Making Headway, But Is it Fast Enough?

Over the last couple of weeks the topic of transgender military personnel has been in the news. The President has been mum on the topic but the Secretary of Defense made a statement last week and the New York Times wrote,

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the military should “continually” review its prohibition on transgender people in the armed forces, calling into question whether the Pentagon’s ban may eventually be lifted, as was the ban on gay men and lesbians in the military.

While any such a reversal appears to be far in the future — the Pentagon’s stock talking points on the issue have been that it is under continuous review — Mr. Hagel, on ABC’s “This Week,” pronounced himself “open” to a review of the policy and added, “Every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it.”

But he allowed that the transgender issue was “a bit more complicated because it has a medical component to it.”

The ban goes at least back to the 1960s, I know of some people who avoid the draft by declaring that they were trans or by wearing women’s underwear. They used the ban to their advantage, but now it is an all-volunteer military so I think all that want to serve should be able to serve.

Also in the news last week was a report on transgender military service personnel that was released by the Palm Center which part of the Political Science Department of San Francisco State University, and some of their findings are,

2) Medical regulations requiring the discharge of all transgender personnel are inconsistent with how the military regulates medical and psychological conditions, and arbitrary in that medical conditions related to transgender identity appear to be the only gender-related conditions requiring discharge irrespective of fitness for duty.

3) The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th ed. (DSM–5) no longer classifies gender non-conformity as a mental illness. While military regulations are updated to reflect revisions of DSM for non-transgender-related conditions, regulations have not been amended to reflect scientific consensus about gender non-conformity.

The report also found no clear document underline the reasons for the ban,

Four themes characterize regulations banning transgender service members. In particular, the rules are (1) binding, in that there is no option or procedure for commanders or doctors to waive rules that disqualify transgender individuals for military service, either for accession or retention; (2) decentralized, in that they are articulated in different provisions of various Department of Defense Instructions; (3) unclear, in that regulatory terminology that references transgender identity is inconsistent; and (4) regulatory, not statutory…
[…]
US military policies that ban transgender service members do not include rationales that explain why the armed forces prohibit them from serving, although the policies are embedded in comprehensive medical and other regulations that are designed, broadly speaking, to preserve health and good order.

As the report points out all it will take to overturn the ban is the stroke of the President’s pen.

Meanwhile, it looks like Pvt. Manning will be transferred to a federal prison from Ft. Leavenworth. This is not unprecedented; there are other military prisoners who are housed in federal prisons. The Christian Science Monitor reported that,

The Pentagon is trying to transfer convicted national security leaker Pvt. Chelsea Manning to a civilian prison where she can get treatment for a gender-identity condition. But her lawyer said Wednesday that a move from a military prison would make Manning choose between the treatment and her safety.
[…]
Coombs [her lawyer] said "any military facility would be acceptable." In a statement, he said "it is common knowledge that the federal prison system cannot guarantee the safety and security of Chelsea in the way that the military prison system can."
[…]
"The military's refusal to provide necessary medical treatment to Chelsea is flat-out transphobia," Coombs said. "Rather than deal with the reality that transgender persons are currently serving in the military, the military would seek to pawn off any responsibility for these."

She is a military prisoner; I don’t understand why they cannot medically treat her, since it is not all that complicated to prescribe cross-gender hormones to her.