Ripley's believe it or not. LOL.
Sorry no winners or recognition of achievement,
everyone gets a participation award, oh and no attaboy that is inferring a gender.

I definitely agree with you SCOJOHNSON.
Though I think their appearance and the way they dress in civilian clothes is mostly irrelevant.
As a female in the Army, (and not a butch lol) I did not think not having the level of testosterone of a man was a hindrance to doing my job well. Actually females were generally much better at my job (briefings, interrogations, and source operations).
Women are, on average, just better at taking to people, empathizing, bringing down a person's guards, and building rapport. But there are also many jobs in the military that men, on average, are much better at, like infantry.
A big issue that I saw in the short 4 years I was active, was when a person would try so hard to be what they weren't because they wanted to 'destroy stereotypes'. They rarely had any success, wasted the natural talents they did have, and became a weak link.
It is clearly a mental health problem to 'believe' you are a man when you have two x chromosomes. As Ayn Rand puts it: "Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." This mental illness is also a weakness that affect military readiness and unit cohesion.
The culture of the military that I saw, I wouldn't attribute to testosterone, because females generally had the same mentality. The root of the problem is weakness.
Anytime a unit sees weakness in a person, they will fight against it, because of the life and death consequences they can face tomorrow. With the goal that either that weak link will beak before they are downrange, or it will get stronger, that will use any tactic available to them ranging from making derogatory jokes even up (though more rare these days) blanket parties. If a soldier is over weight or fails PT standards, for example, the relentless poking and prodding can, though sometimes painful, encourage them to work harder at meeting the standard.
Gender dysphoria doesn't work this way. Most need professional help and a great deal of time to overcome or deal with their issues, generally focused on bringing their thoughts and feelings into line with reality instead of trying to accomplish the impossible of shaping reality into how they 'feel' it should be.
'Biology isn't bigotry.' With the high suicide rate in the military and the enormous suicide rate among the trans community, (who are 19x more likely to die of suicide) it would be reckless and cruel to put them into a combat zone. By far, the most mentality and physically stressful situation imaginable.
Above even these issues, is the one you brought up first, the job requirements.
The mission of the US military is to win wars and protect the nation. That means being combat ready at all times.
But soldiers who have “transitioned” medically require regular hormone treatments and follow-up visits after sex-reassignment surgery and are not deployable. What rational sense does it make for the military to accept a person into it's ranks, only to pay obscene amounts of money for that soldier's medical expenses that's goal is to make that soldier useless to the military?
Every argument in favor of it is based solely on feelings and a denial of reality. Maybe one day more research and advances in the mental health field and a deeper knowledge of gender dysphoria will produce more options that solve some of these issues.
But I agree with the article, considering the relatively little that is understood and agreed upon about Gender dysphoria, the military is not the place to experiment with people's lives.

AUBURN, CA—Local 36-year-old Nate Ripley, who self-identifies as a six-year-old, “absolutely crushed” a game-winning homer at a local tee-ball game and won the championship for his team Monday evening, reports confirmed.

Ripley reportedly walked up to the plate in the bottom of the 6th, pointed his bat toward the left-field wall looming 130 feet in the distance, and let her rip, sending the ball rocketing over the fence and into an adjacent parking garage as the fans cheered and his coach yelled out, “Attaboy, Nate! Good job, bud!”

His team, the Lil’ Padres, attempted to hoist him up on their shoulders in celebration of their great victory over the favored Tiny Tigers, but owing to Nate’s 230 pounds, were unable to do so.

Ripley’s remarkable achievements come at the end of a momentous tee-ball season in which the self-identified six-year-old shattered every record set prior to that point. Nate ended his season with a 1000 batting average, 52 home runs, and incredible showings at first base, second base, shortstop, third base, and pitcher. The tee-ball prodigy is being hailed as an inspiration to other six-year-olds everywhere.

Most of your statement is filled with words irrelevant to the discussion. Oh and congratulations on your lack of appetite.
So called transgendered individuals are mentally ill
The facts show suicidal tendencies are through the roof with these folks. Your all inclusive attitude
Ignores the chief mission of the US military. The mission is not to make everyone welcome. The mission of our armed forces is winning wars and protecting the nation. We must prioritize military readiness and mission-critical purposes first.
Just like all the training and education in your security/criminology career it was designed to help you perform your job it was not to make everybody feel good or accepted.

Couldn't agree more with the question re: the VA
having to pay for drug addicts and surgically-
enhanced people. Charge Bernie Sanders; he's all
for free goodies (free tuition, etc).

