TWIBS: Congress Flips Trans Troops Two Birds
Every politician is all about the troops! Well… as long as those troops aren’t trans. The Armed Services Committee slapped two anti-trans riders onto the military’s annual funding on Monday. Will the Democrat majority senate have the stones to shut them down? Yeaaah, probably not.
Humor, by Alyssa Steinsiek
Oh jolly, oh joy, trans servicemembers are being screwed with… again. Again. Again.
Like me, you may have some qualms with the US armed forces and people who volunteer to be a part of that nasty system. All things being equal, though, I just can’t abide any part of the trans community being used as a political football. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening to trans people in the military now.
The Senate Armed Services Committee, charged with oversight of the United States military and Department of Defense, on Monday night published their committee approved draft of the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA is, in short, the annual congressionally approved budget for the Department of Defense, and the current draft of the next NDAA includes two “riders” that would be deeply harmful to trans servicemembers.
If you don’t know, riders are superfluous amendments added to bills, usually in the eleventh hour, often politically motivated. If you want to pass a bill making it illegal to punch bears in the nose, your congressional opponents may come and slap on a “rider” amendment to that bill also making it legal to slap skunks. If you need to pass your bill, the other side may take advantage of that need to force you to accept proposals you might not otherwise accept.
And since the NDAA funds the entire military, it’s generally seen as a “must pass” bill, not unlike the government’s own funding bill that occasionally gets jammed up in congress. If you don’t follow politics very closely, you’ll know that’s happened when you start seeing politicians sharing pictures of sad children standing outside the shuttered gates of national parks.
So, what two riders did congressional Republicans see fit to slap onto the NDAA this time? Why, I’m glad you asked!
First: A provision that would “prohibit the use of funds available to the Department of Defense and any Department of Defense facility to perform or facilitate sex change surgeries.”
Second: A provision that would “prohibit TRICARE from providing to a child, under age 18, affirming hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and any other medical intervention for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization.”
So that’s pretty fucking awful.
Seeking any kind of gender-affirming surgery as a servicemember is a really difficult, lengthy process, as I discussed in this article I wrote nearly a year ago. And this is sure to derail the arduous fight for coverage trans veterans have already been pursuing for years. The specifics of a “sex change” could easily be interpreted as liberally as possible to effectively deny active duty servicemembers access to any gender-affirming surgery.
As for the second provision, it’s absolutely unconscionable that the senate would go out of their way to deny servicemembers’ children necessary medical care supported by every major medical association in the country. Because TRICARE serves every member of the Department of Defense, including the entire military, servicemembers would have to pay out of pocket to pursue the treatments and medicines their children might need.
Aren’t Republicans always bleating about how they support the troops?
Perhaps more troubling than the specifics of these amendments is the game plan they appear to be a part of. As reported by Erin Reed, both provisions fall in lockstep with a far-right plan for the presidency should Trump win a second term, “Project 2025.”
Dreamed up by evil conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, whose president recently said we are in the midst of a second American revolution and all but dared liberals and leftists to fight back with political violence, Project 2025 is a plan to “concentrate power into the hands of the President and implement ultra-conservative policies across various domains, including reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ issues, and more,” Reed says.
Project 2025 has plans to target trans servicemembers. Their ‘Mandate for Leadership’ document says, outright, “Those with gender dysphoria should be expelled from military service,” and says that leadership must “reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for service members should be ended.”
It’s terrifying to see amendments so copisetic with violent anti-trans eliminationist rhetoric casually passed in our existing halls of government, with a Democratic President and Democrat controlled senate. We’re told again and again by hardline blue voters that we must reelect Joe Biden to prevent attacks on trans Americans… but aren’t we already seeing the attacks we fear?
Controlled opposition Senator Joe Manchin joined Republicans on the Armed Services Committee to ensure these riders were passed. The bill must still be approved in full by the senate at large which, as I mentioned, is currently controlled by Dems. But do they have the backbone required to stand up and say no to these transphobic policies?
Only time will tell.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!
