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The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that it will pay for a soldier’s gender reassignment surgery for the first time, according to multiple reports. Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement shared by a BuzzFeed News reporter that an active-duty military member received sex-reassignment surgery Tuesday in a private hospital. “Because this service member had already begun a sex-reassignment course of treatment, and the treating doctor deemed this surgery medically necessary, a waiver was approved by the director of the Defense Health Agency,” White said. “The Supplemental Health Care Program will cover this surgery in accordance with the Department’s interim guidance...

Minneapolis has elected two black transgender representatives to its City Council, adding to what advocacy groups have described as a banner election for transgender people in public office. Andrea Jenkins easily won the race Tuesday night for an open seat in south Minneapolis, with roughly 73 percent of the vote. Jenkins, a 56-year-old poet and historian who transitioned in her 30s, spent years as a policy aide to two previous council members in the same ward. Phillipe Cunningham’s victory took longer because of Minneapolis’ instant-runoff voting system. But by Wednesday afternoon, the city announced Cunningham — a 29-year old transgender...

Conspiracy theorist and founder of media outlet InfoWars Alex Jones came under fire Thursday night after he shared a video that claims Michelle Obama is a man. The video was posted to Jones' website, InfoWars, after the 43-year-old claimed during his podcast that it provided "proof" that Obama was a man. Jones pointed to photos of the former first lady wearing pants or skirts that crease, saying they show a "large bulge inside her pants," and claimed that late comedian Joan Rivers' 2014 comment calling Obama a "tranny" is proof his theory is right. "Since the early days of the...

In four years, Black Lives Matter went from a hashtag about social injustice to a full-fledged global civil rights movement. Metro spoke with Patrisse Cullors, who cofounded Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in 2013, about its evolution, fighting racism in the age of Trump, her upcoming memoir and what saying “all lives matter” really means. What is the biggest misconception you find people have about Black Lives Matter? Patrisse Cullors: That we just started a hashtag. That it isn’t a sophisticated set of ideas that would lead to a larger strategy to build out, a powerful...

One man is dead and another severely injured after a shootout at one of the main gates of the National Security Agency located at Fort Meade, Maryland. Two men dressed as women attempted to “penetrate” the entry point with their vehicle when a shootout occurred, officials said. "There are indications they were dressed as females," an official said. At least one officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries. One perpetrator is confirmed dead on the scene; the other "severely injured” and probably won’t survive, according to one official. The FBI said they do not believe the incident is related to terrorism. Aerial images...

FULL TITLE: 'Tell me to my face I'm not worthy': Transgender former Navy SEAL slams President Trump after he bans trans people from serving in the military Transgender former Navy SEAL Kristen Beck has slammed Donald Trump over his trans military ban and demanded that he tell her to her face that she's 'not worthy'. Beck, who served in the military for 21 years, spoke out against the president on Wednesday after Trump said he wants transgender people barred from serving 'in any capacity'. 'Let's meet face to face and you tell me I'm not worthy,' Beck told Business Insider....

President Trump on Wednesday banned transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military “in any capacity,” moving to scrap yet another of President Obama’s major legacy policies. The dramatic reversal will bar transgender inductees and force transgender people in uniform out of the armed services, according to Pentagon sources. Gay rights groups blasted the move as a rollback of equality, but the decision thrilled social conservatives and military readiness advocates, who said the Pentagon should focus on winning wars, not on social experiments. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous...

Multiple Republican senators broke with President Trump on Wednesday after he announced on Twitter than transgender troops would be banned from serving in the military. In separate statements, GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Richard Shelby (Ala.), and Orrin Hatch (Utah) all criticized Trump for his decision that Obama-era rules allowing transgender troops to serve would be reversed. McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ripped the call and said that Trump shouldn't be making policy announcements via tweet. “The President’s tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, July 13, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Transgender insanity is now leading to persecution of law enforcement officers. Fort Lauderdale cop James Brinton is being disciplined and the entire city police force is being made to undergo transgender sensitivity “training” because … Brinton actually listed a man as “male.” The man in question, 48-year-old real estate agent Shelby Kendall, is indeed male, but in 2014 he filed to have his driver’s license changed to read “female.” Foolishly, the state of Florida did just that. With the touch of a delete button, Kendall was given a bureaucratic sex change and...

