There is “no medically valid reason” to exclude transgender people from serving in the military, the nation’s largest medical organization told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday in a letter.
The American Medical Association said the Pentagon’s recent evaluation of the requirements to accommodate transgender personnel “mischaracterized and rejected the wide body of peer-reviewed research on the effectiveness of transgender medical care.”
The letter from CEO James Madara, first obtained by POLITICO, also slams the suggestion that the cost of providing medical care to transgender troops should be a reason to keep them out of the military.
“The financial cost is negligible and a rounding error in the defense budget,” Madara writes. “It should not be used as a reason to deny patriotic Americans an opportunity to serve their country. We should be honoring their service.”
A 2016 study conducted by the government-funded RAND Corporation estimated nearly 4,000 transgender troops are serving on active duty and in the reserves. Advocacy groups estimate the number is much higher, around 15,000.
The RAND study also estimated paying for the transition-related healthcare of transgender troops would cost between $2.4 million and $8.4 million each year, a less-than-1 percent increase in active-duty healthcare costs.
The Trump administration announced in March that it will follow through on the president’s controversial pledge to ban transgender troops from serving, but left many of the implementation details up to Mattis. The retired Marine general said in his recommendation to Trump that most transgender people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — including those who required medical treatment or surgery — will be disqualified to serve in the military.
But the AMA strongly disputes the rationale being used.
“We believe there is no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude transgender individuals from military service,” it says. “Transgender individuals have served, and continue to serve, our country with honor, and we believe they should be allowed to continue doing so.”
Several federal courts have issued temporary injunctions, preventing the Trump administration from implementing the ban until the courts rule on whether it is unconstitutional to bar a group of people from serving based on their gender identity.
The US Conference Of Catholic Bishops has thrown its support behind a proposed federal law explicitly permitting anti-gay marriage discrimination.
Earlier this month a group of 22 Republican Senators reintroduced the First Amendment Defense Act, a bill that would block the federal government from enforcing anti-discrimination protections or civil rights laws in cases where people acted based on “a sincerely held religious belief” in marriage.
The bill, spearheaded by Senator Mike Lee, is co-sponsored by some of the most outspoken foes of LGBT rights in the Senate, including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
As written, the bill states: “The Federal Government shall not take any discriminatory action against a person, wholly or partially on the basis that such person speaks, or acts, in accordance with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as a union of one man and one woman”.
It has today earned backing from the Catholic Church’s most powerful US body, the United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which gave its full-throated backing to the law.
The USCCB said: “We welcome and applaud the recent reintroduction of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA). The USCCB has been vocal in support of the legislation since its inception.
“FADA is a modest and important measure that protects the rights of faith-based organizations and people of all faiths and of no faith who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.
“For example, in a pluralistic society, faith-based charitable agencies and schools should not be excluded from participation in public life by loss of licenses, accreditation, or tax-exempt status because they hold reasonable views on marriage that differ from the federal government’s view.
“The leadership of the Catholic Church will continue to promote and protect the natural truth of marriage as foundational to the common good.
“The Church will also continue to stand for the ability of all to exercise their religious beliefs and moral convictions in public life without fear of government discrimination. We are pleased to support the First Amendment Defense Act, and we urge Congress to pass this important legislation.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD: “America was founded on the freedom of religion and this shared value continues to be critical to our nation’s success, but it does not give people the right to impose their beliefs on others, to harm others, or to discriminate.
“While President Trump and the Senate Republicans behind this bill are pushing for discriminatory legislation, the LGBTQ community will not be silent and continue to protect the hardworking LGBTQ American families who would be placed in direct harm by this unjust bill.”
The Human Rights Campaign warns: “FADA would undermine core civil rights protections for LGBTQ people.
“This bill would undermine the government’s ability to enforce the federal protections that exist to protect LGBTQ people and their families.
“Under FADA, individuals, many businesses, and non-profit organizations—even those using taxpayer dollars contracting with the federal government—could openly violate non-discrimination policies or refuse to serve same-sex couples. As long as they claimed their actions are based on their belief about marriage, the government would have little recourse. “
At the time, he said in a statement: “Religious liberty is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
“It is our first liberty and provides the most important protection in that it protects our right of conscience. Activist judges and executive orders issued by Presidents who have no regard for the Constitution have put these protections in jeopardy.
“If I am elected president and Congress passes the First Amendment Defense Act, I will sign it to protect the deeply held religious beliefs of Catholics and the beliefs of Americans of all faiths.”
