Transgender soldiers will be allowed to delay deployment for up to 300 days while using cross-sex hormones during their “transition” and waive physical fitness standards, according to a confidential Pentagon memo.
“Hormone therapy comes with potential health risks and undesired side effects,” the memo stated.
The military’s goal for transgender service members, according to the memo, is “to provide a safe and effective pathway to achieve lasting personal comfort with their gendered selves to maximize their overall health and promote psychological well-being and self-fulfillment” while serving.
Alan Hopewell, a neuro-psychologist in Fort Worth, Texas, who served in the military for 28 years, said the memo illustrates the serious issues surrounding transgender soldiers.
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years,” Mr. Hopewell said. “The kind of person who would dress up in a dress and do all this stuff is mentally unstable.”
Mr. Hopewell said the military has yet to address the “medication issue.” He believes the 300-day moratorium on deploying soldiers confused about gender will be just the beginning of problems.
Combining mental instability with hormones under combat stress could be dangerous to the transgender soldier and other troops, he said.
Transgender soldiers taking hormones are more likely to suffer from mood swings and health problems, making them a higher mission risk when deployed, according to Hopewell.
High doses of hormones have contributed to erratic behavior exhibited by some gender dysphoric people, he said, and Army medics aren’t equipped to deal with such issues in the field.
Even if deployed, it could take significant medical resources to deal with transgender medical needs in a combat situation, he said.
Mr. Hopewell doesn’t believe allowing transgender soldiers to serve in the military is a good investment for the military because he doesn’t think they will last long.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. Army changed its rules in 2021 to allow those with gender dysphoria—confusion and distress over biological sex—to serve.
“This is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing to do,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after Mr. Biden’s announcement.
Some military officials have dismissed medication and service concerns surrounding transgender soldiers, saying the military should not discriminate.
Hormone treatment for transgender soldiers is no different from birth control pills for female soldiers, according to some who have spoken out.
Advocates say it is not a mental illness, and transgender soldiers aren’t just in it to transition on the taxpayer’s dime.
They were eligible to receive taxpayer-funded mental health “care,” hormones, genital surgeries, mastectomies and breast implants, and voice “therapy,” according to the memo.
Transgender soldiers could undergo various surgeries after taking hormones for 12 months, according to the memo.
It indicated what procedures could be performed at WAMC, including hysterectomies, “upper” surgeries—meaning breast removal or implants—and ovaries or testes.
Face and body contouring was possible at WAMC, but the memo said it is not a covered procedure.
Sex-change surgeries to remove genitals would be referred out to other facilities, the memo said.
It detailed the creation of a Transgender Care Team for gender dysphoric soldiers. Once diagnosed with gender dysphoria, personnel were expected to call soldiers by their preferred pronouns.
Soldiers would select a name and gender. They would then be able to dress according to their preferred gender and ask for a physical fitness test standard waiver, according to the memo.
While some see the inclusion of transgender soldiers as boosting sagging military recruitment, others say “woke” policies on gender and race are the reason for the decline.
Mr. Hopewell said he knows military families reject the current “nonsense” and no longer encourage their children to join the military because of “woke” gender and race ideology.
He said the idea that people who reject norms and believe they can be a different gender doesn’t square with a military mindset based on rules.
“They can put everybody’s life at risk, frankly,” Hopewell said.
DOD clinical psychiatrist Daniel Maurer, cited in the memo, didn’t immediately respond to an Epoch Times’ request for comment about the combat readiness of transgender soldiers.