We’re starting to see the first effects of the ban on transgender people in the armed forces.
The Associated Press reports transgender people will no longer be allowed to attend the U.S. Naval Academy starting with the 2020 school year.
At the University of Texas, according to Newsweek, the Department of Defense voided the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship for transgender freshman Map Pesqueira.
On a GoFundMe page, Pesqueira wrote, “I have been on hormone replacement therapy and living in my preferred gender for 15 months, just recently had top surgery, and have legally changed my name and gender marker … Because I have started medically transitioning, my scholarship is now void.”
Under a Trump administration ban that took effect April 12, gender confirming surgery or hormone therapy can disqualify applicants from joining. The policy also prohibits candidates who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
This is how 100 Questions and Answers About Gender Identity describes the condition:
What is gender dysphoria?
According to the American Psychiatric Association, this “involves a conflict between a person’s physical gender and the gender with which he or she identifies.” A similar diagnostic change was made for sexual orientation in 1973. Gender dysphoria can mean stress, anxiety and depression related to gender identity. Dysphoria does not mean gender nonconformity. It refers to thoughts, feelings and behaviors that do not match stereotypes of the sex assigned at birth. Not all transgender people have gender dysphoria.
