Tag: transgender military

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News Round-Up: March 15, 2019

Happy birthday, Russell Todd! (photo: James Franklin)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Belated birthday wishes to my longtime buddy, Russell Todd! I’ve known Russell since the 90s when I first moved to the west coast. Everywhere we’d go fans would remember him as ‘Dr. Jamie Frame’ from Another World, Friday the 13th Part 2, and other movie/TV projects. Totally the best guy, and yes – he is that handsome 🙂

• Traffic on the app Tumblr has dropped by 150 million page views since banning “photos, videos, or GIFs that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples” on the site from December 17.

• Sadly, Netflix has announced the cancellation of its reboot of the Norman Lear sitcom, One Day at a Time. The new version, featuring a Cuban-American family, was about as good as a TV sitcom can get. The series tackled coming out, homophobia, depression, and many important topics with class and intelligence. If you have Netflix, I recommend you go catch up on the 3 seasons we did get.

• A once-a-month injection to treat HIV has now passed two important trials. #LookingGood

• A new documentary, Mack Wrestles, chronicles the story of Mack Beggs, the trans male Texas high school wrestler who won the state’s girls champion despite wanting to wrestle boys. The film just premiered at the 2019 SXSW Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas.

• Ray Mabus, the former Secretary of the Navy, blasted the Trump/Pence transgender military ban as a “stain on our country” saying the policy “tells our children that merit has no place, while prejudice does.”

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Pentagon Issues Memo On Trump’s Transgender Troop Ban

The Department of Defense has issued a memo, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist, that details new rules which will largely limit transgender people serving in the U.S. military.
Transgender Air Force Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland

The Department of Defense has issued a memo, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist, that details new rules which will largely limit transgender people serving in the U.S. military.

The policy will go into effect on April 12.

Currently serving trans troop members, and trans recruits who have signed an enlistment contract before April 12, will be allowed to continue with hormone treatment and planned gender transition if they already have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

After April 12, the military will not accept new recruits who have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, or are taking hormones, or are planning to transition.

There are some limited exceptions to the ban.

Trans people with gender dysphoria who enter a contract to enlist before April 12, and are certified by a licensed mental health provider that they have been “stable” in their gender identity for 18 months (no significant distress or impairment in social or occupational areas of functioning), may qualify for exemption. Such exemptions would allow them to be eligible for transition-related care through the military health care system.

Also, individuals with no diagnosis of gender dysphoria and show a willingness to serve in their ‘biological sex’ may be allowed to enlist.

Service secretaries will be able to issue waivers on a case-by-case basis. Chris Johnson, of the Washington Blade, reports waivers “are granted at a discretion of defense officials ‘not infrequently,’ between 7-8% of all service members acceded with some kind of waiver.”

The new rules are a reversal of a Obama era policy (implemented June 30, 2016) that allowed transgender people to serve openly and receive medical treatment to aid transition.

Donald Trump surprised the nation and military leaders when he announced on July 26, 2017, his plan to completely ban trans service members. At the time, he said his decision was based on costs which made trans soldiers “financially burdensome.”

A 2016 RAND Corp. study estimated between 1,320 to 6,630 trans troops are currently on active duty.

The Pentagon’s annual budget for health care is $50 billion, and a report by USA Today shows that, since the ban was lifted in 2016, only $8 million has been spent on psychological and medical treatment to more than 1,500 trans troops.

Last year, all four service chiefs testified before Congress they had seen no issue with transgender troops serving openly.

The Palm Center’s Aaron Belkin estimates 10% of transgender military service members currently serving have received a gender dysphoria diagnosis and will be ‘grandfathered’ in under the new rules.

Belkin added, “The Trump administration is determined to bring back ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ a policy that forced service members to choose between serving their country and telling the truth about who they were.”

The new policy encountered several court challenges along the way resulting in four injunctions blocking implementation of the plan. The last of those injunctions was lifted last week.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi denounced the news.

“The President’s revival of his bigoted, disgusting ban on transgender service members is a stunning attack on the patriots who keep us safe and on the most fundamental ideals of our nation,” she told Reuters.

Speaking for the National Center for Transgender Equality, policy director Harper Jean Tobin called the ban “severe,” and a blow to the U.S. military.

“Throughout our nation’s history, we have seen arbitrary barriers in our military replaced with inclusion and equal standards,” Tobin told BuzzFeed News. “This is the first time in American history such a step forward has been reversed, and it is a severe blow to the military and to the nation’s values.”

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Congress Moves To Block Trump Ban On Transgender Soldiers

As the Trump administration continues to push for a ban on transgender military service members, new legislation is being introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to allow open service by trans soldiers.

