Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stated last Sunday that he would be ‘open’ to reviewing the ban of transgender people in the military.
Hagel stated that the transgender issue was “a bit more complicated because it has a medical component to it.”
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.”
In the American military, transgender service members can be summarily dismissed, as Defense Department guidelines describe transgender people as sexual deviants and their condition as “paraphilia,” with its connotations of the atypical and extreme.
A panel affiliated with San Francisco State University estimated in March that more than 15,000 transgender individuals were serving in the military and the National Guard and the Reserve. Officials who worked on that study say transgender people are overrepresented in the military, compared with the rest of America, because many male-to-female transgender individuals enlist to try to submerge their feminine sides, while many female-to-male transgender people enlist because they want to be in a hypermasculine environment.
Last month, a soldier who was convicted as Pfc. Bradley Manning for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks won an initial victory toward living as a woman when a Kansas judge granted a petition for her to change her name to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning. The decision cleared the way for changes to Private Manning’s military records, but did not compel the military to treat her as a woman, including not moving her to a prison with a women’s unit or allowing her the desired counseling and hormone treatment.
It remains unclear whether the military will seriously review its ban on transgender people, and President Obama has not addressed the issue specifically. In 2011, speaking to a gay rights group, Mr. Obama said that “every single American — gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender — every single American deserves to be treated equally in the eyes of the law.”
Source: nytimes.com
Photo: US Navy
i see it on his nose and his lips
Why who is he trying to impress? It’s a none issue why bring it up ?
is he nuts it bad as it is to have open gays in .most of these. idiotic never. service in uniforms .
Transgenders are ok, as long as they are on the front lines in combat! Same with the gays, put them out front, would have loved to have them in Viet Nam catching rounds instead of our good men being killed.
we already have queers in the military so now we will have perverts next itwill be child abusers whats next
hagel must be a q***r
Asking for answers about Benghazi and the death of four Americans is a waste of time, but he is willing to make time for something most people have not even thought about. Let’s see, could this be a diversion to side track their interest in what really happened in Benghazi and why?
guess who’s paying for that sex change ????? we ,the tax payers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cowards like Hagel, we do not need, he and the rest of those corrupt democrats need to be gone.
Hagel is a gay boy puppet