BREAKING: Defense Department reinstates gender-affirming care for trans troops

Telling people to commit suicide, transphobia/dogwhistles, and violent language will not be tolerated. I have seen all of the above in this thread, and I have removed the comments.
Anyone continuing to post these comments will be banned as per the Lemmy.World Terms of Service Section 1.1 ("Attacks on people") and Section 1.2 ("Discrimination against minority/at-risk groups").
Neither this site nor this community allow transphobia or violent rhetoric.

the headline makes it sound like they chose to do this but in reality it was because the courts made them because the original decision was unconstitutional. :)
- Deep down I knew there was no chance it wasn't forced. They're actively ignoring other court orders so I guess even these evil fucks sometimes realize to pick their battles.
  
  They're fully aware most of their policies are going to get shot down in court, that's why they're carpet bombing the US with bullshit right now.
  If we all breath a sigh of relief that some new policy to force toddlers to work in slaughterhouses got shot down, we're likely missing the 30 odd, convoluted deregulation policies that slip right past the new cycle because they're written in legalese and seem abstract to 99% of non-wealthy Americans.
  I don't know how many times I can scream that they're robbing us blind while distracting us with stupid cultural nonsense.
- They chose to listen to the courts instead of the executive. That's sadly pretty huge
  
  I am so glad to see somebody upholding their oath to support and defend the constitution.
  I wish the President would do the same, the slob
- I'm pleasantly surprised it wasn't just ignored. Not like anyone would have enforced it.
- Just because courts ordered it...
  I have heard that a part of it may have been unit cohesion within the military. People go through hell together in training. If, at any point along that line, they were able to remark "Oh, you're trans? Whatever, man. You're the one who's got my back when I'm getting the mounted MG into position." then federal discrimination may have actually ruffled some real army feathers.
- I'm still glad to see that the military, at least, is still respecting court orders.
- Cue malicious compliance in 3...2...1...

Why did this happen? Where did a random W come from? Everything is falling apart and no one is doing anything about it and we just get a W out of nowhere from nothing? How do we do it again
- Court
  
  That, and Hegseth seems to be spending all his time being paranoid about leaks when he's the biggest leaker. Between that and day drinking, he doesn't have much time in his schedule to actually advance fascism.
- no one is doing anything about it
  A lot of people are doing a lot about it. Might be time to step away from the Internet if you really believe that. The reality is dark enough you don't need to make it out to be even worse

I'm confused. So we're listening to court orders now?
Great news though
- The military are practical. This is an issue that was behind them. They’d established their policies and programs. They were baked in. They had moved on. They don’t care for the politician of the hour jerking them around. People think the military are conservatives, but the army is neither a red state or a blue state. It is green.

I'm going to be optimistic for now that this is a sign that the military is concerned with honoring their oaths to uphold our Constitution by following due process etc, after 100 days of profoundly disturbing attempts by the Executive branch to dishonor the highest of laws in our land.
- I'm sure they are worried about driving away talent as well.
  
  My very first thought was “wow, the pentagon really ran all of their best programmers away and now they’re scrambling.”
  
  I'll be honest, even if that is the only real reason for them doing this, I would still consider this good news.
  
  They know the cost involved in training people... training people who now have the skills to fuck shit up somewhat more than the average citizen.
  
  I highly doubt the Russian backed MAGAts want talented soldiers. They prefer "yes" people who will blindly follow orders and weaken the US military.
- this is a sign that the military is concerned with honoring their oaths to uphold our Constitution
  They want meat for the meat-wall. Let's not get too optimistic.
  No, really, the world's largest volunteer fighting force, and we also have the distinction of the world's biggest and most powerful military, so the brass had to do everything and anything to keep the ranks open wide for anyone who wants to go get themselves killed while burning brown kids in far away lands.
  The slightly less cynical take is that we absolutely cannot diminish our enlisted forces any more. We have growing threats from Russia, an unstable president who may start a war with Iran for fun, instability between China, Taiwan and Philippines, just to name a couple of hotspots. If we get in a large-scale fight and don't have every advantage we're very likely to lose all status in the world.
  The administration knows this. They are distracting you all with these culture-war bullshit fights knowing full well that most of them will either get shot down in court or overridden at some point. While we're all focused on trying to stop the latest bill to force toddlers to work in kitten slaughterhouses, they're passing 30 new policies that deregulate the financial sector and repeal laws that limit corporate power, which our illiterate population ignores because it's boring.

