2016: What a Year!

Q. Who would’ve thought U.S. taxpayers would fund sex-changes for military personnel?
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the Defense Department’s new transgender policy on June 30, 2016, explaining its three-stage time-line as follows:

June 30, 2016        Transgender service members may openly serve in the U.S. military.
October 1, 2016    Military services will provide gender transition medical care to members.
July 2, 2017           Services begin accepting transgender members into the military.

Stage two of the above strategy superseded the military’s transgender policy of 2015, when the Department of Defense issued the new 18-page transgender policy¹ for U.S. military reserves and active members.

Military personnel already serving when Defense Secretary Carter made his announcement on June 30th could begin the official gender-change process 90 days later, which was October 1st. When the transition is complete, the subject will wear the uniform consistent with the preferred gender (sexual behavior) and use bunks, bathrooms, and shower facilities, accordingly.

The gender transition process in the military “begins when a service member receives a diagnosis from a military medical provider indicating that gender transition² is medically necessary, and concludes when the service member’s gender marker³ in DEERS⁴ is changed and the member is recognized in the preferred⁵ gender.”
The document explains “cross-sex hormone therapy” as hormones for males who identify as female and masculinizing hormones for females who present as male.
The military will provide transgender service members ID⁶ documents as follows:

• A certified true copy of a State birth certificate reflecting the individual’s preferred gender;
• A certified true copy of a court order reflecting the individual’s preferred gender; and
• A U.S. passport reflecting the individual’s preferred gender.

Active service members and reserve service members will have the same considerations.
Beginning in 2018 and every three years thereafter, an Inspector General will review the response of military branches to determine compliance and implementation of this process.
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¹Department of Defense Instruction 1300.28 “In-Service Transition for Transgender Service Members,” October 1, 2016
²Period of time when individuals change from the gender role associated with their biological sex to a different gender role. Transition may or may not include feminization or masculinization of the body through cross-sex hormone therapy or other medical procedures. The nature and duration of transition are variable and individualized.
³ Data identifying a service member’s gender (preferred sexual behavior)
⁴ Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System
⁵ The identity in which a transgender individual will be recognized when gender transition is complete
⁶ Those who (a) have received a medical diagnosis indicating gender transition is medically necessary, (b) are beginning transition, (c) undergoing transition, (d) completed transition, or (e) are stable in the preferred gender

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