Washington, DC – Just hours before the House vote on the National Defense Authorization Act, the Rules committed an amendment that would strip transgender service members, and transgender military dependents, of access to basic medical care. National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling offered this statement in response:
"A year ago, when the Department of Defense announced that it was lifting the ban on transgender service members, it vowed the move would honor our military’s commitment to providing service members and their families with the health care they need. But, now, this needlessly cruel amendment threatens to deprive transgender service members of the basic right all service members enjoy, by prohibiting the military from providing them with care related to their transition. Military medical care should be decided by military doctors, not by members of Congress, based on prejudice and ideology.
Taking away life-saving care from our troops and their families doesn't make our military any stronger. It doesn't boost its readiness or morale. This amendment does nothing to help our military or our troops. In fact, it is dangerous, it is unconstitutional and it devalues the service of thousands of transgender people and their families. Moreover, it betrays a willful ignorance of the facts; from the decades-long medical consensus that transition-related treatments are just as necessary as care for any other medical condition, to the extensive research the military and Defense Department themselves conducted before concluding that transgender service members should get access to health care just like any other service members.
Thousands of transgender service members who are putting their lives on the line for our country make sacrifices every day. Their access to basic health care should not be one of them. We urge representatives, no matter their party, not to weaken our military by forcing it discriminate against its own."
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