Defense, Taxpayers Take Back Seat to Transgender Agenda

Just two days removed from the second major terror attack in two weeks, the Pentagon has an announcement. No, it isn’t about the United States’ new plans to fight ISIS in the wake of Orlando and Istanbul. Nor is it to reassure the American people that their military is stepping up its mission against its Middle East enemies with the world on high alert. Quite the opposite, in fact.

While terrorism’s latest victims overwhelm Turkish hospitals and airports everywhere lock down their security, our president is ensuring that America’s military will continue be too distracted and fractured to cope with any of these crises. In a move today — one that completes the administration’s long-term project of dismantling one of the latest bastions of American tradition — Defense Secretary Ash Carter officially welcomed the gender confused into the military’s fold at a press conference formally declaring open transgenderism in the ranks of the military. The world is facing some of the greatest evil ever unleashed on innocents and the President’s plan for combatting it is letting men dress like women (and vice-versa) in our fighting force? Is this his plan for striking fear in ISIS’s hearts?

This is what comes of a president who uses our military to fight culture wars instead of fighting real wars against the enemies of our nation. Over the grave concerns from senior military leaders, the administration is setting off a chain of events that many, including our own Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, think could change the effectiveness of our Armed Forces forever. “This has everything to do with President Obama’s social agenda for the military — and nothing to do with military readiness, which should always be the Pentagon’s first consideration,” FRC’s 36-year Special Forces vet said today.

“Defense Secretary Carter has yet to explain how this new policy makes our military more capable of performing its mission. This will result in a distraction for commanders at all levels as they spend precious time implementing this policy at the same time that the U.S. Navy is punishing the sailors of the two patrol boats that were captured by the Iranians in January of this year. These sailors were an abysmal failure as prisoners, humiliating the entire nation with their actions as they apologized to and thanked the Iranians. The problem is that this is not their fault. They were not prepared for what happened to them. They spent all their training time in classrooms listening to lectures on diversity, tolerance, inclusion, sexual assault, and white privilege instead of the military Code of Conduct.”

Like the rest of the country, the military’s leaders have been aghast that the administration’s main priority isn’t rebuilding troop morale or unit cohesion, but rolling out the red carpet to people who identify as transgendered.

As recently as last month, the Washington Post was reporting that the pushback inside the ranks had roiled the branches, which are now being asked to implement an enormously unpopular and disruptive policy — without Congress’s approval — starting October 1. Instead of heeding the service chiefs’ call for further study and specific guidance, the administration seems bound and determined to race ahead with the change in the waning hours of LGBT Pride Month.

The reaction on Capitol Hill was swift and severe. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) fired back almost immediately at the DOD’s extremism. “Our military is facing historic readiness shortfalls, putting our service members’ lives at greater risk. Addressing this crisis should be the sole focus of Obama administration, but instead they continue to be more interested in forcing their social agenda through the DOD. In the coming days, I will be asking Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain and Ranking Member Jack Reed to hold hearings on this matter. I believe this policy should be put on hold until the DOD thoroughly answers questions from Congress on how such change will impact the readiness of our military.”

According to the AP, “the new policy provides broad guidelines for transgender service members. They will be able to use the bathrooms, housing, uniforms, and fitness standards of their preferred gender only after they have legally transitioned to that identity.” But, the report goes on, the new rules will almost certainly result in a brave new world for job placement, deployments, training delays — and even basic things like the placement of shower curtains and towel hooks will now consume commanders’ valuable time. These developments are even more disturbing when you consider that the RAND Corporation suggests (in its generous estimate) that out of the approximately 1.3 million active-duty service members, an estimated 2,450 were transgender. That’s 0.2 percent of the population! For them, the president is willing to upend the Pentagon’s policy and jeopardize our entire force?

Are we to assume that taxpayers would also be hook for their hormone therapy, sexual reassignments, psychological counseling, and whatever facilities changes would need to be made to accommodate the gender-confused on base? These are serious and complex issues that directly affect the national security of the United States. Meanwhile, at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Americans are already footing the bill for hormone replacement and pre- and post- gender reassignment care. Not only is this an outrageous waste of time and money, but it says an awful lot about the twisted priorities of this administration. When veterans asked for better health care, transgender therapy is probablynot what most of them had in mind. It’s a sad day in America when gender confusion entitles you to better care than most of the heroes who served. And yet, it’s an even sadder day when the last great pillar of military sensibility falls. Pray for our misused troops and our misguided nation.

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Tony Perkins is President of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council. He is a former member of the Louisiana legislature where he served for eight years, and he is recognized as a legislative pioneer for authoring measures like the nation's first Covenant Marriage law. He received his undergraduate degree from Liberty University and a Master's Degree from Louisiana State University in Public Administration. Perkins is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, and a former police officer and television news reporter.

Tony Perkins

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