President Biden Diverts Military Away from its Mission, Forces it to Pay for Gender Reassignment Surgeries

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- President Joe Biden, in one of his first official acts, reinstated President Obama's military transgender policy.  The president did so without any kind of systematic study of the consequences of allowing men and women in the military to live as the opposite sex and even obtain gender reassignment procedures paid for by the military. This stands in stark contrast to the DoD review that was conducted of President Trump's policy. The Department of Defense reported that medical costs for service members with "gender dysphoria" were three times higher than for other service members before the Trump administration repealed the Obama era rule.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a Marine veteran, criticized President Biden's swift reinstatement of President Obama's costly transgender military policy: 

"In one of his first acts as commander-in-chief, President Biden is redirecting the military's focus from where it has been and where it belongs – fighting and winning wars. Political correctness doesn't win wars, but the president is indulging dangerous and unproven theories that have the potential to undermine national security.

"As president-elect, Joe Biden promised to bring unity to our country.  Providing our servicemembers with the resources to keep our country safe would help move our country in this direction. Instead, President Biden is diverting precious dollars from mission-critical training to something as controversial as gender reassignment surgery. The military cannot focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars when it is being used as a vehicle to advance the far Left's social agenda.

"As our nation faces serious national security threats, our troops shouldn't be forced to endure hours of transgender 'sensitivity' classes and politically-correct distractions like this one," concluded Perkins.

Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, former U.S. Army Delta Force commander and current Family Research Council Executive Vice President, added the following comments:

"Every cent spent on this politically-correct exercise is money that could be used to prepare our troops for war. Every second wasted in 'transgender sensitivity training' is time that could be spent on the rifle range.

"I'm appalled that our commander-in-chief is more focused on appeasing special interest groups than on military readiness," concluded Boykin.

For FRC's issue brief on the potential cost of a transgender military policy, please see: https://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF17F52.pdf.

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SOURCE Family Research Council