Hate that the only way to trans Americans to have any right is only if they commit war crimes
- Leave the shithole country
  
  Why not encourage people to stay and fight?

Some rare good news.
I've maintained that as a serving member, regarding your gender identity, I don't care, the enemy doesn't care and the incoming fire sure as shit don't care.

As someone who's competed against all manner of genders in roller derby, lemme tell you, trans people are tough as nails and you want them fighting for America. The USA men's team for the RD World Cup even has a trans-man, and they beat out 50 biological men for that spot.
- Trans men are (or can be) biologically male. The best term to use for 'non-trans' men would be cisgender men. 'Biological' is the preferred term that bigots use to spread misinformation and insinuate that trans people aren't real, natural, or equal.
  Someone else said it pretty well:
  Biological sex is a construct. It is based on the observable traits of:
  Primary sexual characteristics
  Secondary sexual characeristics
  Gonadal Sex
  Chromosomal Sex
  A fully medically transitioned trans person usually matches a majority of these, so it is totally reasonable to say trans women are biologically female, and trans men are biologically male. Generally, the binary categorization of sex is scientifically unsound; it should be understood as a spectrum.
  
  Respectfully, I'm not going to get into the linguistic gymnastics here. My meaning is clear.
- You know what's wild? This is the first time I've ever heard of men doing roller derby. I mean, I'm not surprised that men do it, I'm just surprised that I've gone my whole life up to this point and never heard of/encountered/or met men that do roller derby. Are all-male teams common in the sport?
  
  USARS and MRDA have mixed-gender rules. Each team can only field two men in a jam, and if they have a guy sitting in the box, that counts.
  I don't know many all-male leagues or teams (apart from Team USA), just because there aren't that many men in the sport.
- How many WWII films depict trans shows put on for the troops by the troops? Especially in the Navy. Is that all fiction?
  
  My understanding is that this was definitely a thing. It's been over a decade, but I recall reading a bit about it in a book called 'Conduct Unbecoming', a history of gay people in the military.
  Note that I've just read a few books and am not an expert though. I just don't care about the genitals of the badass putting on the uniform to protect me.
- Some trans people are tough as nails. Some of us are dweebly little Hank Green knock offs. 🤓

The Defense Department is complying with a court order that found the restrictions on trans service members unconstitutional. Federal judges have blocked the ban in two separate lawsuits, and one appeals court has denied the department’s request to lift the block while legal challenges proceed.
So balance of powers does exist, if we maintain it.
- I wouldn't hold my breath on that. They initially said they were compiling with getting Garcia back only to but when courts said to show they were working towards it. Them the story changed.
  I'll be believe they are complying with the old policy in a month if no one says they aren't able to get care.

The memo says the Defense Department is returning to the Biden-era medical policy for transgender service members due to a court order that struck down Hegseth’s restrictions as unconstitutional. The administration is appealing the move, but a federal appeals court in California denied the department’s effort to halt the policy while its challenge is pending.
So the court ordered them too.
The article is making it out like the DoD is "defying" Hegseth, but that seems like a misrepresentaion, as it seems he has to go along with this.
I guess it's a "win" because the DoD isn't openly defying an order...
- Yet
  
  It'll get overturned. Give it time. And then maybe that'll get overturned again. We'll see, but this isn't decided.

Pleasant as this is, I wonder how they're going to keep the crybaby-in-chief from demanding they stop again as part of his 'dei is evil' crusade.

This is about everyone suffering from gender dysphoria. They say they're attacking trans people, who make up a small fraction of society, but they're attacking treatments for a diagnosis anyone could have. This stuff helps a lot of people, more than we might typically think about.

On one hand cool, on the other hands troops not cool

Peoplewhosaycourtshavenopower says what
- Christ they know how to play this population.
  Every time we all breath a sigh of relief that some new policy to force toddlers to work in slaughterhouses got shot down in court, we’re likely missing the 30 odd, convoluted deregulation policies that slip right past the new cycle because they’re written in legalese and seem abstract to 99% of non-wealthy Americans.
  
  Maybe you misunderstood the problem.
  This wasn't legislation, this was an implemented order. This isn't the first time it's happened in the administration either.
  It restored something taken away. It undermined the sweeping power of the executive. These are narcissists we're dealing with, so this isn't the last we've heard about it.
  That's why I keep telling people the courts will use their enforcement mechanism when necessary, or they are complicit in the problem. From what I can tell, enforcement wasn't necessary here, the DoD just didn't want to fuck with the court.

