Transgenders in The Military

My Recent E-Mail to Our Federal Represenatives

Dear Senators and Congressmen:

   Please consider my thoughts/beliefs when focusing and voting on allowing transgendered people into the military.  Transgendering is full of hormonal changes, mental therapies, and high costs (in more ways than just monetary).  It is a choice versus a need and is an exaggerated plastic surgery process that entails way more than "common" plastic surgery.  

   Therefore, I suggest allowing transgenders to enlist only after all of their procedures have been successfully completed for five years, and the person enlisting is medically certified as stable both mentally and physically.  The suicide rate for transgenders is not something to be overlooked.  Nor is the amount of therapy some continue to go through because they have a chronic problem adjusting.

   Medical insurance for military personnel should not cover the costs involved in transgendering.  If a person takes on the cost to transgender and has been transitioned successfully for at least five years and still falls into the age limit to enlist, then, yes ... the military should consider that person for service, but not for combat duty.  Never have all troops been assigned combat duty.  There are plenty of positions a stable, transgendered person could hold.

Thank you all for representing us with wisdom, options, and foresight.  ~  Maeke (Mika) Ermarth