Ban on transgender in the military announced.

[skywalkrNCSU]

What kind of meds do post ops need and on how regular of a basis? How does that compare to other medical conditions and serving?

Shepherd Smith doesn't seem to like the idea.... says that there are thousands and thousands of trans people in the Military. He's getting pretty snitty about it.

From what I've read, other than the reassignment surgery which a number of trans people don't want (I don't know, just what I read), the costs are pretty low. It's pretty much just hormones and even without insurance they don't cost much.

If anything it would make the female to male soldiers better because they would basically be roided up. The guys on the other hand would be going in the wrong direction there.

[WillBrink]

What kind of meds do post ops need and on how regular of a basis? How does that compare to other medical conditions and serving?

On going meds are hormonal. How does the mil approach that for people who say require thyroid meds (hormonal) who need a regular supply of thyroid? I'm assuming one can join if they say require thyroid but otherwise perfectly healthy? I'm not sure how that one works.

Shepherd Smith doesn't seem to like the idea.... says that there are thousands and thousands of trans people in the Military. He's getting pretty snitty about it.

Thousands? I aint buying it. If it's 100 I'd be amazed. I assume now the mil will have to go count them.

[Averageman]

What kind of meds do post ops need and on how regular of a basis? How does that compare to other medical conditions and serving?

Shepherd Smith doesn't seem to like the idea.... says that there are thousands and thousands of trans people in the Military. He's getting pretty snitty about it.

Shepherd Smith is Gay, perhaps he is a bit biased?
As far as thousands and thousands, I think he is FOS.

[WillBrink]

Shepherd Smith is Gay, perhaps he is a bit biased?
As far as thousands and thousands, I think he is FOS.

Thousands of gay people serving, yes. Thousands of trans people serving? FOS to be sure.

[glocktogo]

What kind of meds do post ops need and on how regular of a basis? How does that compare to other medical conditions and serving?

Shepherd Smith doesn't seem to like the idea.... says that there are thousands and thousands of trans people in the Military. He's getting pretty snitty about it.

Shep can go fork himself with a rusty spork. Have you tried watching the man the past few months? It's constant snark and completely unwatchable.


The United States military has always been at the forefront of social experimentation and I wouldn't readily dismiss that notion. However, SECDEF Mattis has the correct approach. You can't perform social experiments for the sake of performing social experiments with the DoD. You have to measure the costs and benefits to national defense of those experiments. Second, you don't do these experiments service wide. You test in small batches to measure impacts and identify unintended consequences. Simply saying the U.S. military is now accepting transgendered enlistees is a recipe for disaster and while the actual effects might be minimal, the outward perception might magnify those effects significantly.

First off, you need a baseline to work from. Depending whose figures you use, less than half a percent of all American citizens are active duty military, and less than 10% have ever served. Of that percentage, only 1.5% who've served are female, yet they comprise 51% of our population. So, what percentage of the American population are transgender? Of that percentage, what percentage want to serve at all? Of that percentage, how many actually want to serve in a frontline combat unit? Once you have that data, you can extrapolate the cost/benefit of even pursuing this line of business.

I'd like to draw a comparison to another controversial subject, Colin Kapernick. The media loves to analyze why he isn’t currently employed in the NFL. They discuss everything from his quarterback ratings, “fit” within a team, sociopolitical leanings, the media circus he creates, even his hairstyle. What they miss is the common denominator that ties all of those things together. Simply put, he isn’t focused on being the best NFL player he can be. Now he might be able to get away with that if he were Tom Brady, but he isn’t. Not even close. He’s a mediocre QB who draws focus away from winning games, and teams aren’t interested in that because it doesn’t serve their mission.

So is an actively transgender person (not already transitioned and stable) focused on national defense and being the best service member they can be, or are they focused on being transgender? Do they really want to go fight for the country, or do they want to prove that they should automatically be allowed to because they’re transgender? No one has yet proven that integrating transgender persons into mainline military units has a positive or even neutral impact on military readiness or combat effectiveness, but we do know there are costs in doing so. So we shouldn’t just do it for the sake of making a VERY small percentage of our population feel better about themselves or the world they live in.

