“The U.S.
Army has prepared extensive guidance for how to integrate transgender
soldiers into its ranks, including instructions for group showers and how
to respond to pregnant men, newly revealed training documents show.”
So read
the opening to a recent Daily Caller story.
Biological
men showering en masse with biological women? What could possibly go awry? And it
is great that it is finally addressing the age-old question of how to respond
to “pregnant men.” Armies down through history have had to deal with that
delicate situation. (Some historians now believe the German Wehrmacht would
have taken Stalingrad and Moscow in World War II if so many of its men hadn’t gotten
pregnant.)
This became
news because President Biden restored an Obama-era directive codifying service
for transgender individuals shortly after taking office, despite serious questions
as to how gender-related psychological issues and medical procedures may affect
a person's fitness for service. And how that may affect a unit—or army—as a
whole.
The Daily
Caller story said that a 2016 RAND study “pegged” the total number of
transgender people in the active-duty military at somewhere between 1,320 and
6,630. “Pegged” might not be the best term in this context, for a couple of
reasons. I would have gone with “broadly estimated.”
In any
case, the training materials, dated August 2021, postulate a range of problems
officers and soldiers might encounter in relation to transgender members. The
manuals are divided into three “tiers” and feature various “vignettes” on how
to handle potentially sensitive interactions. Tier One is aimed at staff, Tier
Two at commanders, and Tier Three at individual units and soldiers.
A section
of the Tier Two training materials addresses how an officer should respond when
a soldier approaches “to discuss his newly confirmed pregnancy.” Yes, that has puzzled
armies since the time of Caesar.
The
manuals also address how to respond when a soldier questions bathing/showering
with “a female who has male genitalia.” That’s easy, just say “nice
package, ma’am!”
They also
state, “Understand that soldiers who have transitioned gender may remain
susceptible to medical conditions associated with their birth gender.” Yes, because we can’t repeal
the laws of nature. We can only pretend and ignore reality. Which we are now doing
with staggering alacrity.
President
Trump had nixed the Obama-era directive that Biden has since restored. The
Trump administration had commissioned a panel of experts who found that allowing
transgender individuals-- with or without a history of gender dysphoria-- to
serve as their preferred sex would likely undermine readiness and provoke
division. But, really, how important is readiness and cohesion to an army? Or
to the nation it is supposed to serve?
Call me a
skeptic, but I don’t think our current or future fighting force is going to
rival the boys of Pointe du Hoc or the marines who fought at Tarawa.
No matter.
This whole “defending freedom” thing has been overrated since the birth of the
nation.
What really
matters is that each and every member of our armed forces knows how to act
around a lady with a penis.
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