Commentary
The Defense Department has begun screening troops for gender dysphoria during their routine physicals as a critical step in separating such individuals from the military. In a memo published May 15, the Pentagon’s acting head of personnel and readiness tasked unit commanders to help implement the policy “immediately.”
“Commanders who are aware of service members in their units with gender dysphoria, a history of gender dysphoria or symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria will direct individualized medical record reviews of such service members to confirm compliance with medical standards,” the memo states.
While some publications have cited 15,000 current military members as being affected with gender dysphoria, there is no evidence supporting such a figure. Instead, it is likely only some 4,000 claiming to be a different gender than their biological sex out of the 2.2 million serving in the military will be affected. While many are trying to frame the issue as being one of ideology and politics, removing those with gender dysphoria from the military is actually doing no more than reaffirming a longstanding policy that those suffering from mental and or physical conditions that impact their ability to serve be subjected to a 4-F disqualification. Another factor in play is that those who are gender confused bring a disproportionate host of medical costs, both physical and psychological, into the services with them.
That gender dysphoria easily meets 4-F criteria seems obvious, as it has a far bigger impact on ability to serve than other 4-F standards that were historically sufficient for disqualification from joining the military. For example, flat feet used to be enough to disqualify you from service. But with the voluntary military struggling to meet recruitment goals, those with flat feet are now being allowed to join up if it can be demonstrated it won’t affect their ability to perform their duties and or incur significant costs for the military.
However, even with the relaxing of standards, 4-F disqualification for weight issues, drug abuse, mental illness, and muscular skeletal issues is still very common. The mindset supporting 4-F disqualifications is that the military does not want to burden itself with those whose physical and or mental condition will impair their ability to perform their duties.
In the case of individuals suffering from gender dysphoria, you are dealing with a group that has an extraordinarily high rate of mental illnesses, including a 12-fold increase in suicide attempts after so-called gender-affirming care is performed. And such individuals are virtually guaranteed to cost a lot more to keep in uniform than those not suffering from gender confusion.
Beyond the cost of such treatments and surgeries is the fact that the long-term mental and physical consequences of the treatments is unknown. However, they certainly include a heightened chance of suicide, and with all the hormones involved, increased rates of cancer is also a real concern. Consequently, having the military advocate and pay for such treatments exposes the military and U.S. taxpayers to significant liability issues, when it’s very likely that in the future it turns out there are severe health consequences to subjecting one’s body to such an unnatural and unhealthy regime of drugs, hormones, and surgeries.
Then there’s the question of whether we want our military endorsing and validating what a growing body of evidence suggests is a form of social contagion. Indeed, the massive increase in gender dysphoria experienced by young people, especially teenage girls, over the last 10 years has all the characteristics of being a social contagion versus some intrinsic condition that was historically under-reported. If this turns out to be case, as seems highly likely, then it is another reason not to have such an influential government agency granting legitimacy to what is a harmful psychological condition that is being inflicted on our children and young adults and which can have serious negative effects.
Ultimately, a policy disqualifying those suffering from gender dysphoria from military service is no more than a return to the standard of recruiting people who don’t bring with them conditions that impair their ability to serve, or that saddle the military with out-of-the-ordinary medical costs. It is also a policy that reverses government support for what is clearly a harmful, socially induced condition.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