Trump’s pledge is believed to have been orchestrated by Vice President Mike Pence, who previously supported the discriminatory law himself and signed similar legislation while Governor of Indiana.
Senator Lee claims: “Without FADA, federal bureaucrats are free to punish individuals or institutions that have a different definition of marriage than they do.
“Just as Congress protected people from being punished for declining to participate in abortions after Roe v Wade, the First Amendment Defense Act prevents people from being punished for their beliefs about marriage.”
Lee continues to claim that FADA “does not alter public accommodations law” to allow anti-LGBT discrimination, despite the bill blocking the government from enforcing anti-discrimination protections.
He also adds that the bill is not homophobic because it also applies to people who support gay marriage.
The Senator, who has a lengthy anti-LGBT voting record, claims: “All Federal definitions of marriage are protected under FADA. FADA would protect a liberal institution that promoted gay marriage, just as it would protect a conservative institution that wanted to promote traditional marriage.”
President Trump’s opposition to trans people serving in the military has sparked protests
A US judge ruling on President Trump’s trans military ban has likened the policy to the discrimination of black people in the armed forces.
Marsha J Pechman, a federal judge in Seattle, is hearing a challenge aimed at blocking the effort to exclude trans people from serving.
This week, in comments reported by Bloomberg, she compared the policy to the historical exclusion of blacks from the military and the ban on mixed units. She said it had been an “error” that the courts signed off on those past decisions.
The judge is being urged to rule that Trump’s controversial policy is unconstitutional.
American LGBT advocates the Human Rights Campaign and the state of Washington argue the government has failed to demonstrate that allowing trans people to serve would damage military readiness or unit cohesion.
Last week, the White House announced it was seeking to formally ban such individuals “except under certain limited circumstances”.
It came after Trump stated last summer that he would ban trans people from serving in the military “in any capacity”.
At the time, the president said that the armed forces “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption”.
However, his claims have been roundly criticised, including in a letter signed by 56 retired admirals and generals who said the discriminatory policy would harm morale and downgrade military readiness.
Critics have also argued it will force trans members to hide their identities while depriving the military of talent as well as reinforcing harmful and inaccurate stereotypes.
Judge Pechman is expected to make her decision next month, after receiving more information on the proposed ban from the government.
Trump’s policy would overturn a decision made by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in 2016 which lifted a ban on trans people serving openly in the military.
On the first White House news briefing after President Trump reaffirmed his ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah declined to address the issue, nor did any reporters from mainstream media outlets ask about it as part of their questioning.
The main focus from reporters on Monday during the 20-minute briefing, characteristically abbreviated for the Trump White House, was instead the “60 Minutes” interview Sunday night with porn star Stormy Daniels and the details she revealed about her alleged sexual affair with Trump. Other questions were about the U.S. expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats as a result of Russia’s apparent use of a military-grade chemical weapon in the United Kingdom, which killed a former Russian spy.
The Washington Blade was seated in the third row and had a hand up during the briefing, but Shah declined to recognize the LGBT outlet for a question. At one point, Shah looked directly at the Blade, but skipped the publication for another reporter. That’s consistent with the Trump White House record of virtually ignoring the Blade during the White House briefings.
Had the Blade been called on during the briefing, the LGBT outlet would have asked about the transgender military ban, which was made public late Friday night just as the weekend started at a time when media coverage was limited and the White House wasn’t taking questions on the issue.
At the close of the briefing, another non-mainstream media standing in the aisle sought comment from Shah on the transgender military ban by shouting out an inquiry. Shah looked at the reporter as he exited the briefing, but had no response.
The Blade followed up with Shah after the briefing by submitting two questions via email to him and other staffers in the White House.
Here are the questions:
1. Did the president, Vice President or anyone at the White House seek to influence the findings in the report from Secretary Mattis made public Friday?
2. Multiple courts have ruled prohibiting transgender service is unconstitutional. Isn’t the policy a non-starter?
Trump announced he’d keep his ban on transgender service in the military following a report signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis recommending limited access to transgender people in the armed forces. The expectation is the policy will be unenforceable because six courts — four trial courts and two circuit courts — have determined barring transgender people from the U.S. military is likely unconstitutional.
Transgender people are born that way, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Medical School have compared the brains of trans and cisgender adults, and discovered that they are significantly different.
In the study, it was found that the insula – a region of the brain – had a distinct volume depending on whether it was in the brain of a trans or cis subject.
The insula plays an important role in people’s body image, self-awareness and empathy.
