With the recent transgender ban in effect for the military you may hear opponents to Trump’s ban spout things along the lines of, “People have a right to serve their country”
While patriotism can be a noble trait, especially in a country like the US, you do not have a right to serve in the military. No one does.
Before I get into the reasoning as to why let’s unpack the term “rights”. Rights are a prerogative to a course of action based off of the survival requirements of man. The person using them is free to pursue his or her pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness without coercing others to their dictates.
By saying, “ One has the right to serve…” you are saying that you have a claim on someone else’s operation – in this case the military. You are expressing that by the “virtue” of existing or want you are entitled to force others to cater to your wishes which in effect makes them sacrifice their policy to you. Serving your country is not a right.
The US military is an operation that is and should be maintained by qualified officials in the affairs of handling all aspects of combat. It is nor should it ever be treated as an organization that forgoes its primarily objectives of national safety for democratic majority whim-rule.
It is made up by the citizens of the US but that doesn’t mean random citizens should believe they have a say in military policy or how it’s staffed.
Law enforcement and militaristic endeavors should not be treated as encounter groups. The goal of the military is to do one thing and that is uphold safety against aggressors. It is not supposed to be a diversity street fair filled with lessons about intersectional communication.
Military policy should only accept anyone on the basis of skill and proper mentality for the job.
That’s the primary problem I have with the argument for their participation is claiming people have a right to serve or at least implying that.
Certain stats about transgender populations are concerning though.
Transgender people on average do not have great mental health with one of the biggest worries being suicide. Soldiers committing suicide or having high suicidal tendencies in the line of duty or even after service is not something the military should have to initially put up with.
The military shouldn’t also have to worry about soldiers going into gender dysphoria while in the middle of high stress situations not limited to just wartime conditioning.
Are there transgender people who are mentally stable? Yes. Are there transgender people who could successfully serve in the military? Yes. Should the military pull from a group of people who are statistically proven to not be in the right mindset in social situations let alone combat situations? No.
The military should not even accept applicants who have a history of any mental illness or severe depression into its ranks regardless of sex preferences. This is a problem, in general, that military drafts encounter in that they indiscriminately pull from the population not caring too much for who they’re getting in terms of mental capacities and even motivation to fight.
Then there’s all the other occurrences that tend to follow transgender people.
Mental issues are one thing but what do you about locker rooms? How is that going to work? Should a “woman” who just started transitioning be in a shower room with biological women?
What about training? If a biological man says he’s a woman does that mean they’ll have to accept a “woman” with chest hair and Rambo biceps beating out all the biological women in physical conditioning and combat training?
What about the reverse? Does a biological woman who claims to be a man get military approval to be thrown in with muscular biological male hulks training in hand-to-hand fighting. Would anyone be brave enough to acknowledge that this person will most likely die in training let alone in battle?
What would happen in combat injuries? What if you get a biological male who says he’s a woman? How are the doctors supposed to care for “her”? Like a male or a female? If they refuse his or her’s gender and sex preference in order to treat the patient objectively is that going to result in a controversy?
The military is no time for political correctness.
Most importantly what about the dreaded pronoun issue? What would happen if a drill instructor like Sgt. Hartman from Full Metal Jacket says to a transgender marine, “You’re a motherfucking freak of nature. I’ll call you whatever I want maggot!”?
What about individuals who shift their gender identity on a daily basis or claim to be non-binary? How will they get classified?
The military is no time for feelings and it’s unfortunate yet understandable that feelings are a big part of transgenderism.
All of the above pushed to the side, I would consider this a blessing for transgender people to be exempt. The US has not fought a just war in decades. If a useless WWIII or another schism in the Middle East breaks out they will not have to fight. It’s also a loophole for right minded people to get around the draft since everyone knows that anyone who doesn’t want to get drafted will claim to be transgender.
It’s terrible, like most current events, that this is a social justice politicized issue. It should only be left up to “politically incorrect” military doctors and military officials to judge policy. It can literally be a matter of life and death if you have special interest groups and severely confused young adults being the social arbiters of this issue.
The best compromise I could even consider is perhaps if the government took extra care to screen applicants individually. On the other side, the military bureaucracy should run things like a cut-throat operation and not have to go through applicants with a fine-tooth comb.
This whole Ruth Bader Ginsburg “on the basis of sex” mentality must die. Nothing in that mentality rests upon individual merit and good ideas but instead on getting into positions of power based upon superficial traits just to make a political statement of some kind. That’s not to say precedents cannot be set by things like sex and gender.
Just because you have a trait of some kind doesn’t mean that qualifies you to speak objectively on an issue or perform an action. If your goal is to join the military to make a statement you are not only endangering your life but also the lives of others. You should join the military with the mindset of becoming a unit (non-binary perhaps?) willing to only follow orders. Forget being an expressive individual who wants to constantly showboat. It’s bad enough that we have a lot of that in the military already.
I don’t expect massive upheaval from this community’s political interest and social justice groups since this career does involve a high chance of death or suicidal consequences. It’s similar to how feminists moan about inequality yet never complain about the workforce gender death gap or the gender gap at Arlington National Cemetery.
As we all know the phrase, “Pick your battles” (no pun intended) means pick and choose where you’d like to be equal and where you’d rather not recognize you’re unequal.
I’m still unsure about my opinion on this issue but here’s another perspective from someone who’s actually transgender, Blaire White.
First Amendment Safe Space 