When I published the article, I considered using this as a "box," but decided I have enough information in one place. This is the official statement of the American College of Pediatrics:

Gender Ideology Harms Children
Updated May 2017

The American College of Pediatricians urges healthcare professionals, educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.

1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of male and female, respectively – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species. This principle is self-evident. The exceedingly rare disorders of sex development (DSDs), including but not limited to testicular feminization and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are all medically identifiable deviations from the sexual binary norm, and are rightly recognized as disorders of human design. Individuals with DSDs (also referred to as “intersex”) do not constitute a third sex.1

2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one. No one is born with an awareness of themselves as male or female; this awareness develops over time and, like all developmental processes, may be derailed by a child’s subjective perceptions, relationships, and adverse experiences from infancy forward. People who identify as “feeling like the opposite sex” or “somewhere in between” do not comprise a third sex. They remain biological men or biological women.2,3,4

3. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V).5 The psychodynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved.2,4,5

4. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous. Reversible or not, puberty- blocking hormones induce a state of disease – the absence of puberty – and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child.6

5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.5

6. Pre-pubertal children diagnosed with gender dysphoria may be given puberty blockers as young as eleven, and will require cross-sex hormones in later adolescence to continue impersonating the opposite sex. These children will never be able to conceive any genetically related children even via articifial reproductive technology. In addition, cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to cardiac disease, high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.7,8,9,10,11

7. Rates of suicide are nearly twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBTQ – affirming countries.12 What compassionate and reasonable person would condemn young children to this fate knowing that after puberty as many as 88% of girls and 98% of boys will eventually accept reality and achieve a state of mental and physical health?

8. Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents, leading more children to present to “gender clinics” where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs. This, in turn, virtually ensures they will “choose” a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults.

Michelle A. Cretella, M.D.
President of the American College of Pediatricians

Quentin Van Meter, M.D.
Vice President of the American College of Pediatricians
Pediatric Endocrinologist

Paul McHugh, M.D.
University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital

Here in Cal we like to first subject our school kids to everything. So, don't worry...we first foisted the bathrooms on the kids in the elementary schools and there were no riots. So, just accept it. and don't be a party pooper.

Transgendered people are medically dependent, meaning they must take medication to support their changed condition. The military currently bans medically dependent people, like diabetics, from enlisting, even though there are some very athletic diabetics in that community. The same should hold for transgenders.

Don't forget transgender change is just surgical cross dressing. Wear an organ one day change it the next as your whim leads you.

Don't forget life time VA treatment for switching back and forth every decade. Cancer wound patients have the decency not to come back whining they feel funny.

They must be kept out as they use the military as a free ride for their extensive and expensive medical, surgical, and mental costs. Their attention is not on their job but their psychological misfit with their bodies. WHo wants to see the VA paying the lifetime costs of drug addicts and surgical cross dressers?

I am also a bit of a cynic and while I see a vast majority of people joining the military as doing it to serve and protect this great nation, I believe some might see claiming trangenderism as a way to stay out of harm's way when the situation got out of hand. They don't necessarily need to start the treatments to transition, but would 'require' counseling and other accommodations that would keep them from being deployed on the frontlines. They would need to be assign where they could receive 'treatment' to help them mentally with their possible future transition. After they serve their time, they could be discharged honorably and miraculously become cured and never need to worry about being placed in danger of losing their life. Again, the cynic in me.

Yeah, but like those situations it is a matter of education to allow exception. I would daresay it will take a generation or two to die off before universal acceptance can begin to be achieved. Any child born recently will grow up with this understanding and will thus be more accepting and consider it more normal.

"My understanding is that ... gender is genetic and on a spectrum."

There is zero spectrum in XX vs XY. It is a binary option. Does one really become a woman even though one's chromosomes say XY? No. One can distort one's body through surgery or chemicals, but can that person bear children? No. And the XX is no easier to manipulate to make a person capable of fathering children. The choice is to accept reality or to attempt to deny it. Personally, I don't listen to the lunatics in the asylum trying to tell me they're just fine.

As an Air Force combat vet, I'll make a few first-hand observations. First, just because someone "wants" to serve, doesn't mean they will be accepted. It's a job application, there are stated job requirements. Unlike anywhere else, the military is not an EEO employer. They don't accept people over about 26 (or early 30s for Nat-Guards), won't take the chubbies, and citing their own examples -they would filter out anorexia or bulimia if uncovered. I suspect it would be quickly, the calorie-deficit of months of basic training would put an anorexic in the hospital and there isn't enough privacy to be trying to puke one's lungs out after every meal for months. Neither would have the strength to endure.