Giancarlo Spizzirri, first author of the study – which was published in Scientific Reports – said that the result led them to believe that people are trans in the womb.
“We found that trans people have characteristics that bring them closer to the gender with which they identify and their brains have particularities, suggesting that the differences begin to occur during gestation,” he said in a statement.
(Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
Carmita Abdo, coordinator of the Sexuality Research Programme at the university and the study’s principal investigator, emphasised that the study showed being trans was not a product of society.
It found that the term ‘transgender’ “doesn’t just refer to different kinds of behaviour that people develop,” said Abdo.
“We observed specificities in the brains of trans individuals, an important finding in light of the idea of gender ideology, ” she added
“The evidence is building that it’s not a matter of ideology. Our own research based on MRI scans points to a detectable structural basis.”
Professor Geraldo Busatto, who heads the Psychiatric Neuroimaging Laboratory at the university’s hospital, said it would be “simplistic to make a direct link with transgender, but the detection of a difference in the insula is relevant”.
Busatto, an associate researcher, said this was because “trans people have many issues relating to their perception of their own body, because they don’t identify with the sex assigned at birth, and in addition, they unfortunately suffer discrimination and persecution.”
They said it was one of many “internet-exploited sexual fetishes that try to make themselves a rights movement.”
The meeting, called Transgenderism and the War on Women and hosted in the House of Commons, also heard how trans women ‘parasitically’ invaded women’s spaces and were a threat to women’s liberation.
Sheila Jeffreys in 2009 (Photo: Terri Strange / Youtube)
Displaying a presentation entitled ‘transgenderism and the assault on feminism’, Australian academic Sheila Jeffreys opened the event by saying: “Men can’t become women, what’s so difficult about that?”
Jake Bain (right) and his boyfriend (Photo courtesy Jake Bain)
Hundreds of pro-LGBT protesters turned up to drown out the Westboro Baptist Church, when they decided to target a gay high school footballer.
Jake Bain, a popular footballer at John Burroughs School in St. Louis, Missouri, came out publicly as gay last October at an all-school assembly.
His bravery was praised by his coach and teammates – but the young athlete attracted attention from the notoriously anti-LGBT Westboro Baptist Church, which announced it would picket the school.
However, when the protesters turned up to the school on Monday morning, they were met by a crowd of more than 100 pro-LGBT demonstrators, who drowned out their hateful message.
He said: “When the Westboro Baptist Church started rolling in… there was probably already 200 people that were outside, with all kinds of signs in support of my community and in support of the LGBT community as a whole.”
Meanwhile, the school held a special assembly on LGBT issues.
He said: “In the morning in our auditorium, we had a bunch of student speakers come and talk to us, both speakers who are from the LGBT community and also [allies].
“Just to go outside and just get to see all the amazing support, it was really special. … I would say [Westboro] were probably outnumbered 3-to-1.”
Bain added: “They targeted me because they saw that a gay athlete was in the news for the past couple of weeks.
“Honestly, I think they got a little scared that people are starting to realise that it doesn’t really matter if you’re gay, and that everybody should be treated equally.
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“I think they realise that the tides are changing, and as this generation and the next generations to come continue to grow and learn, more and more people are becoming accepting. That goes against everything that they stand for.
He added: “They’ve been trying to suppress any kind of person that wants to step out and show that you can be whoever you wanna be. So I think that’s kinda the main reason why they decided to come after me.”
The teen will soon be heading to Indiana State University on a football scholarship.
He said: “Going to Indiana State is gonna be really special. I mean, football has been my passion for as long as I can remember.
“I’ve been playing since I was 11 years old. It’s always been my dream to go on and to play Division I football. So the fact that I’ve kinda been able to fulfill that dream has really been special for me.”
The church, based in Topeka, Kansas, is notorious for its opposition to “fags” and “fag-enablers”, picketing anything related to LGBT equality as part of its quest to spread a message of hatred.
But the Kansas-based cult, run by the Phelps family, has not impressed another contender for the most homophobic man in America.
He made the claim while suggesting that the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville were also “in on the conspiracy”.
He said: “It defies reason that these groups aren’t infiltrated by undercover government agents.
“If you’re a war gamer, there’s no better asset on the field than your own agent posing as an enemy extremist.
“I always suspected, without proof, that the Westboro Baptist Church ‘God Hates Fags’ group was their asset in the ‘gay marriage’ battle.
“What better way to hurt the pro-family movement than to have a supposedly ‘anti-gay’ group stage obscene protests at the funerals of combat veterans in front of network television cameras.
