The U.S. Senate on Wednesday cleared a national defense authorization bill celebrated for troop pay raises but condemned by Democrats for targeting transgender children in military families, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Senators voted 83-12, with five not voting, to approve the $884.9 billion National Defense Authorization Act that received bipartisan praise for the pay bump, upgrades to military housing and investments in artificial intelligence and other advanced technology.
But the annual legislation drew ire this year from Democrats for a provision banning the military’s health program from covering certain treatments for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, defined by doctors as the mismatch between a person’s sex assigned at birth and the gender they experience in everyday life.
All Democrats present for the Dec. 11 U.S. House vote opposed the defense package, which passed along party lines under the Republican majority.
The White House has not released its position on the bill, as it generally does with legislation ready for the president’s signature.
You would be surprised. I know of several trans people who transitioned and had surgery decades ago and don’t tell anyone. Not even therapists or close friends. If you didn’t know them before or have an important specific reason it needs to be known it just never comes up.
That was the goal for a lot of people until recent times. Even now there are still a ton of people who just do it and want to move on with their lives forgetting about it like an old medical issue they resolved.
You are mostly going to notice people who are early on or very open about it. One of the reasons that trans healthcare at a younger age is important is because it makes it much easier to blend in with society the rest of their lives. Blocking this care is going to make trans people more visible than if they weren’t forced to go through an unwanted puberty.
Another thing is that a lot of people who have transitioned don’t care about stuff like makeup or clothes. It’s about identity and physical body features. That stuff comes secondary and early on is often explored more because it’s new and can be validating. It’s also not about orientation either, there are people who transitioned MTF living lives as lesbians and people FTM lived as gay couples. You yourself are an example of how the clothes you like to wear is unrelated to your gender identity.