Trump: Transgenders no longer welcome in the military

Please sir will you let me do a research study on you? I really thought Homo Erectis became extinction around 30000 years ago but you are providing convincing evidence to the contrary. (Btw the word homo is by no means a pejorative term--it actually means "man or human" in Latin. I understand that may be hard for your shrunken brain to realize.)

It's super bizarre bc I had no idea that your species was even remotely interested in PC culture. I figure that scrounging the forest and plains for berries and grains was time consuming enough. But I see that Homo Erectus was and remains a prominent force fighting for the equality of everyone that comprises the Homo genus.

Magnificent. You sir are a savant and one of a kind.

 

Because I firmly believe that both of you are either the same person or are posting simultaneously while you lie in bed together watching Steven Seagal marathons.

 

Bruh.....too far. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

 

Are you kidding?!

I'm watching this right now...



That part at the end where Stevie jumps out of the bushes and does a barrel roll while shooting down the villains and showing off his glorious mane.... Oh boy that gets me every time.

 

Thank you so much for the terrific advice @Bobbythegreat. I owe you sir...finally got him to crack.

It did require a bit more vitriol than you led on, but I suppose he's developed a thicker, more stubborn skin over the years.

 

Congratulations! You'll find the forum is considerably better from here on out. I dunno why it took so much to make it happen, perhaps it's because he knew you wanted him to do it and with others he thought he was punishing him by having his whiny ass out of their business.

 

I'm not gonna lie. It feels truly liberating...

 

Don't know if this has been posted, but if not, this is an eye opening, excellent read about Trans Americans in the US Military:

The Unique Bravery of Transgender Soldiers
The transgender community is full of fighters and survivors

Spoiler

Turns out tweets aren’t policy.

Pres. Donald Trump seemed to end the U.S. military’s open acceptance of transgender troops on July 26, 2017 when he tweeted out that America would no longer allow said troops to serve in any branch in any capacity. According to Trump, transgender troops cost too much and destroy readiness. His assertions are easily disproven.

The next day, the Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford sent an internal memo to senior Pentagon officials that refuted the president’s online policy directive. “I know there are questions about yesterday’s announcement on the transgender policy by the President,” the memo read. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance.”

“In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect,” he wrote. “As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions.”

That’s great news for America’s transgender troops, but it’s far from a reprieve. There’s a good chance the White House will follow through on Trump’s tweet and go through the motions of creating the transgender ban. Which is a damn shame, because transgender troops are incredibly brave and uniquely predisposed to military service.

They’re born fighters and survivors, which is probably why, according to some estimates, they’re over-represented in the U.S. military.

In the hours after Trump’s tweet, America’s former and current transgender military personnel voiced their displeasure. “I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military,” Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland told Air Force Times. “You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life.”


“I have never described myself as trans; I’m a mother****ing Marine, that‘s all that matters,” an anonymous Marine corporal told paper. “Don’t tarnish my title with your bigotry and fear of the unknown.”

Spoiler

Above — Staff. Sgt. Ashleigh Buch of the 38th Combat Training Squadron in October 2016. U.S. Air Force photo. At top — Sgt. Sam Hunt, the first openly transgender soldier with the Nevada Army National Guard. Nevada Joint Force Headquarters photo

“Let’s meet face to face and you tell me I’m not worthy,” retired Navy SEAL Kristin Beck told Trump through Business Insider. “We are liberty’s light. If you can’t defend that for everyone that’s an American citizen, that’s not right.”

Beck’s story, the subject of a forthcoming documentary, is particularly instructive.

As Christopher Beck, she served for 20 years in the Navy’s elite SEAL teams, moving from Team ONE all the way to SIX. She served 13 tours during that time and earned both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. She is brave, unique and irreplaceable. She’s the face of transgender service in the American military.

Thanks to social fears and decades of ignorance, it’s hard to know exactly how many Americans identify as transgender let alone how many serve in the U.S. military. But, based on early research, transgender people are one of the only groups over-represented in the military.

A UCLA study from 2014 put the number of current and former transgender troops at around 150,000. A recent study by the Rand Corporation puts the active and reserve numbers of transgender troops at around 4,000, but Rand’s numbers don’t take into account veterans.