“What better way to discredit conservative populists than TV footage of rallies where conservatives mix with Nazis (real or planted) carrying racist and antisemitic signs?”
A shooting at a transgender club has left one person injured.
The Las Vegas Lounge, one of very few specifically trans clubs in the US, was shot at multiple times in the early hours of February 23.
The attack left one clubgoer with a gunshot wound to the leg.
Police have said that the shooter approached the club on foot and fired at the building from outside.
Jennifer Hallie, general manager of the Lounge, wrote on Facebook that “there was no altercation, there was no interaction whatsoever with the suspect.”
She added: “Unfortunately one of our girls was injured but law enforcement assured us she will make a full recovery.
(Facebook/Jennifer Hallie)
“We have had many trying times through the years, and though we may bend we will not be broken by this,” she vowed.
“We are still open for business, and are still proud to serve our community.”
However, she told local station KVVU-TV that it was “scary” to see her club – which has served the Las Vegas trans community for 19 years – be the target of a shooting.
Hallie added: “Your gut instinct is that this is a hate crime, but you just don’t know.”
(GoFundMe)
A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help the victim of the attack, Callie Loubee Haywood, to pay her medical expenses.
The page states that Haywood needs “a major surgery to repair the bones in her leg including steel rods, pins and plates.
“Please help us raise as much as we can to help with her hospital bills and living expenses while she recovers from this disgusting cowardly act,” it adds.
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(Facebook/the las vegas lounge)
Hallie has donated $500, and the community has pitched in after her, raising more than $6,400 so far.
An event at the Lounge also helped, raising $1,100 towards paying for her medical expenses.
And the day after this fundraising event, the club posted on Facebook to assure its supporters that it was standing strong in the wake of the attack.
(Facebook/the las vegas lounge)
“We’re always here to provide great service for our wonderful community!” the post read. “Thank you all for your love and support.”
Who will speak for you if you can’t speak for yourself?
Live in accord with your beliefs and values. Fulfill the goals that have meaning for you. Enjoy your favorite comforts: Isn’t that how you should get to live right up to your last breath—even if a medical crisis means that you are unable to make decisions for yourself?
In honor of National Healthcare Decisions Day and Week, April 15-22, My Care, My Plan: Speak Up, Sonoma County will hold several free workshopsin Sonoma, Petaluma and Santa Rosa to encourage residents to speak up now about how they want to be treated if incapacitated in a future medical situation.
“What would your most important priorities be if you were very ill and unable to participate in decision-making? What would matter to you most if your time were very limited? Who would you want to be prepared to speak for yourself in such moments? What would you want to be sure your loved ones and health care team knew you would want to avoid, if at all possible? These are some of the important questions to discuss with your loved ones,” says Gary Johanson, MD, Medical Director, Memorial Hospice and St. Joseph Palliative Care Services.
Two workshops on Who Will Decide? will be Wednesday, April 11, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Hospice of Petaluma, and Wednesday, April 18, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Memorial Hospice, Santa Rosa.
Friday, April 13, 12:30–1:30 p.m., Steven Pantilat, M.D., Director, UCSF Palliative Care Program, will address Living Well with Serious Illness, at Vintage House in Sonoma. His talk will be followed by two Complete Your Advance Health Care Directive workshops, one at 2 p.m. and another starting at 6:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, April 17, 2-4 p.m., a Who Will Speak for You If You Can’t Speak for Yourself? workshop in Santa Rosa will be led by Dr. Johanson of Memorial Hospice and St. Joseph Palliative Care Services, and Dorothy Foster, MFT and co-chair of My Care My Plan: Speak Up, Sonoma County.
“Documentation of your wishes, through completion of an advance care directive, is part of the process,” says Foster. “It’s not something you do just once, but multiple times over your lifespan, because your priorities at age 25 are bound to be different at age 55 or 85.”
My Care, My Plan: Speak Up, Sonoma County’s (MyCareMyPlanSonoma.org) vision is for every adult in the county to become educated and empowered to express his/her wishes about end-of-life care, to have the opportunity to do so, and to have their wishes honored in a medical crisis. This is an initiative of the Committee for Healthcare Improvement and Sonoma County Health Action, mobilizing community partnerships and resources to achieve equity and improve health for all in Sonoma County. MCMP is a collaborative of organizations and individuals from the private, public, nonprofit, and volunteer sectors, including local health care and social service organizations and other community partners.
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Free Workshops on Advance Care Planning
Who Will Speak for You When You Can’t Speak for Yourself?
