population is trans and what percentage is interested in reading about trans just about every day? Don’t do a Starbucks on yourself.
39
Like Trump who treats his friends like enemies and his enemies like friends, the US military is turning away individuals who would be best suited to serve and protect the nation while simultaneously, accepting the lesser qualified candidates in their place. Deplorable.
13
the government loves to so drape
all outsiders with long red tape
until they despair
of treatment that's fair
and dress themselves in deep black crape.
5
I feel sad for those who did not voted for this clown (#45), but unfortunately others have to pay for the stupidity of some.
8
I voted for him and will do so again.
27
So Trump, who avoided the draft because of "bone spurs" , lets to dictate whether a transgender person can serve in the military. Trump is a coward. These transgender people are not. There is something wrong with this picture.
29
Very wrong. If someone volunteered to protect me with his life I would say "Thank you." I don't understand why the armed services are rejecting or discouraging citizens who want to protect and serve. Isn't this their right as citizens of the U.S.A.? It's called Love of Country.
18
"We're not excluding them! We're just...not including them, is all. Not 'what we're looking for', yadayada."
The "covfefe" regime is chock full o' nuts, and o' judges' missed opportunities to apply well-earned contempt-of-court penalties.
You'd think that bunch of jingoistic (chicken)hawks would want MORE in their ranks to project more of their (illegitimate) power, but what they REALLY want, as the GOP always have, is ethnic purity. Actual soldiers, without bone spurs, fought that hideous idea back in D-Day.
9
I wish nothing but the best for transgender people but it really seems, based on their substantial coverage, that the New York Times sees transgender as one of the defining issues of our time
65
There are only four transgender related stories (so far) on the front page today. Why the drought?
Seriously, aren't you overdoing it a bit. From reading the Times, you'd think 50% of the population was either transgender or gay.
Give it a rest.
81
I am with you.
I am sick to death of hearing about gay and transgender people. For the love of gawd, what are we talking about here -- a tiny % of the population -- and yet all we hear about all day long on NPR and other news media is gay and transgender.
What about the other 95% of the population?
All of us live somewhere along a gender spectrum. Humankind has dealt with this "spectrum" for millenia without resorting to gender reassignment surgery.
If you're a woman and you want to live a man's life, you can. Dress like a guy, get a man's job, marry a woman. But enough with the transgender.
56
The induction process takes longer for transgender recruits because the induction medical examinations reveal they have physical abnormalities. Transgender men have female genitalia while transgender woman have male genitalia. The military rejects about 80 percent of recruits, most for relatively minor physical abnormalities.
23
Things are a mess when one has to have stacks of documentation to prove their sex. God help them if they're an illegal immigrant as well. If I forget to take my medicine I may have a seizure, they forget and something grows back they thought they'd rid themselves of. I'll keep my epilepsy, thanks. By the way, I couldn't get into the military if I wanted to either for that reason. Enough with all this discrimination whining.
28
There is no such thing as transgender. You cannot change your gender.
There are, however, mentally ill people who are endangered by enablers.
BTW: People who think they are transgender have a suicide rate 50 times higher than the general population. Do we really want them to have access to automatic weapons?
49
Gender does not exist. Sex exists and you can't change it.
9
Good thing they don't have Bone Spurs. Let them SERVE. Seriously.
17
The ongoing maintenance (hormones, surgeries, surgury follow-ups, psych care, etc.) required of these folks to continue their charade is way more than enough to defer them from service. Far less disqualifies many others from serving.
39
Statistically speaking, a small percentage of our population wants to join the military and a much smaller percentage is transgender. So why should it be odd that the intersection is very small? Unless serving in the military is a known way to get your expensive surgery paid for, one would expect to see few cases each year of transgender people joining the services. Statistics of low numbers are always flaky.
14
How readily we make fun of draft dodgers (like Donald Trump), and yet, we can't quite accept people who really want to serve.
All we need is for some general officer to ask "what's the hold up here?" But who would risk the wrath of the draft dodger?
It's ridiculous. For the good of the nation, the sooner this cartoon presidency ends, the better.
13
Why is this red herring in the news, when MANY more potential recruits are rejected due to previously-prescribed ADHD drugs? That is a real issue for military recruiting, not the clickbait topic presented here.
20% of all American boys are diagnosed with ADHD or ADD at some point before the age of 18. ALL those potential recruits are ineligible for service. Yet we're focusing on a terrifically small population of transgender recruits (who also might have taken ADD/ADHD medications) as some sort of substantive issue. Ridiculous!
25
I have to ask how many jobs are denied in civilian life after companies get the school records of applicants given meds as children? Likewise medical discharges for mental illness in the military?
You don't read about it much but what is the discharge rate of personnel that exhibit or ask for help for mental illness or request counseling? Does such a request destroy a chance of promotion?
