The House narrowly passed the defense bill today with many provisions hotly contested by the Democrats. One such provision involves funding for transgender surgeries.

According to Democrats, not funding transgender surgeries for soldiers is bigoted, divisive, and discriminatory. The military is supposed to be diverse and inclusive! 

Throughout the process, partisan anger transformed the chamber of America’s democracy into a battleground in the country’s increasingly polarizing culture wars. Republicans accused Democrats of “idiocy” and “weakening” the nation’s armed forces with policies promoting diversity and protection of LGBTQ rights. Democrats called their Republican colleagues “racist” and “bigoted.”

According to some, the military has just been swept into this fray against their will. 

Turning the must-pass defense bill into a partisan battleground shows how deeply the nation’s military has been unexpectedly swept up in disputes over race, equity and women’s healthcare that are driving the Republican Party’s priorities in America’s widening national divide.

During one particularly tense moment in the debate, Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, spoke of how difficult it was to look across the aisle as Republicans chip away at gains for women, Black people and others in the military.

OH REALLY? The push for DEI has been insidiously making its way through our military for years now. YEARS. Instead of ensuring all our soldiers are battle ready, we’ve been dealing with the kinder, gentler military who refuses to hold our soldiers to high standards.

The issue of transgenders in the military speaks directly to our capabilities to have our soldiers battle ready on a moment’s notice. And it’s an issue that’s been brewing for quite some time. This is from 2017.

Yet today, the whole of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mantra is so important that the military will put that ABOVE our actual battle readiness.

We need a military that is astute in their readiness to defend our country, not lessons in diversity, pup play, and proper pronouns by unserious people. pic.twitter.com/qk7EyL5bpb

— Tiffanie Tx (@tiffanie_tx) July 14, 2023

Agreed. In regards to transgenders and battle readiness, they won’t be. For a multitude of reasons, some of which are articulated here. 

A reporter asks members of the House Freedom Caucus:

"Can you elaborate a little bit on how transgender reassignment surgery might influence battle readiness?"

He was NOT READY for @RepScottPerry, @RepMattGaetz, @RepRalphNorman, and @RepRonnyJackson to spend 3 ENTIRE MINUTES… pic.twitter.com/J71EZvktDi

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 14, 2023

Watch it all. They are correct. The needs to the nation HAVE to usurp the needs and wants of the individual. The dollar costs as well as the physical and mental costs of shepherding a soldier through a gender transition takes away resources and military capabilities. And right now we need everyone to be battle ready for a multitude of reasons. Much of which was clearly articulated above. 

However, there’s another reason why transgenders aren’t fit for military duty. Their physical fitness. The military has been battling the issues of physical fitness for several years now. Yet lowering standards to “help” everyone achieve hasn’t helped. Yet, when there’s a proposal to go back to the old Army fitness test, members of the military claim soldiers will fail it. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because they aren’t requiring PT on a regular basis?

As for transgenders in the military, physical fitness exemptions are the norm. In fact, they can apply for a physical fitness exemption every six months. Given the current DEI climate throughout the military as well as our government, does anyone think a transgender soldier’s commanding officer is going to say no? Not right now they aren’t. 

Which again points directly to the issue of battle readiness. This link gives a pretty good idea as to what physical conditions would render a soldier non-deployable thus impeding battle readiness of the group. Reading through it, those undergoing gender transitions fit into several of the slots listed.

For our military, the needs of the nation MUST ALWAYS take precedence over individual choices, thus our military shouldn’t be funding transgender surgeries. Our military has been a social experiment for too many years now. It needs to STOP.

Feature Photo Credit: Soldiers, helicopter via iStock, cropped and modified