The Washington Post reports that Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced the bill in the U.S. Senate along with Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Calling out President Trump for the proposed ban, which was unceremoniously tweeted out in July 2017, Gillibrand said in a statement, “President Trump’s ban on transgender service members is discrimination, it undermines our military readiness, and it is an insult to the brave patriotic transgender Americans who choose to serve in our military.”

“We should end this discriminatory ban for good and ensure our transgender service members can continue to do their jobs, serve with dignity and protect our country,” she added.

Gillibrand recently announced she making a run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.

The legislation would ban the Pentagon from discharging any currently serving trans soldiers only on the basis of their gender identity. Additionally, new recruits could not be turned away from enlisting based only on their gender identity.

A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by California Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier. Co-sponsoring the bill in the House were Reps. Anthony Brown (D-Md), Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.), Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and John Katko (R-NY).

Last month, the Supreme Court issued a stay of injunction on two lawsuits that blocked the ban. The policy hasn’t gone into effect yet as the last lawsuit is still being appealed in Maryland.

While the House version could very well pass, the Republican majority in the Senate pretty much ensures the legislation will be dead in the water there.

However, even if the bills passed in both chambers, it would land on Donald Trump’s desk where he is sure to veto the legislation.

Both Speier and Gillibrand invited trans soldiers to attend the State of the Union address this week as their guest to highlight the issue.

In related news, one of the highest-ranking officers in the California National Guard announced the state would not discharge trans soldiers from it’s ranks.

LGBT advocacy groups praised the bills:

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Introduces Legislation To Block Trump Ban On Transgender Soldiers

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York (D) has filed legislation that would block Donald Trump’s proposed ban on transgender military service members.

The Hill reports:

The bill, which was also introduced by Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), comes weeks after the Supreme Court paved the way for President Trump to begin implementing a ban on transgender military service.

“President Trump’s ban on transgender service members is discrimination, it undermines our military readiness, and it is an insult to the brave and patriotic transgender Americans who choose to serve in our military,” Gillibrand, an Armed Service Committee member, said in a statement. “We should end this discriminatory ban for good and ensure our transgender service members can continue to do their jobs, serve with dignity, and protect our country.”

In January, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to stay two district court orders that blocked Trump’s policy from taking effect. The ruling allows the administration to temporarily enforce its restrictions on transgender people serving in the military.

The new policy still has not taken effect, though, because of one remaining injunction placed on it by a federal district court in Maryland.

Gillibrand recently announced she is running to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020.

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Supreme Court Allows Trump Anti-Transgender Military Ban To Go Into Effect

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down orders that allow Donald Trump’s ban of transgender military service members to go into effect immediately while appeals work their way through the lower courts, according to The New York Times.
Transgender Air Force Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down orders that allow Donald Trump’s ban of transgender military service members to go into effect immediately while appeals work their way through the lower courts, according to The New York Times. The high court issued a brief, unsigned order this morning saying SCOTUS had lifted the injunctions that, until now, blocked the anti-trans policy. The vote was 5-4 with Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen dissenting. This morning’s orders stay the injunctions initially issued by Federal District Court judges in Washington State (Trump v. Karnoski) and California (Trump v Stockman), both in the Ninth Circuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had previously vacated a third injunction on January 4.

For the time being, current trans soldiers will not be booted out immediately. The policy, as tweaked by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, allows transgender service members who are already serving openly to continue to do so and to receive transition-related care. In July of 2017, President Trump surprised American military leaders and the world when he announced his plan to ban trans military service members after “consultation with my Generals and military experts” due to the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. At the time of Trump’s announcement, Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland (pictured above) told Air Force News, “I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military.” “You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life,” he added. The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement saying there is ‘no medically valid reason’ for banning transgender people from serving in the United States military, but all four service chiefs (Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force) have testified they’ve seen no negative effects from transgender military personnel serving the country they love. According to a 2016 RAND Corporation study, there are an estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender individuals out of the 1.3 million service members on active duty. From The New York Times: The policy, announced on Twitter by President Trump and refined by the defense secretary at the time, Jim Mattis, generally prohibits people identifying with a gender different from their biological sex from military service. It makes exceptions for several hundred transgender people already serving openly and for those willing to serve “in their biological sex.”

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Podcast: Madonna, Record LGBTQ Congress Members, More Kevin Hart Debacle, Brazil

In this episode of The Randy Report podcast:

• The new Congress is sworn in with a record number of LGBTQ lawmakers

• Donald Trump scored a victory in court this week regarding his proposed ban on transgender military service members

• Comedian Kevin Hart’s homophobic tweets & jokes landed him on Ellen DeGeneres’ couch

• Brazil’s new president attacks LGBTQs on day one

• And Madonna surprised the crowd at the iconic Stonewall Inn on New Year’s Eve

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.