4
By being transgender, it is the transgender people who are not ready for the military, not vice versa. (Pun intended). The idea that everyone else has to accommodate transgender people and not those who are unable to accept their birth gender is part of what is wrong with society.
32
I would really be curious if anyone has compared the amount of coverage the Times has given the issue of transgender people over the past five years or so in comparison to its coverage of America's grossly inadequate provision for paid parental leave after birth/adoption. A issue fundamental to the health and welfare of millions and millions of ordinary citizens whose only"special need" is raising healthy children without concerns for huge demands on their incomes to pay for childcare.
46
The medical entrance requirements to get into the military are steep for anyone. As an example, I had to get a medical waiver for a finger that I had fractured several years before I joined. I did not have surgery to fix the finger, I had full movement in the finger, and there was no way to tell that I broke it, but I still needed a medical waiver. The military wants to get people who are physically healthy with clean medical histories. Even a minor injury can disqualify someone. A transgender person with a litany of surgeries and hormone therapies will present red flags. If there are two qualified candidates, one with a long medical history and the other with a clean slate, the person with the clean slate will get in first. The military accepts the people that best fit their needs. Transgender people with questionable medical backgrounds who will potentially need ongoing care for years are not good candidates. Deployed forces have limited medical resources available, often nothing more than a medic with limited training who is not equipped to handle the unique medical concerns of transgender people.
46
I would not hire a transgender person to work in the office. It would be too much for the rest of the staff.
28
It is a shame that your staff is more concerned about working with someone different than doing their jobs. Transgender people are successfully working all over the world. I would be much more concerned with staff who are so limited in their thinking that they need a space arranged specifically to their individual liking in order to what they've been hired to do.
20
"It would be too much for the rest of the staff?????"
Sounds like "the rest of the staff" is composed of, well, #Snowflakes.
If I employed a transgender person who was committed to his or her work, diligent, responsible and productive and "the rest of the staff" found it to be "too much," I think I'd bring in "the rest of the staff" and tell them to either join the society of vertebrates or accept my best wishes in the continuation of their career elsewhere.
This is the 21st-century. Buck up, Chief.
19
Sounds like the rest of the staff could use some support. It's an opportunity for you all.
As a taxpayer I don't want to pay for these operations and to pay for a soldier who will be incapacitated for several months after his operation. The most famous "transgender" soldier was Bradley/Chelsea Manning, who was imprisoned for espionage but whose sentence was commuted by Obama because she was transgender. That's not the kind of person I want in the military.
48
Hmm. Perhaps the cost of medical care, including mental health due to our constant need for war is much, much more than what a transgender person's costs would be.
Second, I would not be concerned at all about serving with a transgender person. My only concern is the person is trained, competent (as opposed to Trump) and has my back.
Army Retired.
13
You are already paying much more in medical for military personnel who have diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and imagined illnesses due to poor eating and desire not to do their jobs. You're also paying for all those who claim disability just before retirement and then go on to live a perfectly normal life. Some transgender people may cost a bit more than some others in the military but if that is the line you don't want to cross you would save more if you address the many real abuses happening.
12
As a tax payer, I don’t want to pay for your bypass operation as you are too fat and should have cut on hamburgers and cheese.
Listen how that sounds? Ridiculous. As is your opinion.
Chelsea Manning is a hero, as such sensitive secrets should not be kept hidden for the general public. Again, the public is perfectly capable to decide what to do with the information.
12
Transgender signees should be lumped together rather than with other recruits. That will avoid all the inevitable conflicts with mixing these people with other groups that will object to the changes inherent with transgender people.
5
That sounds like the same opinion that people in the ‘40 and ‘50 had of black people mixing with white people.
America has not progressed far, after all.
10
So...segregation? Like how the military used to treat black people?
11
The military already did that with people with dark skin. We now consider it a stain on our history.
11
I don't understand this policy except as a play to the religious right. But a reasoned religion should respect moral choice. We never know what it's like to be another person.
19
I am all for transgender people joining the military, as long as they don't expect the military to expend huge medical costs on their transition surgeries, which can cost over $100,000 (ex: male to female surgery). Hormone injections are low cost but major surgeries are a major disruption to a soldiers terms of military service (which is not supposed to be act as a social safety net system.)
FYI, I served in the U.S. military and to even go to the doctor for minor ailment or injury was often denied to me. I had was barely moving around with an undiagnosed fractured leg for two days, and was accused by numerous higher ups of being a 'shirker' before I was allowed to see a doctor after my leg started to turn blue. Anyone who had a medical condition that required weeks of rehab or an ailment or injury that turned into a chronic condition (bum leg, ACL), was promptly forced out of the service.
21
I beg to differ with you. The costs of medical treatment for one severely injured service member may greatly exceed those costs for a transgender person.
Second, I also served many years ago. If I needed medical attention I was seen.
