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Pentagon to Allow Transgender People to Enlist in Military

posted by mrpg on Thursday December 14 2017, @03:20PM   
from the battle-in-the-courts dept.

realDonaldTrump writes:

Transgender recruits will be allowed to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, the Pentagon said Monday, as President Donald Trump's ordered ban suffered more legal setbacks.

The new policy reflects the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump's demand earlier this year to bar transgender individuals from the military.

[...] Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services.

Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, says the enlistment of transgender recruits will start Jan. 1 and go on amid the legal battles.

Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist in military

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Original Submission

• Re:45% suicide rate, needs assault rifles? Re:45% suicide rate, needs assault rifles? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @08:33PM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @08:33PM (#609853)

  Transwomen have diminished mental health-related quality of life compared with the general female population. However, surgical treatments (e.g. FFS [facial feminization surgery], GRS [gender reassignment surgery], or both) are associated with improved mental health-related quality of life.

  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20461468 [nih.gov]

  ...none of the studies that demonstrate the high suicide rates among transgender people actually prove the point conservatives are trying to make. They actually all indicate that people who are transgender feel ostracized for their identity; their high suicide rates reflect rejection, discrimination, violence, harassment, and the negative life circumstances that result from such treatment.

  https://thinkprogress.org/no-high-suicide-rates-do-not-demonstrate-that-transgender-people-are-mentally-ill-5074c09a5827/ [thinkprogress.org]

  Parent

• doesn't matter doesn't matter (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @09:35PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @09:35PM (#609885)

  Maybe some of them feel better after surgery. That doesn't make the suicide rate go away.

  Maybe blaming the cruelty of society is correct. (doubt it) That doesn't make the suicide rate go away.

  If you give a weapon to a person with a 45% suicide risk, and he kills himself, might you be charged with involuntary manslaughter?

  Parent

  • Re:doesn't matter (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @11:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 14 2017, @11:16PM (#609968)

    Maybe some of them feel better after surgery. That doesn't make the suicide rate go away.

    Yes it does.

    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).

    https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-1867-2 [biomedcentral.com]

    Parent