The policy is not anywhere near as draconian, and is far more reasonable, than activists at the Palm Center and elsewhere would have you believe.
Issued Sept. 4, 2020
DOD Instruction 1300.28 – Military Service by Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria Policy
a. Service in the Military Services is open to all persons who can meet the high standards for military service and readiness without special accommodations.
b. All Service members and applicants for accession to the Military Services must be treated with dignity and respect. No person, solely on the basis of his or her gender identity, will be:
(1) Denied accession into the Military Services;
(2) Involuntarily separated or discharged from the Military Services;
(3) Denied reenlistment or continuation of service in the Military Services; or
(4) Subjected to adverse action or mistreatment.
c. Service members who accessed in their preferred gender or received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from, or had such diagnosis confirmed by, a military medical provider before April 12, 2019, are allowed to continue serving in the military pursuant to the policies and procedures in Section 4 of this issuance.
d. Except where a provision of policy has granted an exception, transgender Service members or applicants for accession to the Military Services must be subject to the same standards as all other persons.
(1) When a standard, requirement, or policy depends on whether the individual is a male or a female (e.g., medical fitness for duty, physical fitness and body fat standards; berthing, bathroom, and shower facilities; and uniform and grooming standards), all persons will be subject to the standard, requirement, or policy associated with their biological sex.
(2) Transgender persons may seek waivers or exceptions to these or any other standards, requirements, or policies on the same terms as any other person; additional policy guidance on such waivers or exceptions is in Paragraph 5.1. of this issuance.
e. Accession and retention standards for gender dysphoria and the treatment of gender dysphoria, including stability periods and surgical procedures, will be aligned with analogous conditions and treatments.
2 Comments for “Military Clarifies Transgender Policy”
posted by Jorge on
Only the US Trump Administration could create a transgender ban that almost begins with the words, “No person, solely on the basis of his or her gender identity, will be [d]enied accession into the Military Services” However that’s where it stops being amusing.
Not expression.
A rather blunt locker room policy. Even if the legalese is flawless.
Requires review for modification of “accession standards” every 24 months.
“Transgender Service members… may not obtain a gender marker change or serve in
their preferred gender. A Service member may be retained without a waiver provided that a
military medical provider determined that gender transition is not medically necessary to protect the health of the individual.” That last sentence is going to be a lawsuit; I don’t know how many military medical providers specialize in gender dysphoira. I really hope the armed services get their act together on this one. “Continued service is contingent on the Service member not seeking gender transition, the Service member being willing and able to serve in his or her biological sex, and the Service member being able to meet applicable deployability requirements.”
Clearly a transgender ban.
36 consecutive months of gender dysphoric individuals not showing signs of clinically significant distress of impairment as a result is brutal (18 months for exempt people who have transitioned is pretty harsh, too), but the transgender movement asked for a separation of dysphoria and disorder in the DSM-V, and that’s one of the changes whose reputation has stayed strong. I’m not very sorry for this section. Given some of your prior blog posts on this website, I’m a little concerned this provision will lead to a soft ban on tomboys, effeminate men, and drag queens. If that happens, we’ll still have self-hating gender dysphoric people enlisting to try to cure themselves.
The whole “exempt” section is mind-numbing but I suppose the level of detail is necessary for how much the policy is attempting to do with it.
“There are only two assigned genders: male or female.”
I think the policy is both reasonable and draconian, which is to say that it is a well-thought out implementation of the wrong judgment call. It would have been nice to have on hand the 40-page justification handbook the Palm Center cites without providing or naming the reference, and the policy itself is devoid of any justification.
As it is, I think what the president ordered goes farther than strictly palliative in banning not only medical transition but mostly banning social transition as well. The section where the policy talks about social transition quite frankly made me sick. They already went to the trouble of writing down a policy about all the hoops someone socially transitioning has to go through (i.e., “keep it out of our sight on your own time”), and then it has to go and ban people who want to do that unless they get an exemption.
posted by Jorge on
I should probably clarify that the crack about only two assigned genders is intended as paraphrase with spin, not a direct quote.