Why shouldn’t trans people be in the military?

The common line is either because we have a mental illness (gender dysphoria isn’t a mental illness, and also people with actual mental illnesses like depression get in all the time) or because we’re nondeployable. Because we need constant medication or whatever. (Again this is only half true. We do usually need constant medication, but people on medication are hardly nondeployable. If a member needs meds they are typically deployed with the amount they would need). Also not every person in the military deploys. There are plenty of jobs that stateside that can be and need to be done as well. Even if trans people are inherently “non deployable” why can’t we just use us for those things instead?

I also want to clarify that by “we” I am only referring to the trans part, not the military part. I am not in the military, although I was in the Air Force but I wasn’t out or transitioning then, I hadn’t even accepted and/or realized yet that I was trans. This would have been back in 2009.

The other argument I see a lot is that “they just join to pay for their transition. The government shouldn’t pay for that”. Not every trans person joins for that. I’ll concede many do, but many people join the armed services for many reasons. If someone is willing to stick their ass on the line for this country even if it does grant some small benefit to themselves, who cares?

Half the people I served with didn’t join out of some robust sense of patriotism and flag waving, but for the GI Bill, or for healthcare, or housing, or a multitude of other things. Others still joined for the “free travel”. (This was the main thing that enticed me, and my karma was winding up in freaking Minot North Dakota. But hey, only the best come north, the sign on the gate even says so. Why not Minot right?)

But seriously. I don’t see anyone saying “the government shouldn’t pay for that” or “they didn’t join for the right reasons” to any of those other people I mentioned. The overwhelming consensus is always that they signed on the dotted line to protect this country, and as such deserve whatever benefits they want that benefit them, even if they “joined for the wrong reasons”. So why doesn’t that extend to trans people? Why is someone joining for the free education ok and understandable, but someone joining to fund their transition so they can rise above their gender dysphoria mocked and belittled?

Also a small anecdote: I mentioned I wasn’t out whenever I was in (weird sentence structure hey) but I had a good friend who was. She was the most “locked up” and “battle ready” airman I served with. I know some of you will just say I’m biased so I have to say that, but I mean it. When she was on the task, I and nobody ever had to wonder if “shit would get done” or even get done correctly. She was one of the few people who you just knew “she’s on the case. Consider it as good as handled”.

She didn’t “make her whole thing about being trans” but she didn’t need to. Because she was genuinely accepted by most. The ones who didn’t got over it anyway because she was just a badass airman and they knew she was better on their side than not.

I am working in healthcare, I’m a CNA with dreams of becoming BSN RN, and my being trans doesn’t come into play at all at work and it doesn’t get in the way of me doing my job or caring for and about my residents. I’m just a CNA who happens to be trans. And there are a whole lot of airmen, soldiers, sailors and marines who just happen to be trans. But I don’t know why it should matter any more than them happening to be black or tall.

It also just seems like a monumentally bad idea to cut our forces by 10-20k troops in a time where tensions are ramping up all over the world, notably between ourselves and our own allies, that’s not even to mention our enemies.