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Appeals Court Sides With Trump Administration In Trans Military Ban

A panel of three judges in the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to overturn an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly which prohibited the implementation of the anti-trans policy.

Donald Trump has scored a win in his fight to ban transgender people from the U.S. military as a federal appeals court ruled in his favor today, reports The Washington Post.

A panel of three judges in the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to overturn an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly which prohibited the implementation of the anti-trans policy.

It’s important to note that three other judges have ruled against the trans ban and those injunctions remain in place nationwide. And so, trans soldiers will continue to be able to serve in the U.S. military for now.

In fact, today’s ruling indicates the D.C. Circuit Court may have more to say about the ban later as the five-page decision handed down today only addressed Kollar-Kotelly’s injunction saying she technically “made an erroneous finding that the Mattis Plan was not a new policy” because she failed to note certain nuances about the plan issued by former Defense Secretary James Mattis.

“The government took substantial steps to cure the procedural deficiencies the court identified in the enjoined 2017 Presidential Memorandum,” the order says. “These included the creation of a panel of military and medical experts, the consideration of new evidence gleaned from the implementation of the policy on the service of transgender individuals instituted by then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (‘the Carter Policy’), and a reassessment of the priorities of the group that produced the Carter Policy.”

While Donald Trump’s July 2017 tweets were a blanket ban on transgender service members, the Mattis Plan would ban “transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition are disqualified from military service.”

The newly-tweaked policy would allow trans troops to remain in service if they “have been stable” in their biological sex for 36 months and do not seek hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery.

Transgender advocates say gender dysphoria is a literally a defining characteristic of being transgender, and so the Mattis Plan still represents a full-fledged ban.

LGBTQ advocacy groups the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) quickly denounced the ruling in a joint statement.

“Today’s ruling is a devastating slap in the face to transgender service members who have proved their fitness to serve and their dedication to this country,” said NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter. “We will keep fighting this cruel and irrational policy, which serves no purpose other than to weaken the military and punish transgender service members for their patriotism and service.”

“Today’s decision is based on the absurd idea that forcing transgender people to suppress who they are in order to serve is not a ban,” said GLAD Transgender Rights Project Director Jennifer Levi. “It ignores the reality of transgender people’s lives, with devastating consequences, and rests on a complete failure to understand who transgender people are. It is also destabilizing to the military to so dramatically reverse a policy that has been in place for over 2 years that senior military officials acknowledge has operated with no problems.”

A 2016 study by the RAND Corporation found that allowing the estimated 2,000-11,000 active-duty transgender troops to remain in the military would “have minimal impact on readiness and health care costs” for the Pentagon.

The research estimated health care costs for trans soldiers would cost only $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year, which represents a tiny 0.04 to 0.13 percent increase in spending.

Additionally, the study concluded there would be “little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness” in the U.S. military should trans soldiers be allowed to continue serving.

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Trump Administration Asks SCOTUS To Allow Trans Military Ban Before Review

The Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service members to go into effect while waiting on SCOTUS to decide whether or not to even take the case up for review.

The Department of Justice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service members to go into effect while waiting on SCOTUS to decide whether or not to even take the case up for review.

Apparently, the United States is in a state of emergency regarding the few thousand transgender people currently serving with honor in the U.S. military.

I know – it doesn’t make any sense.

Let’s go back a bit, shall we?

In July of 2017, President Trump surprised American military leaders and the world when he announced his plan to ban trans military service members after “consultation with my Generals and military experts” due to the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members.

Remember, this is the guy who told Americans during the 2016 presidential campaign that he would ‘fight’ for the LGBTQ community.

Riiiiight.

Conservatives loved the idea; Liberals and LGBTQ activists were outraged.

In the ensuing months, numerous injunctions were ordered by judges blocking the implementation of the policy, and for good reason.

Not only has The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement saying there is ‘no medically valid reason’ for banning transgender people from serving in the United States military, but all four service chiefs (Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force) have testified they’ve seen no negative effects from transgender military personnel serving the country they love.

According to a 2016 RAND Corporation study, there are an estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender individuals out of the 1.3 million service members on active duty.

That same study estimated the cost of health care coverage for transgender personnel could range from $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, which is about one-fifth of what

So, we can afford dick pills, but not trained trans soldiers…?

Then, earlier this month, Department of Justice Attorney Brinton Lucas told the D.C. Circuit Court that if the Trump policy were to be implemented, transgender troops would not be “discharged on the basis of their transgender status.”

