The military’s transgender policies enable men to shower with women
Briana Oser
Because of the Biden administration’s failure to establish limits on its military transgender policies, biological men are able to utilize women’s bathrooms and expose themselves to female personnel.
The most vulnerable demographic in the military will now have to worry not only about the threats posed by its opponents but also about those posed by its fellow servicemen. Women in the military already experience sexual assault and harassment in their own units, but the military’s approval of biological men in women’s bathrooms introduces a blatant threat that should not exist.
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In April 2019, Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military. He tweeted that he was worried about “tremendous medical costs” and “disruption” to units.
It was debated whether or not the former concern was justified since gender reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments were predicted to cause a minuscule increase in spending. And his suggestion that transgender individuals would cause “disruption” was thought to be vague and unrealistic. Some “experts” foresaw that banning transgender people from the military would actually decrease recruitment and hurt unit cohesion.
If Trump was worried about the “disruptions” transgender individuals would cause in combat because of sex change treatments, he might have been wiser to ban them from the front lines rather than the entire military. Because most military jobs do not involve combat, his ban seemed ideological rather than fact-based.
A recent complaint from a new recruit suggests that his concern might have been more reasonable than we thought. According to a military hearing last Tuesday, an 18-year-old recruit was forced to shower and house with two transgender women who displayed full male genitalia. She decided to remain anonymous because she felt a formal accusation would harm her career and leave her with few options.
Maybe Trump considered this kind of incident in his definition of “disruption,” and maybe he did not. But if the military’s current transgender policies threaten the safety and privacy of servicewomen, they certainly qualify as “disruptions.”
National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby voiced his concerns for women in the military on Monday. He claimed that abortion was critical for the recruitment of female troops and that servicewomen deserve to be “protected” in their access to reproductive services. Kirby’s assertion that all women need to be able to terminate their pregnancies in order to serve is both sexist and irrelevant. He should instead focus on the military’s current transgender policies, which are actually harmful to women.
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Incidents such as the young recruit’s will affect women’s willingness to serve and undermine their performance. The military’s purpose is to protect our country, and as such, it must operate like a well-oiled machine. To use Trump’s vague language, it cannot afford “disruptions.” It has a responsibility to limit its transgender policies and shut down internal threats to servicewomen.
Briana Oser is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.