It seems that every time we are given a specific opportunity, a new policy is created for a different opportunity to get taken away. Among those, President Donald Trump announced a new memo that reaffirms a policy against transgender troops services. According to Newsweek, Trump decided transgender people were a disruption and left the military “burdened with the tremendous medical costs.”
In the memo, Trump defers the issue to Defense Secretary James Mattis. Mattis recommends that transgender persons who have undergone a gender transition shouldn’t be allowed to serve “except under certain limited circumstances.” Those with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria should be allowed to serve. Trump said, only if they have been “stable” in their biological sex for 36 months prior to entering the military, or if they receive a diagnosis while currently serving but do not require a change of gender and remain deployable, according to Blade.
According to Dictionary.com, gender dysphoria is the condition of feeling emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to one’s biological sex. In his memo, Mattis called those with gender dysphoria a “subset” of transgender people who experience “discomfort” with their born sex, “resulting in significant distress or difficulty functioning,” according to Military.com.
I don’t even know where to begin with this subject, what the bleep. It seems like every step forward that is made to make a change, Trump has taken them two steps back. It truly frustrates me that our very own President is choosing to ban people from fighting for our country, for not enough of a valid reason. Why should they not have the ability to participate in such a life-risking task if they want to? Even though Trump states it’s a burden, it seems the only reason he’s doing it is to limit people from representing our country at war.
People should feel lucky that people, no matter the sex or pronoun, are choosing to fight our battles. They’re doing us the favor. I believe that if the person has good health, the abilities and skills to become a soldier, then they deserve to serve in the military. If anything, they will raise the morale of the men and women in the military because they make people feel better about themselves, thanks to Dysphoria mentally training them.
Karen Limones can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.
