They can graduate, but not serve
There is currently a transgender cadet at each of the Air Force Academy and at West Point, who are set to graduate if they pass their final exams.
Unlike the vast number of other cadets graduating, these two will not be commissioned as officers because the Pentagon has not yet established a policy for accepting new transgender troops.'
Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter rescinded the Pentagon’s ban on transgender troops. The policy immediately allowed transgender troops to serve openly. However, the policy for accepting new troops is scheduled be developed and phased in this year.
We all know that a snowball has a better chance in Hell with the current administration.
The names of the cadets and their new genders were not released by the military.
Currently, there is an Air Force Academy cadet who has identified as a transgender individual. The cadet can graduate. But, per the current (Defense Department) transgender policy, this cadet cannot commission into the Air Force. However, we are strongly recommending this individual for Air Force civil service as an option for continued service after the academy.
--Lt. Col. Allen Heritage, Air Force Academy
We can confirm that a military academy cadet has identified as transgender, however, per the current Department of Defense medical accessions policy, this cadet cannot commission.
--Cynthia Smith, Army spokeswoman
There's also this horrible slam at the Army's cadet:
West Point will not recognize the cadet's preferred gender at graduation, but instead the candidate's biological sex.
Comments
Well, par for the course I suppose
It seems the transgender community is the whipping [choose your own gender] right now. As if the worst thing in the world on a consistent basis (notwithstanding the invariable hair on fire stuff like Trump/Russia/Comey) is to be a person that wishes to define themselves as who they truly are rather than surrender to society's definition.
It's a sad commentary on our country. The world is full of crises. People are dying from wars, famines, contaminated water, poor healthcare, police violence, neoliberal economic policies, etc. and yet for some people, trans people are the most offensive and greatest problem we face on the planet. A small number of people threaten their "values." I say they must not value much if this is all it takes to ruin their day, and thus make them ruin the lives of others.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
As someone who's ideas
of military service have been completely upended by all the stuff I read, I'm almost glad for them that they get the degree and don't have to serve. I know, they would not see it that way and I cannot blame them for that, but maybe it's not a bad thing to not fight in America's wars.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
A point of clarification:
The commissioning on completion is not about being able to "fight in America's wars." It's about career advancement and keeping on track. Some of these graduates will never see combat as they fill science, tech, and administrative positions in a variety of settings. Source: Some of my physics students later became commissioned officers.
The commissioning is a credentialing process, and delaying or denying this process can do irreparable harm to ones career. So the effect of all this is punitive.
Oh, I do get that, I do.
And I also wonder if they can't commission do they owe money for their educations? Would not surprise me to find out that they do, and from what little I know both institutions are not cheap.
My niece is Air Force and she currently works on F-16s - she keeps the planes in the air that drop the bombs. There are things I try to say about my anti-war views but I also am fully aware that she worked hard to get where she is and I am very proud of her personally. I'm just having a harder time looking at any of it in a positive light now.
I was Army during peacetime and did not think I'd ever see a war and I didn't, got out right before Gulf One. I watched people I cared about go there and I know it will perhaps sound a bit lame but I did have some guilt over not going. If they'd have called me back I'd have gone, I made a promise and I intended to keep it. But I look back at that now and see how naïve that really was, how thoughtless in many ways that was, and I can't justify it anymore. That's why I say my view on it has been completely upended - while the individual achievement is great and something to be proud of individually, what's really being done is most assuredly NOT something to take pride in. And now I know that.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Please be there for her.
There may come a time she will need to have a very difficult discussion with someone, and the list of possible people might be very short.
I think the whole thing speaks for itself
Failing to commission qualified graduated cadets is stupid on the face of it.
The insistence on gender is just the same old conservative denial of biology (skipping over the hard to quantify psychological aspects).
Double Facepalm
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
I graduated from the Air Force Academy,
(and was commissioned at the same moment). This situation is just baffling, to me. As I understand it, (and I can't find the article, now) they will not even be accepted into the military. One commander suggested that they could find some volunteer position with the military. Four years of hell, and intense work, and yeah, we'll let you do something (else) for us, for free. Thanks.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X