Trump maligns trans service members, diversity, learning in discriminatory EOs

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, the DUer who is consistently praising LawDork

Trump maligns trans service members, diversity, learning in discriminatory EOs
Just some of Trump's final moves in a day apparently aimed at wrecking American government and harming those who rely on federal grants or foreign aid.

Chris Geidner
Jan 28, 2025

On Monday evening, President Donald Trump took direct aim at nondiscrimination and diversity in the military in a pair of executive orders that include a discriminatory provision declaring transgender people unfit for military service. ... Both orders have names that have nothing to do with what they seek to do, so I will note their formal names just once. ... In the first order, named “Prioritizing Military Readiness and Excellence,” what Trump did was discriminate against trans people.

Following last week’s anti-trans order defining “sex” for the federal government, this week’s anti-trans order applies those definitions of “sex” to the military-specific order and then goes disturbingly further, declaring that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual's sex conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life.”

It is a horrifying statement of dehumanization that should be condemned by all:

Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.

The executive order then has a “policy” section that declares “individuals with gender dysphoria” — the medical diagnosis associated with treatment for transgender people — have too many “medical, surgical, and mental health constraints“ to meet the “high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.”

It’s appalling.

{snip}

[Ocelot II]

1. If "gender dysphoria" is a disability, how is it justifiable to discriminate

against people with that disability in contexts other than the military? This EO claims people with gender dysphoria are medically disqualified for military service (that's nonsense, but that's another issue), but what about other situations? We have laws prohibiting disability discrimination and requiring reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities, so why wouldn't this determination apply elsewhere? I understand that trans people wouldn't want to be regarded as "disabled" or ill, and they shouldn't be, but why not turn this stupid argument around against the discriminators?