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| 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:
