Article on crossdressers in the military

[Anita]

It hurts just reading that list of questions. Just because I'm not bothered by whoever shows up in the shower next to me doesn't mean that everyone is so nonchalant about it. I can see why transitioning people open up a whole area of questioning that has no easy answers for anyone.

What occurred to me today is something I hadn't considered before. In the gay marriage fight, conservative opponents see the "slippery slope." If we allow gay marriage, then siblings will want to marry, and then underage minors, and then...

Social conservatives might see this same mechanism at work here. They're dealing with the idea of gay people, trying to process that, and here is this NEW category of troublesome person that they've never thought about before. They may feel like it's an endless process--if they let transitioning people into the military, then what is the next category?

So the tendency is to want to shut the door and not think about it any more, so there won't be any chance that someone else will come knocking. I don't know what the next minority would be, but there's some other segment of the population just like us, who the general public does not think about or recognize until a lot of noise is made.

*****added later
It occurs to me that people with disabilities of any type are turned away from the military. That may be the next battle. I had a wool allergy, and so I was disqualified after I had signed up for the army. It would be expensive for the army to have to accommodate people like myself.

I have two blind friends. For them to serve, the army would have to shell out $1000 for Jaws, a software program that converts visual data to sound data. When Wells Fargo bank hired Jane, that's exactly what they had to do. Should the army be required to do this, too? So I can see why the military does not really want to be accepting of people with special needs, and unfortunately, that's how we're seen.

[Absaroka]

The armed forces are not really about opportunity, they are about need. Specifically the need to defend our country. I think it's right that discrimination is done away with, but the main issue is need. If say this blind person had an exceptional talents useful to the military they would in time of need likely find a way to use them, if only as a civilian.

Does anyone here think it's a coincidence that DADT is being repealed at a time when there have been two long lasting wars with corresponding casualties? That maybe repealing DADT is about getting more soldiers rather than equal opportunity?

Here's a great way to get rid of all these barriers. Reinstate the draft. Imagine the outcry from conservatives over gay people being allowed to escape the draft just by being gay.