Transgender soldiers testify in Congress while hate group rewards leader trying to take away their careers

While trans soldiers fight for their military careers on Capitol Hill, hate group Family Research Council again rewards Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler its 'True Blue' award (second picture). She received the award in 2018 (see first picture) in part for her efforts to push Trump's trans ban, including providing inaccurate statistics about transgender healthcare.

An interesting and sad juxtaposition took place recently in Congress.

While everyone was fixated on the Michael Cohen hearing, five transgender soldiers testified in another hearing regarding Trump's attempt to ban them from service.

From the Daily Beast:

For the first time, five transgender service members gave evidence to the House of Representatives about their experiences of military service, transition, and why they consider President Trump’s proposed ban on trans service members to be unfair and unjust, alongside his administration‘s latest suggestion that trans people can serve as long as they don't transition. 

Navy Lieutenant Commander Blake Dremann, who is also president of trans servicepeople group Sparta Pride, sat alongside Army captain Alivia Stehlik, Army captain Jennifer Peace, Staff Sergeant Patricia King, and Marine Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Akira Wyatt. All delivered measured, illuminating, and powerful testimonies.
The five service members and, later in a second panel, Defense Department officials were giving evidence to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

 Of course the testimony was riveting:

Dremann told the sub-committee that each time a barrier had been raised to his service—whether it was the gender assigned to him at birth, his sexual orientation prior to transition, then his gender identity—he had “risen to the occasion” and succeeded as a submariner. 

To be openly transgender at work, as he has been since 2016, has afforded Dremann the opportunity “to not only be who but also act as an educator and advocate” on behalf of the 800 members of Sparta Pride. He said that the notion that trans service members damaged unit cohesion and morale was “myths and completely without merit… It just so happens the best and brightest we have to offer happen to be transgender.”

And according to Zack Ford of ThinkProgress, the hearing was not without fireworks. Trump Administration officials attempted to justify the ban and got justifiably blasted by Congressional leaders as their explanation were refuted one after the other.

The juxtaposition is due to the tweet below:

It was an honor to receive the True Blue Award from the @FRCdc this morning. This award is given to members of Congress who consistently fight for faith, family and freedom, and I am humbled to receive it. pic.twitter.com/Mbk3QELbDp

— Rep. Vicky Hartzler (@RepHartzler) February 28, 2019

At the same time trans soldiers were fighting to stay in the military, hate group the Family Research Council, which has fought and lied vigorously to keep them out, awarded Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler its 'True Blue' award. The irony is that Hartzler received the same award last year . One of the reasons was her efforts in helping Trump with the trans ban, including:

 reportedly pressuring Trump for weeks to make his  decision to ban transgender troops.  

pushing  for a controversial amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would have banned the Pentagon from funding gender reassignment surgeries for service members. The amendment failed when 24 Republicans joined the Democrats to vote against it. 

and pushing inaccurate statistics to falsely claim that it was too costly for transgender men and women to serve in the military.

It's sad how the wrong people seem to get rewarded, while those who should be rewarded have to fight for their professional careers.