Your Daily Hate - April 12

As a general rule, the path to the future (assuming we manage to not cook ourselves) is reasonably clear. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Twenty years ago, who would have predicted we'd elect our first black President in 2008? Ten years ago, who would have predicted we'd have same sex marriage everywhere in the United States? And three years ago, who would have predicted that transgender people would have become as accepted as they have been by large swaths of Americans.

I'm not saying that we're done. OBVIOUSLY NOT. There's a LOT of work still to do, but it's undeniable that there has been progress in human rights in America. I may be too much of an optimist, but it's absolutely clear to me that full acceptance of others is where we're headed. Again, assuming we don't cook ourselves.

That's one of the reasons this is so goddamn awful.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced that Donald Trump's promised ban on transgender service members will be going into effect on April 12. The policy had previously been blocked by now-vacated court injunctions.

The language of the new policy has been watered down from the full ban originally demanded by Trump. Transgender troops are allowed to serve, and "[n]o person, solely on the basis of his or her gender identity," will be denied promotion or re-enlistment, or be involuntarily discharged.

But the policy requires transgender troops to serve as their sex that was assigned at birth, subject to military requirements for service members of that sex, including physical fitness and assigned "berthing, bathroom and shower facilities," regardless of gender dysphoria or other diagnosis; service members who cannot meet those requirements will be discharged. It bars all new recruits who are taking hormones or who have transitioned.

The move is expected to impact an estimated 14,700 service members. In testimony to Congress, military leaders denied that transgender service members were causing the morale or readiness problems the Trump White House had claimed; there appears to be no credible justification for the policy change other than as a sop to Trump's "social conservative" base.  Link

Transgender troops are as worthy of our respect as ANY person serving this country and they're deserving of everything we can do for them. This policy is hateful and obviously regressive and wrongheaded. It strikes me as almost inconceivable that the people behind this policy and those who support it really think that transgender individuals should go back into the closet and remain there forever. I know that hate isn't rational and bigots really do want transgender people to vanish, but it's not going to happen. In the meantime, these assholes are causing a LOT of human misery.

Just get with the program, idiots.