Retired Navy SEAL Kristin Beck. You can watch her interview on MSNBC. (Photo MSNBC)
President Trump took to Twitter Wednesday to announce that Uncle Sam no longer wants transgenders to serve their country in the armed forces.
“After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military,” wrote Trump.
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” he continued.
The decision rolls back an Obama policy that allowed transgenders to serve openly. Trump did not elaborate beyond the tweet on what spurred the sudden policy change but it comes on the heels of talks on Capitol Hill on another Obama policy requiring the Pentagon to pay for gender transition treatment, The New York Times reports.
There are between 1,320-6,630 transgender service members in the military, roughly 2,450 on active duty (out of a force of approximately 1.3 million) and another 1,510 in the Selected Reserve, according to a study by the RAND Corporation.
The study goes on to note that not all would seek gender transition-related treatment. Moreover, that the costs associated with expanding gender transition-related health care coverage to those transgenders on active duty would increase costs by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, which equates to a .04- to .13-percent bump in the overall health care budget for active duty personnel.
These costs may not be “tremendous,” at least in terms of percentage, but they are real costs nonetheless, which raises an obvious question, why should even one taxpayer penny go toward funding gender-related health care coverage? Isn’t gender reassignment surgery a choice — not a need?
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While the cost issue is one aspect of the decision, the other is the broader legal implication of banning a certain class of people from serving in the military. On this front, at least one advocacy group has promised to sue.
“We are committed to transgender service member,” said OutServe-SLDN, a nonprofit advocacy group that represents LGBT military members. “We are going to fight for them as hard as they are fighting for the country. And we’re going to start by taking the fight to Donald Trump in the federal court.”
Matthew F. Thorn, executive director of OutServe, told the NY Times that Trump’s decision was a slap in the face to transgenders serving in the military.
“We have transgender individuals who serve in elite SEAL teams, who are working in a time of war to defend our country, and now you’re going to kick them out?” Mr. Thorn said.
Thorn may have been alluding to Kristin Beck, a retired Navy SEAL with 20 years on the job, including time spent with the elite SEAL Team Six. Beck transitioned when she left the service in 2013. In an interview with Business Insider, Beck said, “Let’s meet face to face and you tell me I’m not worthy. Transgender doesn’t matter. Do your service.”
You can also catch some of Beck’s thoughts in the TMZ video below:
Where do you come out (no pun intended) on this topic? Should transgenders be allowed to serve openly? Should the government foot the bill for reassignment surgery?
This moronic conversation isn’t even worth discussing…..
This is a good decision. The President and his Generals are not making a knee jerk decision without great thought or research. This is purely a business decision. It is simply cost-prohibitive and mission-prohibitive. This has nothing to do with discrimination or phobia. I have experience it…and seen it. They are correct; this is the right decision. Its time we do what is right rather than doing what makes us \”feel\” better.
SEAL. Transgender.
I am having an incredibly hard time wrapping my head around that.
Just give it the old “Google” search and read about it for yourself.
It is hard to put one’s head around it.
Kristin Beck is a male and became a transgender after leaving the military so no matter what is stated he was a he as a Seal and will still be an XY at his demise.
Say what you want but Kristin Beck will go to “it’s” grave with XY DNA. He was a SEAL before deciding he was a she or an it or none of the above.
I don\’t care what one has going on behind closed doors but in the Military then I do care.
Taking drugs so you can have breasts reduces your strength and I want the guy next to me to be as fit if not more than me for a good many reasons.
Ask the gay seal if he will be welcomed back in his old command?
Ask any gay male if he would be welcomed back where he once was?
When the brass talk about Military Cohesion this is what they mean: \”the bonding together of soldiers in such a way as to sustain their will and commitment to each other, the unit, and mission accomplishment, despite combat or mission stress\”.
Men in the combat arms do not die for the Flag, Mom or their Country they do so as they do not want to let their comrades down.
I will not feel comfortable getting close to someone that may want to get between my legs!
Don\’t care what any training film or instructor says. It is what it is.
I want to be proud of my squad, pontoon, company, and division. But more so the first three!
The combat arms is all about killing, not adjusting your panties or changing your Tampax
Now we have had girls go through Ranger school.
I\’ll let you read for yourself on this one
http://freedomdaily.com/army-ranger-school-did-women-graduates-receive-special-treatment/
http://usdefensewatch.com/2017/07/how-many-women-in-the-us-military-are-going-to-die-for-a-lie/
If women can fight men in Combat then first all women need to sign up for the draft!
Just like men go through Infantry training then onto the battle front. Good Luck!
Next, now that these women say they are ready for and want combat the next step is here at home.
The NFL, NHL, Boxing, UFC must do away with one group for women and one for men!
In the UFC if a girl or Trangengter weights in as a light weight lets say then they fight other light weights regardless of sex
At West Point women MUST box men and all women in military training regardless of rank must grapple with men, after all, that\’s who they will be going up against in combat.
Carry the same weight, walk the same amount of miles and so forth.
I’m a conservative patriot, super gun owner. All you conservative racist pigs make me want to line you up with the rest of idiots on the left. Men can serve our county, women can serve our county and any other who may identify in-between. Trump allowed politics to make a wrong decision here. When serving and dying for your country we are all brothers.
Yeah, sounds good!! You are wrong! This is not politics, this is our freedom and my tax dollars. I want the best fighting machine there is to protect and defend. Not a political -social experiment that Obama made it, he has disrespected all American’s. No matter what you do to looks or surgery, you can not change chromosome. A man is a man, a woman is a woman forever. I should not have to pay for there life style change. I am bald and would like to have hair, I have blue eyes and want brown, I am tall and want to be short…. That is my problem, don’t make it everyone’s else issue or bill that gets paid for you. You don’t like it, don’t join the Military. There are enough problems in life for all of us that deal with who we are from birth, this is just not the military’s , people’s tax dollars problem. Get out, or leave it alone until you do.
All of those crying about taxpayers paying for transgender medical costs should also be crying about paying for erectile dysfunction medications as well. And the bottom line on the cost issue, the ultimate rebuttal: F-35.
These perverts come in because the medical cost. Erectile dydisfuntion doedt cost over 100 k just take some viagra.one dollar
These freaks are not wanted in the military period.
the military/government(i.e. you and me) pay $80 million a year on viagra. that is far more than all medical costs for transgender people.
Government is a farce, it messes up everything it touches, wastes our money, ignores our basic rights and is far to involved in everyone’s lives, the government is suppose to be limited and constrained by our Constitution. Does Evolutionary Socialism ring any alarms. Our government is a progressive socialist disaster, period. How to we change it??? It’s the million dollar question !
I guess the other areas that determine no acceptance like flat feet should be thrown out too. Isn’t that discrimination? Short answer, NO !!!!!!If you are confused about your gender, there are psychs that can fix your problem !!!!!!!!! Goes for the infamous LBGT community as a whole to. YOU ARE AN ABORATION TO SOCIETY AND NATURE ITSELF !!!!!!!!!
Thank you The lifestyle you choose, make choices for you, if you live the life style of a felon, no guns no Military Service, you chose to be a faggot, no Military for you. The lifestyke you choose have restriction, I am a Military Retiree, I don’t want to work with one of the ITS
Wanna be a girl n whack off your pecker,,no problem…Just do it and stay home ,,not in the service…I don’t want to have to look at you when fighting for my country.
it idiotic comments like this that makes the rest of us conservative gun owners look stupid
@HeavyBrew, your talking to a brick wall of hate. I could care less about this story and wonder why Guns America would run a article like this. We have enough hate, without a hot button issue like this. Life is to short, live and let die.
Suggesting that people, not like you, is somehow dangerous to our military strength is absurd. To suggest our tax payer money is wasted, Trump golf trips cost $3,000,000 every time he goes golfing. Where is the outrage, sure.
There is no true financial burden in allowing transgender to serve that isn’t eclipsed by the over $30,000,000 spent on erectile dysfunction medication spent yearly within the military. Thus, the issue is whether or not one wants transgender to retain the same protections as others.
ED is a legitimate MEDICAL condition. Gender dysphoria is a psychological condition that will preclude your admission into the military.
All of these sexual, political and basically insane sideshows are calculated steps in a larger plan. By themselves they are meaningless.
It is important for the party to separate a Man from his family and from his past. They care nothing for people, they only care how they can use them to destroy the family and human civilization. The party pursues power for power’s sake, nothing more. Once man has no connections or loyalties and therefore no love, he is free to love the party and to work and show loyalty to the party only.
This is why it is 100% important to protect the family, marriage and children from the interference and ravages of the state. Our place as human beings is at stake. Government is the single greatest evil ever created by man.
Not a problem. Just fixing the crap Obama screed up.
Another non-issue that has made the top ten in hot-button issues today is that of gays and transgender’s serving in the military. One can husband the belief that a person can do what he likes in private while still asking the pertinent question why the issue should be allowed to disrupt the healthy morale of military cadre—the very folk upon whom we depend to defend us. The US military comprises about .0042 % of the population and less than 3% of that fraction (a number with six decimal places) are gay. How does so small a portion of the community garner so much attention? Why are we allowing such a non-issue to distract us when our enemies are unconcerned with it? Why should we put 330 million lives at stake for that percentage of the population?
