Transgendered and the Military Part 2 in a NewMexicoConservativeNews.com Special Report

From a psychological perspective, the experiences of transgender individuals in the military are multifaceted and often challenging, with stigma and discrimination playing a significant role in mental health outcomes. While some studies suggest military service can be a positive experience for some transgender men, leading to improved mental health and optimal aging, other research highlights the negative impact of stigma and lack of support on the well-being of both transgender men and women.

Concerning the recent series of articles on transgendered in the military and the local impact on Holloman, White Sands etc. I compliment ATN for tackling this issue within this conservative community. I came across this interview speaking of transgendered individuals in the military and believe it speaks truth.

Words from a former military psychologist for 30 years...

"I have worked with every kind of soldier, straight gay trans, and so I can firmly answer: It depends. Here's what it depends on:

1. Deployability. A major problem in deploying any group dependent on maintenance medications that require refrigeration is that can’t be guaranteed on a deployment. So some people are simply medically disqualified from service due to their requirements for “civilization” to function, as that can’t be guaranteed on a deployment or in a war.

2. Temperment. Serving in combat arms is tough hard work and requires a great deal of emotional resilience. People drastically oversimplify the psychodynamics of sexuality and want to make broad generalizations for diverse groups of people “All X do this” (white males, women, Hispanics, blacks, transgender, etc. — insert your group.) That makes little sense.

There is a fundamentally aggressive mentality required for the successful performance of combat arms work—door kickers require an “alpha” ethos. So there is a subgroup of transgenders that do fine in this sort of military service: Females trans to males typically do well because they are “butch”; transvestites (often conflated with trans) who get a thrill for passing as female but typically prefer female sex partners also seem to be fairly solid in uniform, they just have an off duty fetish.

But others really do not thrive in this environment. This is not a feminine ethos and feminine qualities are equated to weakness. “Bottoms” (submissive sexual partners) in general don’t do well — be they trans, gay, lesbian, or straight. They are viewed as unreliable and the group tends to reject them.

Are there Trans in the military? Yes. Do some of them do good work? Yes. Do some of them fail and have to be removed from service? Also, yes

Is that true for all segments of the military rather gay, straight, bi, black, white, Asian or other? Yes. Do some of them do good work? Yes. Do some of them fail and have to be removed from service? Also, yes.