Military service is an honor and a privilege, not a right. Let’s not lose focus on the reason for their existence, which is NOT to make special snowflakes feel more specialerer.

[HeruMew]

Problem is once they're snipped, the mental disorder still remains which convinced them their DNA was a lie.

Will's post below share's my sentiment.

If they serve post gender change, survive the training and do their job, no chits given by me. However, there's no reason the US tax payer should pay for GRS and ongoing costs of it, so policy could be something like they must be 2 years post op to join and medically stable, pass psych evals, etc.

Yup, will be a lefty estrogen explosion over this.

Couldn't have said it better meself, sir.

[HeruMew]

Shep can go fork himself with a rusty spork. Have you tried watching the man the past few months? It's constant snark and completely unwatchable.


The United States military has always been at the forefront of social experimentation and I wouldn't readily dismiss that notion. However, SECDEF Mattis has the correct approach. You can't perform social experiments for the sake of performing social experiments with the DoD. You have to measure the costs and benefits to national defense of those experiments. Second, you don't do these experiments service wide. You test in small batches to measure impacts and identify unintended consequences. Simply saying the U.S. military is now accepting transgendered enlistees is a recipe for disaster and while the actual effects might be minimal, the outward perception might magnify those effects significantly.

First off, you need a baseline to work from. Depending whose figures you use, less than half a percent of all American citizens are active duty military, and less than 10% have ever served. Of that percentage, only 1.5% who've served are female, yet they comprise 51% of our population. So, what percentage of the American population are transgender? Of that percentage, what percentage want to serve at all? Of that percentage, how many actually want to serve in a frontline combat unit? Once you have that data, you can extrapolate the cost/benefit of even pursuing this line of business.

I'd like to draw a comparison to another controversial subject, Colin Kapernick. The media loves to analyze why he isn’t currently employed in the NFL. They discuss everything from his quarterback ratings, “fit” within a team, sociopolitical leanings, the media circus he creates, even his hairstyle. What they miss is the common denominator that ties all of those things together. Simply put, he isn’t focused on being the best NFL player he can be. Now he might be able to get away with that if he were Tom Brady, but he isn’t. Not even close. He’s a mediocre QB who draws focus away from winning games, and teams aren’t interested in that because it doesn’t serve their mission.

So is an actively transgender person (not already transitioned and stable) focused on national defense and being the best service member they can be, or are they focused on being transgender? Do they really want to go fight for the country, or do they want to prove that they should automatically be allowed to because they’re transgender? No one has yet proven that integrating transgender persons into mainline military units has a positive or even neutral impact on military readiness or combat effectiveness, but we do know there are costs in doing so. So we shouldn’t just do it for the sake of making a VERY small percentage of our population feel better about themselves or the world they live in.

Military service is an honor and a privilege, not a right. Let’s not lose focus on the reason for their existence, which is NOT to make special snowflakes feel more specialerer.

Gotta say, you make some very valid points. I can appreciate all the points you hit on.

[Talon167]

I'm 100% okay with the US tax payers not having to foot the bill for sex change operations and therapy sessions..

[TomMcC]

I'm 100% okay with the US tax payers not having to foot the bill for sex change operations and therapy sessions..

I'm 100% OK with seriously deluded people not operating nuked up B-1B's or being in Minuteman III silos. Thankfully, some sanity has prevailed.

[26 Inf]

So is an actively transgender person (not already transitioned and stable) focused on national defense and being the best service member they can be, or are they focused on being transgender? Do they really want to go fight for the country, or do they want to prove that they should automatically be allowed to because they’re transgender? No one has yet proven that integrating transgender persons into mainline military units has a positive or even neutral impact on military readiness or combat effectiveness, but we do know there are costs in doing so. So we shouldn’t just do it for the sake of making a VERY small percentage of our population feel better about themselves or the world they live in.

Military service is an honor and a privilege, not a right. Let’s not lose focus on the reason for their existence, which is NOT to make special snowflakes feel more specialerer.

Nailed it right there on so many scales.