(Wait for it…)

But, they would have to identify as the biological sex assigned to them at birth meaning they would have to stop any transition-related medical treatment – treatment that every major medical association has deemed necessary and life-saving for trans people.

Then, over Thanksgiving weekend, the Trump administration bypassed the appeals court process and requested the Supreme Court review the case before the circuit level courts even issue their opinions.

This isn’t a very popular approach as SCOTUS doesn’t like to review a case before it has made its way through the lower courts.

The high court likes to have cases work their way through traditional channels so they have the benefit of the opinions of lower court judges by the time cases reaches SCOTUS.

This week, the Trump administration filed emergency briefs asking the high court to allow the transgender ban to go into effect until SCOTUS can review the case in 2019.

According to Think Progress, the emergency briefs claimed waiting any longer to boot transgender military service members poses “too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality” and it would be “contrary to the Nation’s interests.”

But such arguments have gained little traction in the past.

For example, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal ruled in September that “loss of unit cohesion” was the same argument used to keep Black people, women, and gay people from joining the military.

“The military has repeatedly proven its capacity to adapt and grow stronger specifically by the inclusion of these individuals,” wrote Bernal as he dismissed claims that including trans people would generate any different outcome.

It’s worth noting that the emergency briefs filed this week object to numerous motions for discovery filed in the cases. It seems the Trump administration wants to claim that all documentation related to how the ban was developed would fall under executive privilege.

What they really mean is that if those documents came to light, the American public might discover that Vice President Pence (a known homophobe) and his virulently anti-LGBTQ friends were instrumental in pushing the new ban through.

Should the Supreme Court allow the policy to be implemented before the case reaches SCOTUS, thousands of transgender soldiers could be discharged for being who they are.

This short video from the New York Times introduces just a few of the trans soldiers who are at risk of being discharged.

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Podcast: Marriage Equality In Taiwan & Bermuda, Threats Against Boston Bars, 1st Same-Sex Kiss On Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

In this week’s podcast:

* A teenager is arrested for making threats of violence to two gay bars in Boston

* Taiwan overwhelmingly says ‘no’ to amending their civil code to include marriage equality

* The Trump administration is trying to take it’s ban on transgender military service members to the Supreme Court

* The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade made history with its first same-sex kiss

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

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Trump Administration Leap Frogs Over Appeals Courts, Asks SCOTUS To Rule On Trans Military Ban

The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and review its long-intended ban on military service by transgender Americans.

The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and review its long-intended ban on military service by transgender Americans.

According to The Washington Post, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco has filed a request asking SCOTUS to bypass traditional legal processes and rule on the challenges to the ban which have held the proposed policy to be unconstitutional.

In July of 2017, Donald Trump surprised many, including members of his own administration, with an abrupt announcement proposing the ban on transgender service members.

At the time, Trump tweeted that he had consulted with his “Generals and military experts” before announcing the ban.

But in March of this year, more than 20 retired generals and admirals signed on to a letter opposing such a ban.

“The administration’s announcement on the treatment of transgender service members is a troubling move backward,” the 26 officers wrote in their statement via the Palm Center, which researches issues of gender and sexuality.

“There is simply no reason to single out brave transgender Americans who can meet military standards and deny them the ability to serve.”

Additionally, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association both say claims by Secretary of Defense James Mattis indicating trans soldiers diagnosed with gender dysphoria cannot effectively serve in the military are false.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted an injunction that blocked implementation of the ban in October 2017.

This past August, she rebuffed a request by the Trump administration to lift the injunction after some of the proposed language had been amended.

Kollar-Kotelly was not convinced saying discharging trans soldiers and denying enlistment would most likely to be found discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Oral arguments are scheduled to be heard at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on December 10 regarding Kollar-Kotelly’s order that blocked the ban.

It’s highly unusual to approach the Supreme Court before exhausting the available appeals court processes.

“Trump’s lawyers fail to understand that the government is not entitled to play leapfrog whenever it loses in federal court,” says attorney Joshua Matz, who filed an amicus brief in the case. “If the department’s battery of ‘emergency’ petitions were granted, they would immediately overload the Supreme Court docket with politically fraught challenges to Trump administration policies.”

In addition to Kollar-Kotelly’s injunction, judges in three other states – California, Maryland and Washington – have also enjoined the bans implementation thanks to challenges filed in those states.

In related news, the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider whether to grant review to another case regarding protections for transgender Americans at the high court’s November 30 conference.

According to BloombergLaw.com, the issue in question in that case concerns whether trans discrimination in the workplace constitutes discrimination based on sex, which is illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Opponents say transgender status is not related to the issue of ‘sex.’