Jenny's Portal

It is now May of 2017, almost a full year since the Department of Defense announced the new policy for transgender members in the service (Cronk 2016).  The decision was not made in a vacuum; it was some time in coming, and was greeted with desperate relief from some directions and harsh recrimination from others.  As late as this January, during the Senate Hearings for now-Secretary of Defense James Mattis, one of the questions asked was whether he would be reversing the new policy (Kheel 2017).

Repeal of the policy would be a mistake.  Not only is the old policy worse in just about every way, with no room for a commander’s discretion, but it never truly worked.  Then, too, it was created for reasons that, upon closer examination, don’t hold water.  And even more than that, it was one more thing killing our troops.

Effectiveness of the Old Policy (Or Lack Thereof)

When it comes to repealing anything, one of the things that has to be considered is what existed before – how it was replaced, and whether it can or should come back.  Fortunately, the old transgender policy was nice and simple.  No person with a medical history of either ‘transsexualism’ or ‘non-transexual gender identity disorder’ would be permitted to serve in the military; any serving member who was diagnosed with either of these would be discharged.  All this fell under the rules for ‘mental defects incompatible with military service.’

Simple, albiet somewhat obscure; I don’t remember being asked if I was transgender when I enlisted with the Air Force.  I did sign a statement that I understood the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.  In any case, I would have answered with a clean conscience that I wasn’t transgender.

I would have been wrong, but I believed it.  All the signs were obvious to me in retrospect, but until then they might as well have been invisible.  I actually left Active Duty and joined the Reserves still thinking I wasn’t trans, and I’m far from the only person who ignored a rule that applied to a group I thought I wasn’t in.  One study showed that one in five transgender Americans was a military veteran (Gates 2014).  Compare that with one in ten for the rest of the population.

That delayed realization is far from uncommon among trans people. It also means that just because regulations say trans people can’t join the military doesn’t mean you can assume that trans people aren’t in anyway.

But you can just fire them, right?  Administrative discharge, just like the regs state?

The Wisdom of Blanket Firings

“My main concern was not: I could potentially be losing my career, but what about the guys on the ground,” said Landon Wilson, a Navy cryptographic specialist who was discharged in 2013 for being transgender.  While serving in a combined intelligence cell in Afghanistan, then-Petty Officer Wilson’s superiors contacted his old unit regarding a promotion and then asked why his old unit was referring to him as ‘her.’  Within six hours, Wilson was on a flight back to the States, soon to recieve a promotion, a commendation, and a discharge.  A replacement, however, took a lot longer than six hours to arrange.

The rules were simple, with absolutely no give to them.  The was no such thing as a waiver for being transgender, even for someone in a one-deep position.

That was for a good reason, right?

Medical Reasons to Ban Transgender Service

One group of doctors and retired military personnel (headed by a M. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon-General of the United States) did a study on just that. Their conclusions were that the regulations were based on four basic justifications: that transgender personnel are too prone to mental illness to serve, that cross-sex hormone therapy is too risky for medical personnel to administer and monitor, that gender-confirming surgery is too risky and too prone to postoperative complications to permit, and that transgender personnel are not medically capable of deploying safely.

They also went through, point-by-point, showing evidence that none of those justifications were sufficient.  Someone with a bad knee may not be deployable, but the military leaves it to doctors to determine whether or not they can still serve.

‘Choosing’ to Be Transgender

One of the things that comes up in discussions of transgender policy is the idea that someone can – or will – or does – simply ‘choose to be a woman’ or man, and that the military will just kowtow to your demands.  Terrible for military cohesion; terrible for readiness.

If an underperforming troop could look at the pull-up bar and declare they had to be tested according to female standards?  If a horndog private could declare they were entitled to female restrooms?  Yes, this would absolutely be terrible for discipline.

Fortunately, we now have the rules in front of us, and we know what it takes to get an exception to policy: approval by Branch Headquarters (DoDI 1300.28).  Not your Flight Chief; not your CGO; no one in your Brigade or Division.  The Pentagon.  And in order to ask, the member has to go to their commander and route a memo up every step of the chain of command in the way.  Your name goes through the office of your unit commander, their commander, their commander’s commander, and so on.

Moreover, they’re based on a faulty assumption: that for a person to come out to their unit comes at a low personal cost.

There’s still a pervasive myth about male predators declaring themselves to be female so that they can enter female restrooms.  It plays very well on the media, and it gets voters and legislators to enact or repeal laws.  Even without those laws in place, people will look at other people in the same restroom and talk to security (Rodriguez 2016).

And transitioning from one gender to the other inevitably requires passing through the land of androgyny.  Indeed, keeping those of the wrong gender out of the wrong restroom has a flip side: which is the trans person outside the restrooms, trying desperately to figure out which one will get them in less trouble, and knowing that either way, trouble is coming.

Of course, you could just choose not to be transgender, right?

Taking Care Of Our Troops

There’s one last thing that has to be mentioned.  Military suicide rates are at an all-time high; the leading cause of death for military personnel is still injury in accidents, but suicide is now second.  Similarly, transgender people also attempt and commit suicide at elevated rates (Haas 2014), with 41% of the respondants of one survey having attempted suicide.

That sounds like a bad combination.  Fortunately, multiple studies show a very simple way of reducing that number.  “Social support, reduced transphobia, and having any personal identification documents changed to an appropriate sex designation were associated with large relative and absolute reductions in suicide risk, as was completing a medical transition through hormones and/or surgeries (when needed).”  (Bauer 2014)  Suicide attempt rates among those who live as their preferred gender are higher than normal – but not by much.

Conclusion

At this point it’s regulation.  Transgender people can serve openly.  What medical support they will recieve is still up in the air, but mental health is a definite, and hormone therapy as well, subject to approval by military doctors.

Jennifer Sittinger is served in the Active Duty Air Force for eight years and recieved an Honorable Discharge, though not under that name. She joined the Air Force Reserves as soon as her terminal leave was done and told her commander she was transgender her first drill after admitting it to herself. She feels way better than she ever did before.

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