Change Is Coming… Slowly

There is a workshop next week at a conference called “DADT: The struggle for LGBT rights in the armed services” and I can’t help wonder how much “T” will be covered in the workshop. Will they even mention trans-servicemembers or will it just be all about lesbians and gays?

We are making headway when it comes to trans-people in the military,

APNewsBreak: Transgender Troop Ban Faces Scrutiny
ABC News
March 13, 2014 (AP)
By LISA LEFF Associated Press

An independent commission led by a former U.S. surgeon general has concluded there "is no compelling medical reason" for the U.S. armed forces to prohibit transgender Americans from serving and that President Barack Obama could lift the decades-old ban without approval from Congress, according to a report being released Thursday.

The report said Department of Defense regulations designed to keep transgender people from joining or remaining in the military on the grounds of psychological and physical unfitness are based on outdated beliefs that require thousands of current service members either to leave the service or to forego the medical procedures and other changes that could align their bodies and gender identities.

"We determined not only that there is no compelling medical reason for the ban, but also that the ban itself is an expensive, damaging and unfair barrier to health care access for the approximately 15,450 transgender personnel who serve currently in the active, Guard and reserve components," said the commission led by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who served as surgeon general during Bill Clinton's first term as president, and Rear Adm. Alan Steinman, a former chief health and safety director for the Coast Guard.

This is something that over a dozen nations already allow, including many of our NATO allies (Canada, Great Britain, Germany and other nations), but for some reason that I don’t understand we have to have a multi-year research study to find out if trans-servicemembers can serve in the military.

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Let all qualified people who want to serve in the military serve.