Rating: Transphobic, New York Post , October 29, 2023 (PDF archive) (HTML archive) (Take Action)
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Content Summary
Merchant Marine transgender policy allows service exemptions
WASHINGTON – Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) wants answers from the Merchant Marine Academy after the Long Island institution implemented a new policy allowing midshipmen undergoing gender transitions to seek exemptions from their military service requirement.
The policy, effective Oct. 13, is meant to set up procedures for the admission and education of transgender students and those “transitioning while enrolled at the academy so as to remove barriers for those with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or who identify as transgender.”
Banks, who chairs the House Anti-Woke Caucus, led a congressional letter to the academy on Friday raising concerns.
“Our service academies are critical institutions for the security of our nation, not laboratories for the far-left’s social experiments,” he exclusively told The Post. “Forcing radical gender ideology on the young men and women who want to serve their country is dangerous and wrong.”
The new policy holds that midshipmen “with a diagnosis indicating that gender transition is medically necessary” will be treated “in the same manner, and to the same extent, as to students with other medical conditions that impact a student’s ability to matriculate, graduate and fulfill their service obligation.”
The policy was developed in response to President Biden’s 2021 executive order requiring all federal agencies “to ensure compliance with the stated policy of preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation,” according to the document.
It also follows a 2021 Defense Department guideline that allows service members seeking to undergo gender transition to apply for a leave of absence or transfer to another unit if the person is deemed unable to serve during the process.
The Merchant Marine Academy’s gender transition provision is based on that of the US Coast Guard Academy, Department of Transportation Maritime Administration spokesman T.V. Johnson told The Post.
The Coast Guard holds that “any consequences of the determination that a member is non-deployable will also be made in accordance with the Coast Guard standard similar to that for other members that are non-deployable for medical reasons unrelated to gender identity or gender transition,” according to its latest transgender troop policy.
But Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), who joined Banks’ letter, called the policy “radical” and argued that it would “lead to the exploitation of our once-pristine academies,” which offer a free college education in exchange for future military service.
“Leftist transgender policies have not only infiltrated American colleges and universities but also our service academies – it must stop,” he said.
In the letter, which was also signed by Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), the lawmakers asked the service academy why “gender dysphoria [is] considered a ‘medically disqualifying condition?’”
“We are disturbed by the policy guidelines that would allow Midshipmen who identify as transgender during their third or fourth year at USMMA to receive a medical waiver from their obligated service,” the lawmakers wrote.
“This creates a dangerous avenue for exploiting our nation’s prestigious service academies,” they added.
In addition to the service exemption, the new policy also requires that transgender students be able to live as their chosen gender regardless of their biological sex.
That provision caused concerned parents of current midshipmen to bring the new policy to lawmakers’ attention, Banks’ office said.
One parent cited the school’s recent history combatting sexual assault among students.
“The school has gone through great lengths to try to improve the safety regarding sexual assault on campus and out at sea. Now, this policy reverses the good work that has been accomplished,” they told The Post.
“I fear for the young women that will be forced into uncomfortable positions as biological males with all of their anatomy are introduced as roommates and into the women’s communal, locker-room style showers that are at the school,” added the parent, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.
“Women of Kings Point should not have to compromise their safety or virtue in order to be educated at the federal maritime academy.”
“No accommodations will be made for them and complaints will be viewed as honor violations, which could cost them their education and careers,” the parent went on. “With a national shortage of mariners, the school should not be eroding their recruitment base.”
LaMalfa agreed, telling The Post that “biological men don’t belong in women’s sports, restrooms, showers, or living quarters.”
“This policy puts young women, who just want to serve their country, in danger – in the places they’re supposed to be safest,” he said.
Hageman argued that given the current national security environment, with wars raging in both Ukraine and Israel, “woke ideology and social experiments cannot be tolerated, supported, or funded in any branch of our armed forces.”
“Our world is on fire due to the failed policies and weakness of the Biden administration,” she said, “leaving our military unable to concurrently operate in two theaters of war.”
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