CV NEWS FEED // A recently released Department of Defense (DOD) memo lists extensive benefits and exceptions for “transgender” military service members.
The memo, published by The Dossier, stipulates that “trans identifying” military service members are entitled to exemptions for physical fitness, as well as grooming and uniform requirements. The exemptions can be renewed every 6 months.
In addition, these individuals may avoid deployments while taking hormone pills for up to 300 days. As The Dossier article points out, however, sex-change related hormones “are often required for life.”
This policy could preclude most “trans identifying” service members from ever having to undergo deployment, in addition to never having to comply with physical fitness or grooming standards.
Acquired by The Dossier for publication, the memo is not classified but has not been available for the public to see until now.
The 34 page DOD memo details other benefits for “trans” service members granted by the Biden administration. These include taxpayer funded speech and hormone therapy, laser hair removal, vocal surgery, plastic surgery, mastectomies, genital mutilation surgeries, and psychological counseling.
The policy will not apply to military veterans or spouses. Hormone treatments, “sex change” surgeries, and other related procedures will be made available to service members through the Womack Army Medical Center and its affiliated health clinics.
“The overarching goal of treatment for Transgender Service Members (TGSMs) is to provide a safe and effective pathway to achieve lasting personal comfort with their gendered selves to maximize their overall health,” the document says,“and to promote psychological well-being and self-fulfillment, while allowing them to continue to pursue their military service goals.”
While the document recognizes “that many TG individuals identify as ‘gender non-binary’ and/or ‘gender fluid,’” service members are required to choose a gender marker of male or female, since the “current medical and Army system views gender as a dichotomous variable.”
Doctors and clinicians are required, however, to call the service member by their preferred pronouns once they have received an official diagnosis of “gender dysphoric.”
In April 2021, the Secretary of Defence prohibited military leadership from denying reenlistment to “trans identifying” service members on the basis of their condition without express approval from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
In light of this policy, the document notes that “TG [transgender] status (aka “gender dysphoria) in and of itself is no longer adequate to initiate an administrative separation” according to military guidelines.