Women Will Shower With Men in Army as Part of ‘Transgender Equality Training: Obama Is Happy

© Greg Nash The House voted Thursday against banning the Pentagon from providing transition-related medical care to transgender troops. The body rejected the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on a 209-214 largely party line vote. The amendment outraged Democrats, who called it ignorant, mean-spirited and denigrating, while Republicans argued the Pentagon should not be spending its money on such medical care. Transgender troops currently in the military have been able to serve openly since last year. The policy also allows them to receive any treatment deemed medically necessary, including surgery and hormone therapy. Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s...

A Washington state mom is gathering signatures for a ballot to recover sexual privacy for women in public bathrooms and showers, but her non-partisan group is getting hit by invective, workplace pressure and stigma from transgender activists and the state’s progressive establishment. Kaeley Triller Haver heads Just Want Privacy, the group which is collecting signatures and funding to get Initiative 1552 on the November ballot in Washington state. She needs 330,000 valid signatures by July 6, and she’s already got 200,000 signatures – and has many signature sheets still being shared by supporters around the state. ‘We know this is...

FULL TITLE: Wombs for men: Astonishing prospect as fertility doctors back operations on NHS so transgender women born as boys can have babies Transgender women who were born male should be given womb transplants so that they can have children, leading NHS doctors have told The Mail on Sunday. And fertility experts say taxpayers should fund such transplants for those who identify as women, on the basis of ‘equality enshrined in law’. Leading the debate on the controversial procedure is medical ethics lawyer Dr Amel Alghrani, who is pressing for a talks on whether womb transplants for trans-women should be...

Defense Secretary James Mattis decided Friday to delay for six months a plan that would allow transgender people to enlist in the military, The Associated Press reported. In a memo, Mattis reportedly said that the six months would allow military leaders to ensure that the policy change will not disrupt the preparedness of the country's military forces. The Army and Air Force had previously asked the Defense Department for a two-year wait period before transgender individuals are allowed to enlist. Transgender people already serving in the military are currently allowed to do so openly, but no new recruits have been...

A popular women-only spa has generated controversy after a transgender client was allegedly refused service. Recently, Body Blitz Spa, which operates two locations in downtown Toronto at 471 Adelaide St. W. and 497 King St. E., allegedly refused to admit a transgender woman to one of its facilities. Weronika Rogula, who is friends with the transgender individual who was allegedly denied entry, wrote on their personal Facebook page that they’ll no longer be patronizing Body Blitz because of its policy.

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- A firefight erupted Monday when two men dressed as women tried to ram a car into a National Security Agency gate at Fort Meade, killing one of them and wounding the other, officials said. An FBI spokeswoman said the incident was not believed to be linked to terrorism.

Two people have been hacked to death at an apartment, including an editor of a transgender magazine in the Bangladesh. Another person was also killed and one person injured when three attackers entered their apartment in Dhaka posing as couriers and attacked them with sharp weapons, police said on Monday. Julhas Mannan ran a transgender magazine Rupban and previously worked at the US embassy.

Would you be friends with a transgender person? A full 27 percent of American adults on a recent YouGov survey said no. Even fewer—less than 20 percent—said they would be open to dating a transgender person. The disappointing but unsurprising results reveal a sad truth about the transgender rights movement: Cultural acceptance has tended to lag behind formal recognition.

FULL TITLE: Charlotte schools drop plan to teach book about a boy who wears dresses after sparking a furious backlash from protesters who claimed they were indoctrinating children A picture book about a boy who wears dresses has been dropped from the curriculum of schools in North Carolina after it triggered a stream of protests from concerned parents. Schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area were due to teach Jacob's New Dress, by Sarah and Ian Hoffman, to first-graders as part of a lesson designed to discourage bullying. In the book teachers encourage children in a classroom to put on costumes and...

It took two years and two tries for “Doubt” to make the CBS lineup – but now the show has been canceled after just two weeks. The Eye network has pulled the plug on the show effective immediately; next week, CBS will air a repeat of “Bull” in the show’s Wednesday 10 p.m. (ET) time slot. The second season of “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” will then slide into the spot permanently on Wednesday, March 8, following a two-hour “Survivor” premiere.