Trump Just Banned Transgender Soldiers, Claiming They Make Us Less Safe. Israel Begs to Differ.
Today, President Trump announced a ban on transgender soldiers in the country’s military. “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” he wrote on Twitter. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
There are an estimated 4,000 transgender individuals currently serving in the U.S. military. Essentially, Trump argued that they make America less safe by impeding the effectiveness of its armed forces. But is this actually true? The experience of another elite military suggests otherwise.
Israel—a tiny country surrounded by enemies that has been repeatedly targeted for extermination, leaving it with no margin for error—has drafted transgender soldiers since 2013. Today, the Israel Defense Forces covers the costs of gender reassignment surgery for its recruits. While the IDF allows exemptions from mandatory service for medical, cultural, and religious reasons, it does not consider being transgender a disability or liability.
As the IDF’s top gender adviser told a Slate reporter in 2015, “The goal was that everyone should be in the army, and everyone should be safe and comfortable in the army.” This openness sends a message to the rest of Israeli society, which considers the army one of its most respected institutions. “I think that one of our main goals in the gender affairs office is to spread the word,” explained Lt. Shahar Erez, whose transition was covered by the army. “You know, for kids, who need to join the IDF, they need to know they have a place to go to—that they will get the right kind of treatment.” In 2014, Israel ranked 9th out of 103 countries on the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies’s LGBT Military Index, well above the United States, which came in at #40.
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/241764/trump-just-banned-transgender-soldiers-claiming-they-make-us-less-safe-israel-begs-to-differ
= new reply since forum marked as read
