A Dangerous Game of Banning Transgender Service Members
Unwoke And Impractical
A big debate in the military community returned with a fury in late summer, in full unwoke rage. In a series of tweets sent from a golden toilet, President Trump announced his administration would be banning transgender citizens from military service—as well as removing trans folks already in the military. (Somewhere between 4,000 and 15,000 service members, according to various media estimates.)
This announcement caught the Pentagon off guard, and as of press time, it’s still murky whether or not Trump’s trans ban will receive any follow-through, let alone implementation. (The Department of Defense announced that it did not consider Twitter an official communication channel for the commander in chief and thus would be waiting for something more official.) To Trump proponents, this executive freelancing with directives shows initiative and the prodding of large, slothful institutions, I guess. To Trump detractors, it again shows a man unwilling or unable to understand basic government practices.
Openly trans citizens have been able to serve in the military only since late in Obama’s second term, a decision that was met then with some outcry and push-back. A percentage of the objections seemed measured enough: concerns and questions about unit cohesion, morale, oversight ability, financial costs. Critics also sought specifics concerning gender reassignment surgeries and their impact upon the mission, etc.
Other objections skewed more toward the drunk-uncle-at-Thanksgiving variety: “I don’t want someone who gets their dick chopped off protecting me, har har har.” Add to this suggestions that transgender people are mentally unwell, and, my personal favorite, the assertion that military isn’t a social experiment. (Usually accompanied by an exclamation point and a meme with a giant-ass American flag in it.)
Practicality vs. Unwoke
The military isn’t a social experiment? What the hell else would you call an organized force designed to let young people kill and get killed for the ideas, ideals, and politics of their home country/older people? Hell yeah, the military is a social experiment. So was riding a horse into battle, using a musket, integrated units, allowing women to serve, and ending conscription, once upon a time.
Organized violence with rules like the Geneva Convention is itself a social experiment. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but personally I’m glad for it—I like being able to walk down the block to Starbucks to type out my monthly rage-screeds for Penthouse without the fear of rival hunter-gatherer Cody the Caveman spiking me over the head with his club.
Anyhow, back to transgender citizens and the military. Stereotypes be damned, it’s not easy to become an American soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine. Especially nowadays. To wit: Something like one-third of American young people would be too overweight to join the military, according to a 2015 report by the nonpartisan nonprofit Mission Readiness. By my napkin math, that’s roughly 25 million people.
Simply put, America is not in a position to be kicking out able-bodied young people, especially ones with combat experience and for whom hundreds of thousands of training dollars have already been invested.
Meanwhile, Trump’s transgender ban seeks to kick out that aforementioned 4,000 to 15,000 service members already serving, as well as bar entry to an unknown number of potential future recruits. (Considering how recently trans citizens were allowed to join the military, it’d be foolhardy to even try an estimate at how many would/will join in future years.)
Those 4,000 to 15,000 trans service members have already met all physical, mental, and moral thresholds placed in front of them. They’ve met the standard. Isn’t that all that’s supposed to matter in the military? That’s what I learned in the Army. It didn’t matter what your skin color was, what god you worshipped, how much money your parents had, or how you preferred getting your rocks off. Meet the standard? You’re in. Don’t? See you later, thanks for trying.
This isn’t about national security, no matter what Trump or his gobbler-chinned robber barons may argue. It’s more us-versus-them hatred and preying upon a vulnerable community, because that’s what this president does.
Unwoke Denial
If President Trump really cares about bettering our youth and military, he’d look into former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! exercise campaign for young people. I don’t know how much it really changed, but at least it was something. At least it tried to defy the narrative that our kids are destined to be oversized and vacant-brained.
Not trying to pick on the overweight here—leave your body-shaming at the gate, you barbarians!—but yes, we want our young soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines fit. More broadly, it’s important to remember that getting into (and staying in) the military is no automatic, whether the young recruit’s going to be a cook or a spec ops snake-eater. And the physical standards are just one part of it—mental health, moral strength, the whole enchilada matters.
We are going on year 17 of the Global War on Terror. There is no end in sight, and if anything, it seems like the war gets bigger and more protracted with each passing day. More generational, to borrow Senator John McCain’s term. Simply put, America is not in a position to be kicking out able-bodied young people, especially ones with combat experience and for whom hundreds of thousands of training dollars have already been invested. It’s not just unwoke, it’s impractical. And it’s not just a betrayal of our better angels. It’s fucking stupid.
The continuing separation of America from its military is a dangerous game for a republic. And make no mistake about it: Barring transgender citizens from service during wartime only aggravates that.
Matt Gallagher is a U.S. Army veteran of Iraq and the author of the novel Youngblood (Atria/Simon & Schuster).
Not to put too fine of a point on it, but this article ran in the magazine in November of 2017, and we decided to run it online today because of our recent Presidential election. Given the past political week – what renown professor Scott Galloway has already called “The Testosterone Election” (CNN, Smerconish, November 9, 2024) – it may be interesting to see where the unwoke majority and core family first proponents take us. Seems like someone suggested, “May we live in interesting times.” … Curse or not, being boring sucks. … Should you be curious, on a completely unrelated topic, that November, 2017, issue also featured an article entitled, “Thank God for Sluts Paving the Way Toward Sexual Freedom.” We do not all prioritize the same way, you see.