I say if the transgenders want to serve…let them serve, because at time of war a bullet does not discriminate. They should also have to cover their own medical costs for any and all gender reassignment surgery NOT the tax payer. This is a cosmetic surgery not a medical need.
You can serve if: (a) you disclose your gender dysphoria at time of enlistment so that you can’t later claim some ridiculous “service connected disability” (i.e.: “anxiety” from deployment made me this way). Failure to disclose results in a General Discharge with no expectation of VA help for your “disorder” (b) While on active duty, no cosmetic genital surgery or hormone manipulation will be allowed. That could render someone undeployable and is unfair to the real men and women who would have to take your place. You can do that after discharge on your own dime and time. If you become too “depressed” or “anxious” over your biologic genitalia, you will be given an immediate General Discharge (c) While on active duty, you obey the rules, regulations and uniform code of your biologic sex. How you wish to dress while home on leave is your business, but “your ass belongs to the Corps” at all other times. Failure to comply results in a Dishonorable Discharge
I totally agree with your assessment of this unnecessary action. What happened to “don’t ask, don’t tell”? I spent 8 years active military back in the 1960s. It was very obvious that a few of our fellow airmen, and coworkers, were gay, or “queers” as we referred to them then. Not one time did I ever see or hear of any”problems” concerning those men, and they were accepted as friends. To accept the present actions & circumstances is unacceptable. To pay for sexual alterations is NOT the military’s responsibility.
The US Military is NOT a Government subsidized laboratory for politically correct, social experiments…. UNTIL…. it can be proven that allowing Transgenders into the military enhances its mission to ensure the security of the US, without any social and logistical distractions to accommodate them, it shouldn’t even be a topic of discussion……end of story……Period
USMC 1971-75
Jerry Jones Transgenders should not be allowed in the military. Would you want some thing watching your back in the field. I do not. Semper FI brother.
This sounds familiar. Reminds me of what my granddad said about coloreds joining the military. Cursed bigot that he was. You volunteer to serve, you don’t determine who is worthy. Each and every group that is not white, male, conservative gets persecuted by this very significant demographic that lies about their fundamental beliefs about freedom and liberty. You believe in it for yourselves and have historically been more than willing to bar by law and force the same to others.
First , I would like to thank Kristin Beck for HIS service. I would just say do whatever you want to after discharged but when in service one must comply with service codes and orders or do not serve. I really cannot believe we are even having the conversation or about the USS Gerald Ford not having any urinals, boy that’s going to be a mess for those on ” head” duty.
It’s about capability and liability. We cannot have individuals constantly on “sick call” for their Hormone shots, when they are suppose to be training.
You don’t hear about Diabetics like me get on the News and protest because we were removed from Service due to being Nondeployable (US Army 13 years).
These people need to grow up and realize the world does not revolve around them.
GROSS freak in the video, he says he is happy just being himself……WTF kind of joke was that? he is being anything BUT himself, really needs to seek mental help ASAP.
I couldn’t agree more. What kind of normal is this when we accept their delusions of changing their sex???? What the hell is wrong with this country, is it all Democrat/Liberalism that is the real threat to democracy itself?
The real threat to democracy, is when idiots like you are allowed to breed. Whether you agree with the policy or not, blaming something like this on “liberalism” is asinine. The true threat to this country is folks like yourself who cant see any opinion other then their own.
If you are correct in saying that “The true threat to this country is folks like yourself who cant see any opinion other then their own” then you are automatically labelling most of those on the left as true threats to the country. All of the liberals I have ever talked to or known personally have been totally incapable of seeing anyone else’s viewpoint as being valid, and are amongst the most intolerant of any that I have ever met.
Keep the freaks out of our military. Semper Fi.
Liberals are the most intolerant? Bullshit! Have you read the echo chamber here? How you can skew reality as freaking amazing. Each and every hate group against other groups of people’s of one stripe or other that doesn’t have power or that wants societal/legal recognition or the lived realization of first-class citizenship is a right wing conservative group.
Well said JS , the left is always whining about something to do with their feelings and people being offended for one thing or the other, well in the real world, you just have to deal with it . Hell I’m offended seeing some whack job, whack something off or sew something on. But, I don’t go around whining and crying about it like the leftist morons !! President Trump is doing the right thing again this time ! TRUMP 2020.