Penna Dexter

At Army bases across the country mandatory transgender integration training began last week that will extend to all officers, non-commissioned officers and civilians who work with soldiers. The United States Army is preparing leaders to deal with biological men being allowed in women’s showers, gender transition care — including gender reassignment — funded by the taxpayer, and even “male” pregnancies. The policy undermines privacy, already in short supply in the military. It requires that service members’ sleeping, bathroom and shower facilities be assigned according to a person’s gender marker. This is the gender on a person’s birth certificate and official documents. A person who goes through a gender transition can get their gender marker changed. So women who are uncomfortable showering with biological men will either have to convince their commanders to make special accommodations, or put up with it. Our taxes will fund this nonsense. On July 1^st of last year, the military began allowing transgender service members to serve openly. An individual could no longer be discharged for being transgender. On July 1^st of this year, the military services are scheduled to begin allowing transgender individuals to join the armed forces. The new policy also allows for a person’s gender transition to take place after he or she has joined the military with the related care and treatment — other than gender reassignment surgery — provided within the military system for medical care. Here’s a scenario posed in a training vignette: A soldier undergoes a transition from female to male but without surgery. This soldier then stops taking hormones in order to start a family. A soldier who then becomes pregnant, is entitled to the same prenatal and other medical care, administrative entitlements and leave other pregnant soldiers get. The taxpayer funded the female-to-male transition and is also on the hook for the pregnancy. This is nuts and risks making the military a magnet for the gender confused. The current administration is under pressure and may revise this Obama-era directive. The Department of Defense should abolish it completely.