The Importance Of Tsm In The Military

Allowing TSM to serve openly will impact every aspect of military life, from showering to housing, uniforms to identification. There are no current administrative policies to address physical fitness, privacy, records and identification, uniforms, and housing. National Center for Transgender Equality (2015) claims that “only simple administrative changes are needed to permit all qualified individuals to serve openly and honorably” are duplicitous. The DOD will need to modify every single Army and military policy and/or regulation regarding housing, identification, fitness, privacy, job standards, sexual discrimination to name a few, and also including current medical code. The entire military will need extensive training on any changes to current
The DOD will need to revise the Uniform Code of Military Justice and lay out crime and punishments for this class, and clarify what constitutes sexual harassment and discrimination. I’m not sure such undertakings can be considered “simple administrative changes.” Granted, there were similar concerns with the repeal of DADT, but that was a 20 year process. Gates and Herman (2015) estimate that approximately 15,500 TSM serve in the military. The Department of Defense has never queried the force or actually tried to quantify real numbers of possible TSM in the military, so this number is more of a guesstimate at most. There could indeed be 15,500 TSM, or there could be 50. Harrison-Quintana and Herman (2013) estimate that of the purported 15,500 TSM, approximately 90 percent of TSM are male to female (MTF). Therefore, any policy changes will affect female Soldiers significantly and disproportionately more than