22 Comments
User's avatar
Debra Strunk's avatar

Thank you for your clear analysis

Kelly Nicholson's avatar

I’d be hopeful.. but this is going to end up at the corrupt Supreme Court and they will do anything the orange MF wants.

GeorgeC's avatar

Thank you for the clear analysis.

Glad to see the bigotry of the Cheetolini administration clearly revealed.

Sad that we have further proof of the political hackery of the unqualified bozos appointed by Cheetolini (and approved by the cowardly GQP scum in the Senate).

Darkshadow's avatar

The military excludes people for enormous categories of physical and medical conditions:

Flat feet

Poor eyesight beyond certain thresholds

Asthma

Diabetes

History of depression or anxiety

Various orthopedic conditions

Being too short or too tall

Being overweight

Color blindness

Hearing loss

None of these exclusions have ever been held unconstitutional despite affecting large numbers of people who genuinely want to serve.

Are these unconstitutional requirements as well?

Jacobs-Meadway Roberta's avatar

Physical disabilities that impact the ability to serve have been applied equally to all. Being able to see and hear well enough are reasonable requirements for active service. Who anyone chooses to love or what gender one is differs from such requirements and does not pass any test for being reasonable. When I was interested in JAG, my eyesight did not meet the requirements for the organization . End of story.

Darkshadow's avatar

The military isn't about inclusion it's about battle readiness.

There's no right to military service. The military excludes people for countless conditions based on operational readiness, physical and psychological. Whether gender dysphoria and its treatment affect deployability is a legitimate fitness question, the same kind asked about any condition requiring ongoing medical management.

Jacobs-Meadway Roberta's avatar

Being trans has not prevented people from serving capably and honorably. The effort to exclude is driven by bigotry not by lack of fitness. It is the same blatant bigotry that has led to the refusal to promote women and people of color and the blatant dismissal from posts of senior service personnel who are women and/or people of color. This Administration wants service personnel who are white and male and tall who look just like what Trump and Hegseth want to see in parades. You know, sort of like Germany’s army in 1940.

Larry Erickson's avatar

You do? Um, you do remember Germany lost, right?

Jacobs-Meadway Roberta's avatar

That was obvious. So sad for you that today’s military successes are not achieved without the adaptable and intelligent, strategic thinkers and those who understand logistics.

Darkshadow's avatar

It's up to the military, not you.

Gender dysphoria is a mental illness and therefore it is a category that needs to be addressed for military readiness.

Gender dysphoria is a recognized diagnostic category precisely because it involves a pattern distress regarding the incongruence between experienced and assigned gender, often requiring clinical intervention.

The military asking behavioral and psychological questions to assess fitness is doing exactly what diagnosis does pattern matching against categories relevant to functional capacity in the role.

Whether a given condition affects military fitness is then an operational question about whether that pattern impairs the specific functions the role requires.