More transgender people in the US are opting for bottom surgery, a report from one of the country’s leading medical schools has revealed.
According to statistics compiled by the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, from 2006 to 2011 83.9 percent of patients asked for the surgery, in comparison to 72 percent in 2000-2006, reported The Independent.
Collated through data of National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2000 to 2014, the data covers 95% of hospitals in the States.
The study has emphasised the importance of health insurers not discriminating against trans people who want the surgery – top, bottom, or both.
This is due to the fact that out of 4,118 people who underwent genital surgery, 56.3 per cent did not have any health insurance cover.
Furthermore, for trans people who had Medicare or Medicaid insurance policies, 70 chose to have genital surgery in 2014.
The patients were aged from 26-49, reported the study’s authors, Joseph Canner and Omar Harfouch.
Although the demand for gender reassignment surgery has quadrupled in the UK from 2008-2016, gender reassignment is still a lengthy process under the NHS.
Basic surgeries may be covered by the national health service, but users may wish to embark upon additional surgery in order to alter their appearance.
Yet spite of the rise in people needing access to surgery and a surge in transgender rights activism in the mainstream, it appears that President Donald Trump is still hellbent on making life for trans people as difficult as possible.
As well as scrapping Title IX protections which ensure that trans people’s rights are protected in educational institutions, the US administration was the only country where homosexuality is legal that also voted in favour of the death penalty for gay people at a UN summit.
The cruise ship industry is facing pressure to relocate ships registered in Bermuda, after the territory abolished same-sex marriage.
Bermuda this year passed a law that replaces a ban on gay couples getting married, less than a year after they were allowed to marry for the first time.
The new law has caused chaos in the cruise ship industry, as a large number of ships are domiciled in the British overseas territory for financial reasons and are thus subject to its laws – meaning they can no longer carry out onboard same-sex weddings.
Carnival, a cruise ship conglomerate which operates 24 Bermuda-registered ships under subsidiaries Cunard, Princess and P&O Cruises, is now facing pressure to end the arrangement and move its registrations elsewhere.
Human rights lawyer Jamison Firestone, who is married to his same-sex partner, wrote in an open letter to Cunard: “Moving the ships is the only way possible to dissociate your company from a jurisdiction that has so dramatically flouted the values you profess to uphold, and to show support for your LGBTQ customers and those who support equal treatment for all.
“I therefore urge you to re-register your vessels in one of the many jurisdictions that do support the freedom to marry without discrimination.”
He added: “Bermuda’s new law applies to 24 ships that Cunard, Princess and P&O have registered in Bermuda. Same-sex couples may no longer marry on those ships and can only be offered the lesser status of domestic partnership.
“Carnival Corporation’s ships now contribute to and expand the reach of a regime that has chosen to discriminate against LGBTQ people.”
He added: “No legal or tax bonus gained in Bermuda can possibly be worth colluding with discrimination.
“Make no mistake, a cruise ship line that chooses to be flagged or remain flagged under a nation that has chosen to discriminate becomes complicit in discrimination. Can the ships of Cunard, Princess and P&O proudly fly the flag of Bermuda after this act?
“The right answer is for Carnival Corporation to stand by its values and protect the dignity and rights of all its customers by moving its ships from Bermuda to a jurisdiction that embraces marriage equality.”
Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell added: “Carnival is at risk of provoking a backlash by LGBT+ communities worldwide.
“Not only is Carnival colluding with a homophobic government by continuing to register its 24 ships in Bermuda, it means that same-sex couples can no longer marry on board, even in international waters. This is tantamount to direct anti-LGBT+ discrimination.”
In a response, a spokesperson for Cunard said: “Having been delighted and wholly supportive of the Bermuda Government’s change in law last May, which allowed us to conduct same sex marriages on board our ships we are disappointed with this more recent outcome.
“We will now be working closely with the Bermudan authorities to understand the legalities of ‘Domestic Partnership Act’ and whether we can offer our guests same sex marriages in the future.”
Cunard said it would not be providing refunds to guests who did not want to travel on a Bermuda-registered ship after the decision.
It told Mr Firestone: “We are unable to offer anyone a free of charge cancellation due solely to any personal opinion of the independent laws of Bermuda and must make you aware that a cancellation for this particular reason would not constitute a significant alteration to the package as booked.”
The company did say it would specifically provide refunds to couples who had booked wedding packages if they were unable to go ahead.
However, Bermuda last week confirmed the ban on same-sex weddings would only come into effect from May, allowing existing wedding bookings to go ahead.
