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Showing posts with the label United States armed forces

Fate of Trump’s transgender military ban still unclear

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Yesterday came and went without an expected update on the Trump administration’s policy of barring transgendered individuals from serving in the military. But White House officials told the  Washington Examiner  that Defense Secretary James Mattis “has forwarded his recommendations” on the policy to the president. “It’s now up to the president to decide whether to accept Mattis’ advice, which he is making a point of giving in private,” Jamie McIntyre wrote at the  Examiner . “But Pentagon officials tell me they don’t expect Trump to make an immediate decision, because the Pentagon is operating under four separate court orders that prevent any changes to the Obama-era policy that allows transgender troops to serve openly, and provides medical care for conversion therapy for current service members.” When Trump  announced his administration’s initial policy , he cited the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” that gender-confused soldiers pose to the military. “Afte

LGBTQ groups attempt to block Trump’s military ‘transgender’ ban

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Taking a page from the tactics of anti-Trump illegal immigration advocates, two LGBTQ legal groups are suing President Trump to block his plan to ban "transgender" service in the U.S. Armed Forces . Two major homosexual legal organizations, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), filed a federal lawsuit today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block Trump's "transgender" military ban, which Trump  announced via Twitter  on July 26, and for which he  issued policy guidance  last week. "The suit, Doe v. Trump, was filed on behalf of 5 transgender service members with nearly 60 years of combined military service," states a  GLAD press release  issued on behalf of both homosexual-transgender organizations. It quotes one of the suit's plaintiffs: “Last year, the Department of Defense announced that transgender people could serve openly ... I was

‘Get in line’ or ‘resign’ Admiral tells military chaplain

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WASHINGTON, D.C., June 20, 2012 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - Although the U.S. Military fight and die to uphold freedom, high-level military chaplains report they are increasingly being denied freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. There is also alarm about the negative effects on troop morale over the undoing of the 237-years’ practice of providing traditional religious support for U.S. soldiers. “We were promised that we would see no change - very little change,” says Col. Ron Crews, alluding to a two-star officer ’s assurance that the “ Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ” repeal would not impede the ministry of military chaplains. That promise, he says, has not been kept. Col. Crews, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, was speaking at a panel along with military chaplains and religious freedom activists during the 2012  National Religious Freedom Conference  in Washington D.C on May 24.  The panelists agreed that the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Military officially ends homosexuality ban, gay recruits trickle in

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WASHINGTON, D.C. The U.S. military ’s ban on open homosexuality officially ended Tuesday, and gay recruits began trickling towards recruiting table s this week. President Obama signs the law repealing military policy law during a ceremony December 22, 2010 in Washington, DC. “Today, every American can be proud that we have taken another great step toward keeping our military the finest in the world and toward fulfilling our nation’s founding ideals,” said President Obama in a statement. A rainbow flag-bedecked recruiting area awaited applicants to the Marines in Tulsa, where the  New York Times  followed Marine officials who were invited to the city’s largest gay community center to seek applicants. Expecting a clash with angry protesters, news cameras found little action, either favoring or opposing the change: by 3 pm, the recruiting booth was visited by three lesbians, none of them ideal recru Image via Wikipedia its, reports the NYT . The military policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’

LEAKED: U.S. defense officials deliberately skewed survey results to sway ‘Don’t Ask’ repeal

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Image via Wikipedia An explosive document from the U.S. military’s top investigative office has revealed evidence that a Pentagon survey pivotal to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal was engineered months prior to its release, and deliberately skewed in later media leaks, to sway Congress towards repeal despite opposition from combat troops. An  unredacted version  of the April 2011 report by the Defense department’s Inspector General was leaked to the conservative Center for Military Readiness , and a  slightly redacted  version was confirmed as authentic by a Defense spokesperson to LifeSiteNews.com. The authors found that Jeh Johnson , a co-chair of the commission handling the survey, had breached the document’s non-disclosure agreements by discussing an early draft of the document with “a former news anchor” and “close personal friend” on or around July 4, 2010. The purpose of the meeting, almost six months before the survey’s official end, was to obtain “suggestions for persu

A soldier speaks: why repealing ‘Don’t Ask’ is wrong

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Image via Wikipedia WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24, 2011 I wrote a letter in late May 2011 to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) requesting that Congress reconsider repealing what is popularly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ( DADT ).  DADT is a misnomer. And so I shall refer to the repeal as the repealing of morality from the Armed Forces . The Washington Times learned of my letter and reported on it in the June 8 edition of its “Inside the Ring” section (“Army dissent” paragraph). I know for certain that leaders across the Armed Forces read what The Washington Times published, and so I am going to explain why I am questioning the pending repeal of morality. As always, my views are my own and I in no way represent the Army Reserve or any other part of the U.S. government. Why I’m Questioning: I know that I am in the minority in opposing the pending repeal of morality . . . at least, I am in the minority of those willing to vocalize their opposition. And yet that is part of