I keep coming back to the obvious here... does a guy really want to put on a dress-blues skirt and try to "fit-in" with a very testosterone-heavy culture? This isn't the high school pep-rally squad, this is putting bombs on-target to kill people. Everything the Air Force (in my case) does, is to support that effort. It's not about building bases in Yakota to better understand the Japanese locals, it's about putting bombs on-target when called to do so.

I know the cross-dressing women 'think' they fit-in. Newsflash, they don't. The strap-on thing across the chest is always a give-away, they have an "over male-up" appearance with the butch haircut, the jacket kind of hanging open, half the time cuffs at the jean ankles. It's guy-dress like your mom dressed you. Ultimately, I always look at the shoe-size if in-doubt, they can't hide that.

I'm not being discriminatory here, I'm only pointing out the obvious. Is this really a problem that is deserving of a national debate? I think Trump just said "this is really, really stupid, nope, we're done here".

The US has averaged 3% veteran over it's history. That means 97% don't want to, were afraid to, or were turned-down.

I hope some of you will check out my new book about Trump on Amazon. Without strong social media support, a book like this has little chance against the exclusionary policies of the mainstream media. Also, you may really enjoy it. David Kelley called a "paradigm of what Ayn Rand called philosophical detection."

All provocative and useful comments. I get the idea some of you might not have read the whole article, which was only partly about the military and much more about the trans-gender and trans-sexual movement itself. Some of the statistics there, although statistics in this field are endlessly disputed, suggest that the overwhelming amount if not all gender "dysphoria" passes normally after the adolescent years. Remember that some of the reasons given against trans-gender individuals serving in the military come not from Trump, or government, but the Heritage Foundation commentator. Trump's reasons were that military medical care provides free all medically approved operations (and trans-gender surgery is now approved as was once frontal lobotomy) so we are talking millions of dollars for men and women who want to switch while in the military. The other reason was battle readiness, since pre- and post-trans-sexual surgery the patient requires continuing massive hormone injections.

Lets just say I'm glad I chose to serve when I did and would not recommend anyone I know to serve today.

I also lived with different races and religions during that time, there is a difference.

These concerns seem at least similar, if not identical, to the same ones many would bring up regarding mixing race or religion.

I find this interesting knowing the trump grew up in nyc the gay capitol of the world that he would not just accept this is the way things are. he MUST know dozens of gay and some transgender people.

There's quite a bit more to what I wrote than a simple, distasteful shower. While I havent read the policy, I don't need to in order to understand the intimacy living on a ship demands. This lack of personal space and privacy may be different for other branches of service but it doesn't change the reality that the brass making policy do not need to live with that policy, just as their lives do not have to depend on unit cohesion and integrity

It is a sad comment on our society that the desires of a few crazy people....yes...Gender Dysphagia is a recognized mental disease by the handbook of the American Psychological association....has got everyone's garters in a knot. These people are disabled...because they are crazy...they have no place in the military and employers have every right to refuse to hire them. We can feel sorry for them....but they do not have a right to a spot in the military and working for any business that is rightfully concerned about what other crazy thing they might do. Businesses also have a responsibility to their customers as well.

The mentally ill are unfit for the armed forces.

I tend to be of the opinion that if an individual has undergone surgery and is biologically a "look alike" and the psychology of the situation has been addressed, it shouldn't be an issue if the individual can pass muster (forgive the pun). I know that, genetically we are the sex that we are regardless of what we look like or feel like but I would spare the member serving alongside someone who hasn't made a full transition AND spare the taxpayers the high cost of such things.

I am curious if any of you know what Ayn herself may have ever said/written on this particular issue -- or around the idea of someone not accepting their own biology.

As much as I relate to your fine poetry, I have to disagree with your opinion on this. My understanding is that while eating disorders are learned reactions to stress, gender is genetic and on a spectrum. ("Eating disorders" so-called are also on a spectrum. I am not a foodie. I weigh 133 lbs and if I could, I would take a Nutrient Pill and skip the pre-processed garbage. But, hey, who doesn't like a pepperoni pizza?)

Much about us is like that, but without the social noise. We have 6.5 billion humans. We have single cities with more people than existed at the end of the last ice age. The numbers allow a lot of variants to pop up, geniuses for instance. We can stack Nobel laureates like cord wood.

In my criminology program, I worked a summer of community college campus patrols with a young guy ahead of me. He had finished his BS at the U, and was back at WCC to attend the police academy. He was born with a cleft palate. It was more or less repaired for most of his life, but once he got hired, his agency fixed it proper. It was worth it to them to get a superior achiever. (He graduated second in his class. "They told me that I would not have time to work and do homework. So I just don't do the homework.") Just sayin'... What if the issue were the monetary costs and social friction of having hare-lips among normal people?