I have a difficult time believing you were denied care for days, as you state it.
10
I served ten years and was one of the oldest sailors I knew. I could outrun and outlift most of the younger men and almost all of the younger women. Many of them were out of shape, overweight, unaccustomed to hard work, on drug waivers, or just immature enough to have issues working - and those were the ones who had the courage and drive to volunteer. We are a spoiled and lazy country and we are short of volunteers. Additionally, we have lost some of our key sources for recruits; many of the sailors in the US Navy in the '90's were not American citizens. I have not looked up numbers but would be interested to see a projection of how our recent behavior towards nonAmericans affects recruitment. So as to transgender recruits, if you are not going to step up, if your children are not going to step up, and if you have cut off the flow of people from other countries who will, you might want to be grateful for what's left.
39
Thank you for this thoughtful response. I have two sons serving and another son is applying to AROTC. All of my sons care only about serving with people who are capable and willing to their jobs with integrity. Thank you for your service and for taking the time to provide some history and context to this discussion.
13
Political correctness is not what an army, navy or air force would necessarily want. They want a homogenous fighting force, not subjected to drama or stress. They are looking for stalwart youth unencumbered with personal baggage. Why burden the military with having to deal with social issues when what they should focus on is being war ready at all times.
28
We aren't a homogeneous country. A fighting force that doesn't reflect the society it's fighting for, is not the right fit.
Life is a constant navigating through social issues. If soldiers cannot navigate through life in their own societies, they will be ill-equipped to handle life in other societies where they are sent to support their country's interests.
27
Not every trans person is Chelsea Manning. Others, after tremendous cost and struggle are integrated into the military. Their identity and dignity now under assault. It is powerful to see the support they get as well the courage of their resistance. In my mind it would be infinitely better if they were everything the bigots project onto them. I wish they didn't make the military a more efficient machine of death and imperial violence. If and hopefully when this shifts they will be greeted with open arms and great big hugs.
8
Either gender dysphoria is a medical condition or it's not. If it is a medical condition it disqualifies him/her from serving just as does asthma or flat feet. If it's not a medical condition than this biological female has mental issues and is disqualified.
26
They ought to go back and read your story from last week about the insurance issues that vets have been stuck in. If they still want to join the military after that they ought to go back and read the stories about the problems disabled vets have been having with the VA. If they still want to join the military they ought to read the stories about the sexual harassment problems in the military. If they still want to join the military they should go talk to a few recent veterans. This delay is a blessing in disguise.
4
I am finding it very puzzling that the military authorities have become afraid of their gay or lesbian soldiers.
How did they become so silly when they are out in wars actually killing total strangers?
15
This article has nothing to do with gay or lesbian soldiers.
18
Perhaps US military brass is not convinced that these are genuine transformations from women-to-men and vice-versa. There are good reasons to hold that skeptical opinion -- though the current culture of coercion wants to silence it.
46
Please cite data demonstrating "good reasons" to hold the referenced opinion. We're not interested in dogma...I'd love to hear facts.
Perhaps "the brass" was convinced enough to move ahead with recruitment, training and deployment of LGBT personnel during the Obama administration. The President, Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs all opined that dropping barriers would cause no adverse effect on military readiness. Subsequent studies demonstrated no adverse effects at all on units' performance.
But now Trump has decreed, in a total vacuum of facts, that "the brass" should not be convinced? Have the facts changed?
How has performance suffered from the presence of LGBT personnel? Are our radars less well maintained? Our marksmanship scores decreased? Our accident rates onboard ships at sea increased? Are we suffering greater casualties in the field when units include LGBT troops versus control units that have no LGBT members?
Which "culture of coercion" are we talking about? Do you mean the "tyranny of truth?"
9
How is the park justifying closing the entire island over a single non violent protest incident? It just screams incompetence and indeed made the spectacle much more significant and was obviously unnecessary. Actions like this show that the people who are running the show are more loony than the protester!
1
"Genuine" transformations?
I've never met a "phony" transgender person in my life. I have, however, run into plenty of prejudiced people with assumptions about transgender people, who don't know any such folks personally and have never done any reading up on the "genuine" condition of Gender Dysphoria.
There are many folks with that condition currently serving their country with honor already -- genuinely.
37
I am transgender. I served in the Navy. If you meet the physical requirements you should get to go to Boot Camp and prove you are worthy of being in the armed forces.
It's that simple. Also, what's wrong with joining the armed forces to get a free surgery? People join the military to get free college and we dont blame them for it? People join the military to get paid money. Is that wrong? You are out of readiness for the exact same amount of time and a less cost than a women in the military getting pregnant.
So if you believe women should be allowed to be in the military, you should also be fine with transgender people. If you are fine with the $80 million we spend every year on Viagra for the troops, you should be fine with the $8 million it would cost to provide full medical benefits to transgender soldiers.
40