If the UCLA study is correct, more than 20 percent of America’s total transgender population is serving or has served in the armed forces. The only other group that serves in such numbers is Native Americans.

These numbers may be skewed, with more transgender Americans in the population going uncounted, but the anecdotal evidence backs up the assertion. Dr. George Brown spent the 1980s as a psychiatrist at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and saw so many transgender airmen he published a study attempting to explain the phenomenon.

Brown theorized that transgender men joined the service in an attempt to prove their masculinity and refute their inner feelings. He noted transgender service members often took on dangerous roles in the military — those they felt were more masculine.

Brown’s assertions are only part of the story and they’re rooted in 20th century understandings of both war and transition. People join the military for a range of reasons — adventure, family traditions, cash and the chance to see combat. The reasons are as varied as the individuals joining. Transgender people join for a variety of reasons too, but their bravery in the face of adversity makes them uniquely qualified to serve.

For many trans people, just stepping out the front door and confronting the world is an act of bravery. Trans people face sexual and domestic assault numbers disproportionate to the rest of the country. Lately, they’ve become pawns in the latest round of America’s culture wars. They can get into legal trouble for using the wrong bathroom in the wrong state. For transgender people, simply being who you are can be an act of courage. The military is a great place to train up that courage.

Joining the military is a chance to become part of something bigger than yourself. It’s also a means for people to escape bad family situations, reinvent themselves and test their mettle. Military training strips away the bullshit of civilian life and forces a person into survivor mode. Once all the noise of modern life fades away, a recruit learns who they truly are.

Transgender people are poised to take advantage of that military benefit. They’ve also proven that, once tested, they’re qualified to rise through the ranks and prove themselves to the military. Hell, they’re often asked to prove who they are every single moment of every single day.

They’re fighters by nature. They have to be to survive. They’re the kind of person you want defending America.

http://warisboring.com/the-unique-bravery-of-transgender-soldiers/

 

General Milley has said in so many words that's decisions like this have to be passed down through the COC before they are implemented.

There is a process for everything

 

Outstanding news. Good find, NewRoxFan. As more respected sources push back on trump's "out of the blue" tweet that caught the leaders of our armed forces completely by surprise, it highlights how wrong Mr. trump was in taking this action. It also highlights the proud service being given the nation by the thousands of transgender Americans serving in all branches of our military, some in leadership roles.

 

Film by Beijing Students Explores Being Young and Transgender in China



BEIJING — The 18-year-old student out for a stroll at night was wearing makeup and a skirt and high heels when a passer-by suddenly collided with him. “Sorry, miss,” the man said before continuing on his way. The student turned and stared at the man until he was out of sight, clearly delighted to have been taken for a woman.


This episode from “Escape,’’ an unlikely new film by a team of Beijing high school students about being young and transgender in China, depicts the first time that the student ventured out in women’s clothes. The film shows his struggles with his attraction to a boy and his ultimate acceptance of what he feels is his genuine female identity.

Over the past several weeks, the 75-minute film has received four screenings, including at the Beijing LGBT Center and the Wuhan Tongxing LGBT Center, with three more scheduled for this month, and has been the subject of largely positive articles in People’s Daily and other state news outlets. More than a hundred copies of the film have been sold online, and its 18-year-old director, Hu Ranran, plans to post an English-subtitled version on YouTube.

“I wanted to speak for transgenders and acquaint more people with this disadvantaged group,’’ Ms. Hu said in an interview. “Many people regard transgenders as very different. I wanted to make this film to tell people that they are as normal as anyone else.’’

Wider circulation of the film, however, is proving challenging in a country where gender identity remains a sensitive topic. Chinese law allows individuals to change their gender on personal identification cards, but only if they have undergone sex reassignment surgery, and this is illegal for people under 20. In June, the China Netcasting Services Association, a government-affiliated industry group, issued regulations to remove online videos that violate socialist values, including those “demonstrating ‘abnormal’ sex relations or acts.’’ These did not mention transgender people, but included homosexuality, even though it was decriminalized in China in 1997 and removed from the official list of mental disorders in 2001.

