Lauren Moye, FISM News
The U.S. Army is now requiring all personnel to receive training on how to treat trans soldiers following a policy change in June 2021 that allows trans soldiers to openly serve. In a report by the Washington Free Beacon, “soldiers to commanders and supervisors” now have until Sept. 30 of this year to complete the mandatory training.
The Free Beacon reported on the Army’s trans training on March 1 after receiving images of the official slideshow from a “high-ranking officer in the Army Special Forces” that had to attend the training earlier this year.
The timing of this training amidst heightened tension between the U.S. and Russia – a time when voters might expect that the Biden administration should most want to project strength to the nations – drew sharp criticism online. Foreign policy analyst Nile Gardiner called the training an “undermining” of the military and “insane” when sharing the article on Twitter.
The Biden administration is actively undermining the US military with this woke nonsense. This is insane.
As Russia Wages War, US Army Trains Officers on Gender Identity https://t.co/wN44M6FJWo
— Nile Gardiner (@NileGardiner) March 1, 2022
The slideshow obtained by the Free Beacon, called “Policy on the Military Service of Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria,” was later confirmed by an unnamed Army spokesperson as being “used to train Army personnel on the recent changes to the DoD and Army transgender service policy.
While presenting miscellaneous guidelines for how to respond to a transgender soldier, the presentation also repeatedly admonishes military leaders and commanders to treat all soldiers “with dignity and respect.” It also states, “An otherwise qualified soldier shall not be involuntarily separated, discharged, or denied reenlistment or continuation of service on the basis of gender identity.”
The slideshow also provides examples of when a soldier should be referred to a military medical provider. Increasing emotional distress in connection to undiagnosed gender dysphoria or an individual requesting to be treated differently from their birth gender should be referred to a military healthcare provider for an official diagnosis. These military leaders were taught to remind soldiers that “gender transition in the Army begins” after receiving an official diagnosis which indicates that it “is medically necessary” and that soldiers are responsible to “meet all standards” that coincide with their gender marker in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERs).
“Hard to read these powerpoint slides and then credibly argue that the military is not being politicized,” foreign policy analyst John Noonan tweeted.
Hard to read these powerpoint slides and then credibly argue that the military is not being politicized. And the timing. My goodness. https://t.co/6fh1qdJXK0
— John Noonan (@noonanjo) March 1, 2022
The Army changed its policy to allow transgender soldiers to openly serve in June 2021. According to the original announcement, military medical providers “must provide medically necessary care” for soldiers experiencing gender dysphoria or who identify opposite of their birth gender. This means that hormone therapy and surgery are provided by the military force. The Veteran’s Affairs office also announced in June 2021 that gender reassignment service would be covered for veterans if deemed “medically necessary.”
This policy is made more controversial by the usage of “assigned (male or female) at birth” in the training presentation. This creates a subtle assumption about the origins of gender that many Americans reject. Dakota Wood, a Marine Corps. Vet an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, explained to the Free Beacon that the verbiage “accepts the argument that gender is an artificial construct rather than a biological reality.”