Oh, totally. In fact I think it’s something that’s really worth pressing home at this point. It’s tired and transparent and ugly and desperate. It’s good to understand that the cost excuse doesn’t add up and that there are plenty of examples of combat-effective troops who are transgender, but if I found myself having to explain to someone why I didn’t like this ban I think I’d say it’s because it’s a dead rat. It’s tired, it’s transparent, it’s ugly, and it’s desperate. Everybody says so. Everybody knows.
Ancient neocon wisdom says that if you’re explaining, you’re losing. So all I’m saying is that while there have been some great rebuttals of the ban in this thread, if I was arguing this with someone who supported the ban I wouldn’t bother with any of that, at least not until they did. It’s not our job to explain why this doesn’t make sense, it’s their job to explain why it does. Until then it’s an obvious dead rat, an act of desperation from a losing administration.
If I was at a protest against this ban my placard wouldn’t mention transgender rights or money or troops, it would read Another Dead Rat and it would have a picture on. I know that strictly speaking this isn’t my fight, but I’m behind you all the way and I’d love to see Trump eat his own shit for this.
One Army vet on NPR this morning went on about ‘being able to trust the soldier next to you’, and ‘okay if they’re in an office, but not in the field’. Sounded similar to objections from the armed forces prior to allowing African-Americans to serve in WWII flying combat aircraft; it’s on that history that the transgender argument should be based: Bigotry.
Kinda sounds like he’s saying the much vaunted sacred bond between brothers-and-sisters-in-arms is actually less resilient than the bond between two people who happen to use the same Xerox machine.
Probably right. I cannot imagine where that came from. On the other hand, a tweet is not an enforceable policy. Or at least I hope that is not the case.
You know, it’s taken six months, but I finally, fully get it. What it’s like to be living under this deplorable regime ‘led’ by a demented fuckwit who’s constantly punching down those he sees as expendable.
I know this is totally not about me - cis Australian - and maybe it’s because it’s my first day off in 22 days, but I hit a wall and had to take time out today. God, I’m so tired. Exhausted, really. This foul monster is in charge of America and can’t even leave people who’ve been tormented to the brink of suicide because of being in the wrong body, yet still choose to serve their country, alone? Truly, what the fuck is wrong with him, and the minority of Americans who voted for him? Why so threatened, by apparently just about everything? I can’t fully comprehend what it must be to live life so scared and angry and fucked-up every second of every day. But I can properly comprehend the insult, degrading, dehumanisation, offence to transgender people… some of the strongest, most righteous and truly noble people around.
Just fuck off and die Trump. The world would be a much better place for your absence.
As a sidenote, the Department of Justice stated yesterday in federal court that sexual orientation is not covered by the civil rights act, and that they are not protected from discrimination.
I can’t help but think this is how 45 sees trans people in the military:
(… and taken in context, even though Klinger’s cross-dressing was played for laughs he was trying to get a discharge on Section 8 grounds. It had zero to do with gender issues.)
I think an argument could be made that the hostile environment trans people live in and the omnipotent threat of violence they face every day of their lives, combined with the emotionally demanding and introspective process of discovering themselves and transitioning, actually hardens them and make them more qualified for stressful and physically demanding jobs than cis people.
I typed much more but I’m a well off white CIS guy with next to no personal experience in this subject. I will extrapolate from other subjects to just say I would guess there is as much diversity in trans people as there is in any other sub group of humans. Some would excel in the military while other’s (like me) would not do very well.
I was just bringing in my own flavor of generalities and intuitions as a trans woman with many trans friends, a surprisingly number of whom in or aspiring to be in the military, who could kick any of my other friends asses. I was being spiteful, and it felt good.
Something that the US military have missed is that not all trans people want to take hormones. Even if the argument that transwomen on hormones are not physically capable of meeting their standards is valid (which I disagree with), why are the people not taking hormones being kicked out?
I think I’m going to drop out of this thread now. It’s not good for my sanity.