The Guangzhou Transgender Center declined to screen the film, citing pressure from the local authorities. And although the film was made mostly at the students’ school, which is affiliated with Renmin University of China, with students playing most of the parts, school officials would not grant permission for public screenings on campus.

A representative of the school’s Communist Youth League gave two reasons, Ms. Hu said.

“One was it contained love scenes between students in our school’s uniforms,’’ she said. “The other was that the topic of transgenders was too avant-garde.”

Ms. Hu said she was inspired to make the film last winter, when she saw “Gender In, Bias Out,” a Chinese documentary about the problems faced by transgender people, including job discrimination, violence and securing medical services for sex reassignment.

Ms. Hu has long been interested in films and began helping out on film sets when she was in the eighth grade. “My parents and teachers always advised me not to pursue this because they assume making movies is very difficult for women,” she said.

More recently, she began thinking of making a film about embracing one’s true self. When she saw “Gender In, Bias Out,” she decided to combine this theme with the situation of transgender people in China.

“Sooner or later, everyone is likely to become a minority of one kind or another,’’ she said. “No one can escape this. For example, female directors are a minority.’’

In preparation, she interviewed transgender people and studied the online discussion site of the Guangzhou Transgender Center.

The lead actor was her classmate Zhang Yuge. He said the topic resonated with him because he had fallen in love with another boy.

“I expressed my true feelings when I was performing,’’ he said. Although he has told his father he is gay, he has never talked with his mother about it and was concerned about her reaction.

“When I heard I had to wear a cheongsam and look so feminine, I hesitated,’’ he said. “I was afraid about my mom seeing it.”

He correctly anticipated her reaction. After his mother, a physician, saw “Escape,”she said in the post-screening discussion that transgender and gay people were “psychologically twisted’’ and needed therapy.

Mr. Zhang especially identified with repeated scenes in the film where his character is shown trapped in a stairwell, unable to escape. He cowers on the ground shouting, “Let me out!’’

“When I performed that, I couldn’t help crying because I experienced that nightmare in real life,” Mr. Zhang said. As a high school freshman he agonized over his sexual orientation, he said. “Dark clouds pressed down at every moment.”

“When I performed that, I couldn’t help crying because I experienced that nightmare in real life,” Mr. Zhang said. As a high school freshman he agonized over his sexual orientation, he said. “Dark clouds pressed down at every moment.”

The student project has won praise from advocates.

“They are doing something that most high school students dare not do,’’ said Ling Wan, director of the Hubei Transgender Group.

Chen Xiyue, a transgender actress, applauded the film. “Not only can it promote a better understanding of transgenders,’’ she said, “but it also shows the power of students as a new force to defend L.G.B.T.Q. rights.”

Ms. Hu, who recently graduated from high school, is headed to the University of California, Los Angeles, where she will major in physics with a minor in filmmaking.

“I want to focus on some basic disciplines, like physics, to cultivate logical thinking and the ability to observe,’’ she explained. “I’m sure that a good film director has to have not just a command of technical skills, but a broad education.”

Her ambitions transcend filmmaking. “After I complete my studies and return to China, I want to work to change Chinese movies and even Chinese society,’’ she said. “Judging by viewer response, our film has really changed some people’s attitudes toward sexual minorities and even themselves. This is what I want.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/...atest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=sectionfront

 

Reported.

 

Trump is pandering to his fans, which include himself. Not going to change.

Also, on a pure political viewpoint, let Trump and his fans win these battles. It takes just a stroke to change it once he's out of power. But if you fight this fight now, you risk losing that pen. IOW, pick your fights.

 

Alright.

Which one of you made the secondary account KevinsBacon?

 

Meh, this is a weird thread. I usually just hang around the sports forums, but this is disturbing. Why would anyone want tranny or transgender people in the military? Such a liability and waste of tax payers money

 

Why would anyone not want transgender people in the military? If they can do the job, who cares if they are transgender or not?

I think our soldiers can handle anything the military of other nations can handle. Our military is handling it just fine already, so why mess with it?