On Wednesday, President
Donald Trump tweeted that he
 wouldn’t allow transgender
individuals to serve in the
military:


Donald J. Trump 
✔@realDonaldTrump
After consultation with my

Generals and military experts,

please be advised that the

United States Government will

not accept or allow......
8:55 AM - Jul 26, 2017
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Donald J. Trump 
✔@realDonaldTrump
....Transgender individuals to

serve in any capacity in the

U.S. Military. Our military

must be focused on decisive

and overwhelming.....
9:04 AM - Jul 26, 2017
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Donald J. Trump 
✔@realDonaldTrump
....victory and cannot be

burdened with the tremendous

medical costs and disruption

that transgender in the military

would entail. Thank you
9:08 AM - Jul 26, 2017
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I think he made the right
decision—and as someone
 who lived as trans-female for
 several years, I should know.
When I discovered Congress
voted earlier this month to not
 block funding for transgender-
related hormone therapies and
 sex change surgeries, I
wondered if it considered how
 devastating this will be to the
fitness, readiness, and morale
of our combat-ready troops.
In July, the House of
Representatives voted down
Missouri Republican Rep.
Vicky Hartzler’s amendment
 to the National Defense
Authorization Act, which would
 have banned the military from
 funding such treatments.
Paying for transition-related
surgeries for military service
members and their families
 is beyond comprehensible.
Perhaps they have forgotten
that our military was forged to
 be the world’s strongest
 fighting force, not a government-
funded, politically correct,
 medical sex change clinic
 for people with gender
 dysphoria.


Gender dysphoria, the common
 diagnosis for one who feels at
odds with his or her birth gender,
develops from prolonged
anxiety and depression.
People are not born that way.
The “proof” for a diagnosis of
 gender dysphoria is having
strongly held feelings—but
feelings can and often do
change over time.
The military is expected to
 prepare its members in warfare:
to kill, destroy, and break our
 enemies. The most important
factors in preparing a strong
military are not hormone therapy,
surgical sex changes, or
 politically correct education.
We need psychologically fit,
 emotionally sound, highly
trained troops to protect our
 nation from its enemies.
While countless homeless vets
are currently sleeping under
cardboard boxes, or waiting
for life-saving care from the
Department of Veterans Affairs,
 we learn that transgender
 military recruits now qualify
for preferential coverage for sex
 change procedures that are
scientifically unproven and
extremely costly.
I myself was fully sex-
reassigned from male to
female, and eventually came
 to accept my birth gender.
I have over 70 years of firsthand
life experience, eight years of
 living as a woman, 20 years of
 researching the topic, and 12
 years of helping others who,
 like me, found that transitioning
and reassignment surgery failed
to be proper treatment and want
 to restore their lives to their birth
 gender.
Costly, but Not Effective
Transitioning can be expensive—
up to $130,000 per person for
numerous body-mutilating and
cosmetic procedures over many
 months (or years) to fashion the
 body to appear as the opposite
sex.
Yet, no matter how skilled the
 surgeon, or how much money
is spent, it is biologically
impossible to change a man
into a woman or a woman into
a man. The change is only
cosmetic.
The medical community
 continues to recommend this
 radical “treatment” in the
absence of scientific evidence
that people are better off in the
long run. This population
 attempts suicide at a rate
of 40 percent.
Even after the full surgical
change, they attempt to end
their lives, or tragically succeed.
Over 60 percent of this diverse
 population suffer from
co-existing mental disorders.
 Consider Bradley Manning
(now Chelsea Manning), a
former Army soldier who was
so psychologically and
emotionally unbalanced that
he stole confidential documents
from the military and forwarded
them to WikiLeaks.
The Military Is a Fighting
 Force, Not a Gender Clinic
The military should not provide
 sex change surgery.
Through my website,
 sexchangeregret.com, I hear
from people who experienced
firsthand how damaging and
 unnecessary reassignment
surgeries were. For them, the
sex change failed to resolve the
 emotional and psychological
disorders that drove the desire to
change gender.
Many write after living the
transgender life for years. They
 write to ask for advice on how
to reverse the original surgical
change and restore their lives
 to the original birth gender like
 I did, a process called
detransition.
Some service members will
 come to regret having
undergone the surgery and
will want to detransition. Where
will the military be then? Will
the military pay for the sex
change reversal procedure,
too?
Failed “sex change surgeries”
are not uncommon and will
 drive up the cost to care for
the military transgender
population above the
projected $3-4 billion 10-year 
cost.
Beyond the financial cost,
there’s the question of the
 service member’s military
readiness during their
transition or detransition, as
 the process often comes with
 a great deal of anxiety and
emotional instability.

I know of many who have struggled to
adapt to the new gender role for years
after reassignment surgery.
In my view, as a former trans-female
who works every day with regretters,
allowing the military to pay for sex
change surgeries will make a mockery
 of the U.S. military.
Advocates are relentless in their pursuit
of making others, via the government
and insurance companies, cover the
 cost of sex change procedures.
If the military had been forced to pay,
 the advocates would have used this
as leverage to press every other entity—
both government and commercial—to
 pay for sex change surgeries as well.
As a person who lived the transgender
 life for eight years, I can attest that
 assisting, affirming, or paying for
hormone therapies and genital mutilation
 surgeries would not have strengthened
 our military. They would only have
brought adverse long-term consequences,
 both for individuals and for our armed
forces as a whole.