Last week was not a good week for military worshiping social conservatives. They were dealt a major one-two punch. First it was announced that Chelsea Manning would receive property medical treatment while sitting in a cage for doing the right thing:
In a first for the Army, Chelsea Manning, the convicted national-security secrets leaker, has been approved for hormone therapy for transition to a woman at the Army’s Fort Leavenworth prison, according to a memo obtained Thursday by USA TODAY.
Military worshiping social conservatives are predictable creatures. While they tend to be very open with their bigotry they don’t like people perceiving their motives as being purely bigoted. So it’s not surprising that the first criticism they made against this decision was that tax dollars will be used for Manning’s treatment. What they failed to point out is that part of the benefits package received by enlisted personnel is healthcare. Even if a soldier is declared a traitor and condemned to rot in a cage they must still receive proper medical care for whatever medical conditions they have. Since hormone replacement therapy is considered a medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria the military should be providing it to transgender soldiers. Providing hormone replacement therapy to a transgender individual is the same as providing anti-depressants to an individual suffering from depression.
The second criticism the military worshiping social conservatives came up with is the Army’s policy of treating transgender individuals like shit. But this is where the second blow came. The Army has decided to improve its policy regarding transgender soldiers:
The decision to discharge transgender soldiers from the Army now has to be made by a top, senior civilian official, documents obtained by USA TODAY show, a move that will make it more difficult to remove such troops from the service.
Instead of being made by lower-level Army officers, the undated memorandum says the decision to discharge transgender soldiers must now by made by the assistant secretary of the Army for personnel. In all services, transgender troops can be automatically dismissed from service on medical grounds once they are identified.
This isn’t exactly a stellar step forward but it is an acknowledgement by the Army that its policies are in need of improvement. While it does please me that the Army is considering treating transgender soldiers better I fear it’s only because it is concerned that it won’t have enough meat for the grinder in coming years. But nefarious motives aren’t grounds enough for my to condemn an improvement in policy so I will nod my head to the Army for this small change and laugh as its worshipers flip their shit.