So starting July 1, the US military will be completely open to transpeople. It currently is now for those currently serving, but recruiting begins then.

It was super boring, but here are a few things that stood out:

-In the database of personnel files, there will be one sex identifier: "gender marker", rather than two (one for sex, one for gender). I assume medical records have an extra entry for biological sex.
-Tricare will pay for treatment, including hormone therapy and potentially sex reassignment surgery
-In order to be considered a different gender, and have one's gender marker changed, that person must be diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a DoD doctor
-Transgenderism is considered a medical condition/disorder, and is synonymous with gender dysphoria
-Upon completion of the treatment/transition period, the person has a certain amount of time until they switch to their new gender's regulations (fitness, uniforms, grooming)
-Stuff like bathrooms were easy: you use the facilities dictated by your gender marker.

It was unclear how much treatment is required to change one's gender marker. It seems very bizarre for a FtM to be held to male fitness standards when they possess, ostensibly, no male traits beside some ephemeral social/personality characteristics. I also thought it was unusual that the DoD considers transpeople as being afflicted with gender dysphoria; I was under the impression the current social (not medical) consensus is that not all transpeople are dysphoric. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyways, there was some other stuff but this info stood out as noteworthy. Overall the emphasis was on being respectful to transpeople. Thoughts?

Not military but as a trans person everything seems perfectly fair.

In the database of personnel files, there will be one sex identifier: "gender marker", rather than two (one for sex, one for gender). I assume medical records have an extra entry for biological sex.

At first I didn't like the idea of removing the different identifications on paperwork, because generally I'm tired of paperwork that only asks for sex, but I think what that was intended to do was help reduce discrimination, or at least perceived discrimination when the identification markers can clearly identify someone as trans.

Transgenderism is considered a medical condition/disorder, and is synonymous with gender dysphoria

"Transgenderism" is kind of a shit term. There's no real consensus on what it precisely means. Maybe I've just heard too many retards try to imply there is a school of thought tied to the idea of believing people can be transgender, but honestly the word is like saying "gayism".

I'm not sure what the definition entails, sometimes when you define something as a condition people use it as means to remove the patient's agency or credibility. Otherwise I suppose it's fine to consider being transgender a medical condition.

It seems very bizarre for a FtM to be held to male fitness standards when they possess, ostensibly, no male traits

You realize transmen take testosterone correct? I don't know the timeline, but probably a year after starting T, I'd imagine they'd at least be at the base line of males for a long of things.

Kind of brings up why men and women have different standards to begin with, but that's a different subject.

In order to be considered a different gender, and have one's gender marker changed, that person must be diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a DoD doctor

This could be problematic. I haven't a clue about how physicians in the military operate but people can get stonewalled by physicians all the time for completely arbitrary reasons. I would hope these doctors can't arbitrarily decide to ignore recommendations from outside or past diagnoses.

MtF.

Quote

It seems very bizarre for a FtM to be held to male fitness standards when they possess, ostensibly, no male traits

You realize transmen take testosterone correct?

Are they only trans if they're undergoing hormone therapy? The training seemed to imply treatment would vary and it isn't strictly necessary to take hormones or get surgery to change gender markers.

Hopefully Trump stops this catering to mental illness.

Quote from: Nuka on January 20, 2017, 04:10:45 PM

Quote from: Romanes eunt domus on January 20, 2017, 04:09:34 PM

People with mood disorders can't join up so why should transgender people be allowed to when they have a mental disorder or illness as well? I know transgenders aren't bipolar but they still have a mental disorder.

Because it has no affect on the ability to function properly as a person.

It doesn't matter, it's still a mental illness which can cause problems as well. The military already has a high suicide rate for normal people. So combat or whatever driving somebody close to the edge would be even worse for someone who thinks they were born in the wrong body. I'm somewhat going to repeat myself, but transgenders have a high suicidal percentage, so combat is not going to help out their state of mind when they're being depressed about being born in the wrong body.

Trans people don't necessarily have to be in combat positions.

Also let's take note that just because a demographic has increased rates of depression, does not mean that it stacks additively in combat. Gays have higher tendencies toward depression, that doesn't necessarily mean they are combat ineffective. I can solidly say I wouldn't be giving a rat's ass about dysphoria while people are shooting at me. 

If a candidate has a history of depression, go ahead and reject them. If they've been clean for a long time, you're jumping at statistics and not assessing a candidate's record.

wow, that's surpisingly cool

Pretty neat.

stop being transphobic

Quote from: Alpha on January 20, 2017, 04:22:51 PM

Hopefully Trump stops this catering to mental illness.

Kike puppet can't do shit. Mattis is okay with it so it's gonna stick.

So Turkey, how long was the brief? I just sat through a whole day of bullshit powerpoints but apparently this one hasn't made it down the channels to the guard yet.  Hoping I ETS before it does... just might use an ace card to slit my wrists sitting through any more.

Scheduled for 2 hours, took 45 minutes. Then we had some civvie lecture us about TSP and financial bullshit for another half hour.

We don't need to make our military any weaker. Next we'll be recruiting people with other mental illnesses

Mods, can we ban the use of rp accounts in Serious?