Secretary of the Air Force Supports Lifting the Military Transgender Ban

Human Rights Campaign Blog ^ | December 10, 2014 | Stephen Peters

[2ndDivisionVet]

Today, the Secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James, came out in support of lifting the military’s ban on transgender service. In an interview with USA Today, when asked about the current ban, she said, “From my point of view, anyone who is capable of accomplishing the job should be able to serve.” She also said the current ban “is likely to come under review in the next year or so.”

The repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy allowed lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals to serve in the military openly and honestly. However, while the repeal of DADT was an incredibly important step forward, many issues remain for these service members, veterans, their families, and those still prohibited from serving.

Two of the remaining challenges that can be addressed specifically by the Department of Defense include:

Transgender Service: Despite the repeal of DADT, transgender individuals are still prohibited from openly serving in the military due to outdated DoD regulations that are out of step with current medical practice. In May of this year, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he was “open” to reviewing the military’s ban on transgender people. An estimated 15,500 transgender individuals are currently serving in silence.

Non-Discrimination Protections: LGB service members who face discrimination or harassment have few options for addressing their problem. Most harassment and discrimination complaints can be pursued outside of the chain of command through the Military Equal Opportunity Program. However, following repeal of DADT, sexual orientation was not included in the DoD’s formal non-discrimination policy which triggers access to the MEO complaint and support processes, leaving LGB service members more vulnerable.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Thank the Lord I'm no longer in the service. I would strongly advise a young person to avoid the military now.

[napscoordinator]

Dear God,
Please let me off.....I don’t know how much more I can take of this craziness. Yes I am glad I retired 3 years ago. Of course, my retirement paper has Obama’s name and signature on it...Yuk!

[bluejean]

“I would strongly advise a young person to avoid the military now”

Avoid the military, avoid the schools, avoid colleges and universities, by all means avoid ending up in a mess with the courts or the IRS. Keep a low profile, mind your own business and by the way, are any shuttles leaving for new worlds any time soon? Oh that’s right, NASA is now a muzzie outreach program. And Virgin’s escape pod crashed and burned.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

[Jet Jaguar]

Active Duty ping.

[Jet Jaguar]

Yep. We are so screwed.

[ogen hal]

Join the military...have a gay old time.

[2ndDivisionVet]

http://www.LivingInThePhilippines.com

[Secret Agent Man]

DWTK/STFU - Don't Want To Know/

[alpo]

We can replace SEALS with suicide squads recruited from Death Row of prisons.

[ScottinVA]

“Thank the Lord I’m no longer in the service. I would strongly advise a young person to avoid the military now.”

Ever since the black Randall Flagg too power in January 2009, I have said the same thing. I recommend young people in my family and circle of friends to avoid the military like the plague. The social experimentation that’s occurring there is the stuff of evil.

[Eagles6]

Our enemies are laughing their a$$es off.

[Travis McGee]

Natural laws learned over thousands of years were mocked, ridiculed, overturned, and even outlawed. Toward the end, homosexual drill sergeants prowled the barracks grooming receptive teenage recruits. Hey, we were told, it’s their business, and who are you to judge them? Later, they could get married in the post-interfaith worship center by a military spiritual advisor (“chapels” and “chaplains” having been purged from the lexicon for favoring the Christian faiths) and then move on to adopting children.

And finally, the last old-guard bunker to fall: the Boy Scouts, completing the cycle of government-approved sodomite corruption. For a century the Scouts were morally straight? According to whose definition of straight? So why shouldn’t adult homosexual Scout leaders share tents with teenagers in our brave new world? Don’t be a homophobe, we were told. Each child can make his or her own free choice about their gender identity, but now with helpful adult mentors to guide them along the formerly forbidden paths.

If it feels good, do it. Or have it done to you. Or even do it unto the little children. Tommy wants to become Tomasina before heading to kindergarten? Her brave new mommy agrees? A government-provided surgeon will perform the “gender reassignment” operation. And if kindergarten isn’t soon enough to put the kids on the unrepressed road to gender identification, then start them on Heather Has Two Mommies and Prince and Prince cartoon books in the government-subsidized day care centers.

Smiling experts assured us that we were merely throwing off the shackles of our repressed sexualities. Dissent is hate, and hate is not tolerated around here, mister, so shut up and get with the program. Well, I couldn’t get with the program, so I quit my public high school job. As a world history teacher, moving from a public school to a Christian academy (at less pay and fewer benefits) gave me a couple more years of insulation from the social wreckage cascading down.

I kept looking up for the big asteroid, but we didn’t need God to smite us from outer space. In the end, we smote ourselves with our hubris, believing that we were replacing God’s wisdom with our own. The proud decadence and in-your-face cultural perversions didn’t cause the Rupture, but they were surely flashing red signs warning that the end was near.

Click the pic to the full-text Free Republic thread.

Alas, Brave New Babylon 60-second Youtube trailer

[Dick Vomer]

of course a lesbian would. The under secretary of Air Force is gay ... it’s just a love fest.

[ought-six]

The USAF in which I proudly served is no more (granted, it was during Vietnam, so we’re talking ancient history).

[Pollster1]

Does the Air Force really need young, mentally-ill airmen who will demand expensive medical treatments? I thought they needed people who were mentally stable, who could focus on their mission.

[lavaroise]

What kind of qualification transgenderism brings to the military. This idea that diversity brings diverse skills is stupid. True dedication is of the chastity of the monk, not this bs

[Excellence]

They will need to bring back the draft.

[Mr Rogers]

I retired in 2008. It amazes me how America has dived into the Pit in just 6 years. Remember when Obama wouldn’t accept homosexual marriage? What would have happened if he included transsexuals in the military in his 2008 platform?

We’ve dived into the cesspool and swimming hard to reach the bottom in record time. America of 2004 seems so far, far away...

[ExCTCitizen]

Paging Colonial Klinger (M*A*S*H): Section 8 won’t work in today’s military.

[sport]

What do you expect? Under Clinton's Don't [can't] Ask, Don't [won't ] Tell Policy, homosexuals had the door opened for them to openly express and carry on in their lifestyle. Under Obama, even this charade of maintaining morality[?] was repealed. The only question was , which degeneracy to normalize next. It seems that they have selected "transgenderism", whatever that is. So expect the other heads of branches to, in the future, make similar statements.

But the above being what it is, it did not occur in a vacuum , because on November 4, 2008 a majority of those who voted said, via their votes, to hell with good morality, we want degeneracy. And to prove that this was no mistake on their part, on November 6, 2012, the re-affirmated that choice. And they are getting everything they wanted. So hang on, we have a long way to go before we bottom out. It will even surprise those who advocated for it. But, once the bell has been rung, it can't be unrung.