As Trump's ban looms, transgender service members defend their fitness to serve

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Axios

11 hours ago


The Pentagon's forced ouster of transgender service members could impact thousands of people and devastate careers, military members and veterans say.

The big picture: While the Trump administration claims its restrictive policies will promote military "readiness," trans soldiers and veterans say the administration's ban is driven by animus rather than evidence — and will mark a substantial loss to the armed services.

Catch up quick: The Pentagon announced earlier this month it would begin removing some 1,000 openly transgender service members and give other active-duty service members 30 days and reservists 60 days to leave or be forced out.

While there is no exact count of the number of transgender people serving, officials have said 4,240 service members have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

The policy comes amid years of whiplash. But for nearly two decades, "don't ask, don't tell," which banned gay, lesbian and bisexual people from serving openly, was the military's policy.

What they're saying: Alaina Kupec, a former Naval intelligence officer, told Axios she thinks "this is a path toward don't ask, don't tell again — and it starts with the transgender community."

"If we use the logic of the president and the secretary of defense, they can make a decision on who is best to serve based on what they think, not what's based on fact," she said.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2025/05/17/trump-transgender-service-members-veterans-ban

[Duncanpup]

1. Is the military a reflection of society.

No not this with this all volunteer military. Where I’m going is in my 3.5 years i only met one dude in my two rifle platoons that came from money everybody else was basically came from the blue collar
sector.
Yet here we are kicking troops out over identity politics and it is bullshit. A lot of the people calling for this never even served yet if you’re medically able to deploy then what is the problem.

It’s kind of like desegregation around Korean conflict will the black soldiers fight. And desegregation proved all the racist wrong. I told dude who was complaining about women in infantry. I said 160 women have graduated RANGER course and several women have graduated Special Forces assessment yet the RANGER course is finest leadership course the army has. Yet it is 62 days of ball crushing existence and the dropout rate is high.

Not sure where I went with this yet it just pisses me off this attack on transgender troops.

If they succeed in doing this and it is not challenged in courts. Next up will be the LGBTQ military members. And there has been LGBTQ in every army from Hannibal crossing the alps to today.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. They are unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally) setting it up

due to the removal and barring of certain "otherwise qualified volunteers" (simply because of the simple-minded and bigoted reason of who they are), to bring back the draft, and that is something that will not go over well.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. This president and Sec. of Defense are incapable of thought.

[jmowreader]

4. Old war story follows...

In May 2023 I got sent from Fort Drum to Norfolk, VA to work in the control center for an exercise called Ocean Venture, in which 10th Mountain and 82d Airborne were fighting each other.

This was when President Clinton had just announced he was opening the military to gays, before DADT was made the rule. They were talking about it on CNN and this Army bird colonel was just screaming bloody murder about this. Then he made the worst mistake of his life: he turned to me and said, “Sergeant, what do you think about this?”

“Sir, I’ve been a SIGINTer for 11 years. The crew I’ve got now, they’re straight but they’re barely functional. They can’t search, they can’t figure out how to get to PT on time and the PT pad is outside their window, they can’t shoot…about all they can do is maintain those shitty 10th Mountain haircuts. In Berlin we had a transcriber who was a lesbian and our chain of command basically ignored every regulation on the books to keep her in the Army because she was so good. I think if you can send me a dozen people who can do this job and read a clock I don’t care how gay they are.” The colonel looked at me and said, “you’ve got a good point.”

Funny addition to the story: the lesbian transcriber I mentioned in the last paragraph got recruited to work at the National Security Agency before she got out of the Army. In 1990 you could be gay and work at NSA, but you had to come out to your family in front of three NSA officers because there’s a history of the KGB using your gayness to blackmail you into spying for them. So the Agency paid for her whole family to come to the DC area to conduct the ceremony. Paid for a whole week in a nice hotel, airfare…they had to buy their own food but other than that…. So, comes the day of the Big Reveal and the operator, her whole family and the three officers go into a conference room. The operator stood up and announced she was a lesbian. Her mom turned to the officer and said, “we already knew, but thanks for the free vacation.”

During the Iraq War when President Obama lifted DADT I saw a lot of stuff on message boards on the “what will the troops think if they find out one of their buddies is gay?” My response was always the same: “Probably a lot less negative than what they thought when they found out the civilian cooks in the mess hall are making more money than their battalion commanders.”

[cabotnn22]

5. Correct me if I'm wrong, please

I'm not 100% familiar with this topic and don't want to be incorrect. I think part of the reason transgender people are being disqualified is due to the fact that many of them rely on daily medicinal care (HRT, for example). Currently, people with conditions such as diabetes can't serve due to their reliance on insulin. If one group of people who are reliant on medication can serve and another group can't, that could be considered discriminatory - correct? Diabetics, for example, can serve in civilian positions within the DoD - they just can't serve in the military.

Will transgender people still be able to work in the DoD in civilian positions? If not, that is definitely discriminatory and should be fought tooth and nail. However, I can kind of see the reasoning of keeping anyone out of the military who is reliant upon an everyday medication. There aren't pharmacies on the battlefield and you can't pack up your medication and take it with you while at war.

That said, I think there are numerous non-combatant positions that should be open to those who want to serve, whether they're transgender or diabetic or epileptic, etc.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Diabetes impacts blood sugar levels

which can have a major impact on critical organs like the kidneys if not managed "in the field", particularly anyone who must have insulin (which requires refrigeration).

I expect any medical treatment for trans individuals is mostly hormonal (estrogens used for trans women and testosterones for trans men).

[cabotnn22]

7. Thanks

Good explanation.