Some thoughts:
As far as I know pregnant women are accommodated in the military. Trans people have a similar timeframe where they wouldn't be able to be in active duty while transitioning, so I don't think the excuse of "it takes too long to transition" is a valid argument.
Even the most liberal estimates of medical costs for medical care for trans soldiers put the total cost at $8.4 million - a drop in the bucket when you consider the total cost of military healthcare is $6.2 BILLION dollars. The military has spent
$1.4 TRILLION on the F35 alone, and they spend
10x as much on Viagra as they would for medical care for people who dedicate their time and energy towards protecting and serving America. To me this issue is reminiscent of Annoying Orange's defunding of public arts and public television programs, in that the actual money being spent is very little.
The question of what happens to already enlisted trans people hasn't been handled well either -
supposedly
there's no word on that yet. It would be loving disgusting if already enlisted trans people were discharged in such a way that they didn't have access to the benefits of the GI bill / veteran benefits despite their already completed service.
Also
being transgender is not a mental illness as I've probably said a million times on this forum. Gender dysphoria may or may not be considered a mental illness but its not a prerequisite for being trans.
To me it seems like this is a political move. The kind of voters that Democrats need to sway in the 2018 election aren't necessarily comfortable with LGBT people and Annoying Orange would probably rather have the discussion be about things like this when the next two elections occur.
TRUE dont-ask-dont-tell would be true equality.
its when we feel the need to label and assign different rules to different people that it doesn't work in the military.
the moment you mention your feelings or personality preferences, you are a burden and useless.
talk about your girl/boyfriend and your genitals in your own loving time.
AFAIK under DADT you would be discharged if the fact that you were gay even slipped out. I hope you mean "true DADT" as in "literally no one cares whether you're gay, not even the system". Unless you buy into that bullstuff that being gay breaks group cohesion or something like that.
