Joe Biden reversed Trump’s on transgender people serving in the military today. It’s progress for those who want to serve the US via military enlistment but haven’t been able to due to gender or sexual orientation. Anyone who wants to serve this nation, regardless of gender or affiliation, should be able to do so.
The issue with transgender military service comes into play within the medical section of the orders. The US military, otherwise known as the American taxpayer, will be on the hook for gender reassignment and transitioning medial care, which is staggering.
I US taxpayers spend $826 billion dollars per year , with calls from the left to massively cut military spending. The three quarters of the US population who pays federal income taxes will for gender transitioning surgeries.
Including various treatments, therapies and surgeries each trans person must undergo to accomplish a transition, the cost of transitioning usually exceeds with most people spending at least $100,000 dollars to change genders.
Adding transgender reassignment surgery to military spending, at a minimum of $100k per trans soldier, the costs are staggering. There are currently fifteen-thousand trans US military personnel. The military could collectively spend $1,500,000,000 dollars on transgender surgeries for currently enlisted individuals, which is passed onto the American taxpayer via Tricare funding (the military’s insurance carrier).
While that figure only amounts to about seven dollars per tax-paying citizen, a solid argument could be made that it’s not Joe Biden’s seven dollars to spend. Each tax hike is further crippling Americans who are already financially pressed during COVID-19 should not have to spend any amount for medical care for others, no matter their gender or sexual orientation. Furthermore, since gender reassignment is so expensive, enlisting in the military could become a massive attraction for transgender people who cannot afford such medical care, likely causing an influx of trans military people enlisting in order to undergo taxpayer funded transition surgeries.
As opponents of this order would argue, it’s a slippery slope for such medical care. Transition surgery, like breast implants or penile extensions, is not necessarily the financial responsibility of the US taxpayer. Transgender individuals should be able and proud to serve in the military, but paid for gender reassignment surgery could open the flood gates of thousands of trans individuals seeking such medical care via military service, a dangerous precedent for the US military and the taxpayer, whose responsibility it is not.