- I mean to be fair, one of these planes is much less likely to contain nazis.
  
  Those brown kids getting killed by Trans people must be so happy.
- Nailed it.
  Just look at Barrack "Black Drone Operator" Obama, and Joe "Sniff Sniff" Biden who is a blatant Zionist who acted chocked and insulted when he was called a Palestinian (I believe by Trump). Both supporting the violent occupation of Palestine, of course.
- One you have a chance in hell at changing their mind on that topic, and the other will tell you to fuck off or perhaps strap you to one of those bombs. But, sure, protest vote away, I guess. "Both sides" and all that.
  
  Stop supporting baby murderers is the correct opinion.

There is going to be an open rift between the US military and government very soon, I'm calling it. Let's hope it doesn't come to a full-on civil war
- A military coup is one of the best-case scenarios and requires a little more optimism than I have left.
  
  best? I don't think it would turn out how you think it would...
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Argentina#Infamous_Decade_(1930%E2%80%9343)
- How is it gonna be a civil war if the military is not on the governments side? I mean i have seen the stuff the us police and ICE gets, but neither would have the numbers or the tactical knowledge to win from the effing military. If the military would try and overthrow the president, I can't imagine FBI and CIA would try and stop them.
  Might turn out like in Turkey though, were nothing really happened except 100,000 people getting convicted of treason or fired from their job.
  
  Legal Eagle laid it out in a recent video. The administration has been blatantly ignoring (I think several at this point) SCOTUS restraining orders. If they continue to disregard the judiciary, I don't think it's all that unlikely that parts of the military arrest Trump and his administration, in what's effectively a military coup. Trump is deeply unpopular among the military top brass, and they tend to still value the constitution. But who knows who will side with whom, the military is by no means a monolith
- civil war
  Okay Tim, what exactly are the battle-lines going to look like in this civil war?
  
  Like the Troubles but an order of magnitude worse.
  
  It's gonna be trump and co in a bunker under the white house and every 2 minutes they are gonna hear an ever increasing boom above their head. The line is gonna be at crater level.
  Though that is unrealitic. It will probably take place at mar-a-lago or some golf court.
- Lol

huge W

Trump for trans rights?
- Lol no. The only person Trump is for is Trump. No one else comes close.

- Fuck off. Being trans is not a mental disorder. And stop infantilizing trans people, we can make our own choices about our bodies.
  
  Joining the US military voluntarily is a mental disorder.
- Not according to DSM V: "The APA goes on to say that “it is important to note that gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder. The critical element of gender dysphoria is the presence of clinically significant distress associated with the condition.”"
  Neither according to ICD-11: "Gender incongruence has been moved out of the “Mental and behavioural disorders” chapter and into the new “Conditions related to sexual health” chapter. This reflects current knowledge that trans-related and gender diverse identities are not conditions of mental ill-health, and that classifying them as such can cause enormous stigma."
  Only according to uneducated sad little evolutionary obstacles like yourself. Now get out, touch some grass, read a book and talk to people.
- So what if it's a disorder? If it's a disorder that the best treatment for is gender affirming care, then gender affirming care and respecting people's gender is good.
  And you know what else irreversibly changes people's bodies? A natural puberty that doesn't align with their gender and causes them dysphoria.
- “Service members and all other covered beneficiaries 19 years of age or older may receive appropriate care for their diagnosis of [gender dysphoria], including mental health care and counseling and newly initiated or ongoing cross-sex hormone therapy,”
  Neither of those are irreversible or mutilation.
- I'd hate to hang out where you normally find this comment acceptable. Fascist fuck.
- Even quite a bit of cis people get hormones in the military.
  
  You mean cis-people also receive gender affirming care? Preposterous! No manly man would ever need to take hormones, their testosterone is so damn high on its own it shapes both bodies and US politics. And all that thanks to this all natural, super-straight, definitely US-made superfood, now for only 16.99$! /s
  
  I worked out for like 3 months and was stronger than my dad who worked out for over a year. He is now on testosterone gel and I'm starting the HRT estrogen process in ~2 months lol
- Wow, removed and banned. Based on the comments this must have been highly inappropriate.
  
  Phobes being phobic, unusual enough not one that had a big history of egregious comments so this was a bit of a drop the mask moment.
- Idiot.
- I don't know what you said, but it seems like a pretty shitty thing to say given the responses here.
  
  without even knowing what they wrote, hating on it is not cool. you are just saying hivemend is right. it may or may not be. but whatever it was, you saying it is shitty adds nothing