“Deploy-or-Out” Precludes Transgenders in the Military

Defense Secretary James Mattis recently announced that military personnel must be deployable if they are to remain in the armed forces.  His “deploy-or-out” policy is a corrective to recent practice which saw a relatively small percentage of those in uniform bearing the brunt of the dislocations, hardships and sacrifices associated with the Pentagon’s overseas operations.

This initiative will reestablish readiness as the uniformed services’ top priority, not social engineering that impairs it.  It would apply to so-called “transgender” individuals afflicted with the clinical condition known as “gender dysphoria” who are routinely unable to work, let alone deploy, due to hormone treatments, surgeries, psychological care, etc.

President Trump has sensibly ordered the Pentagon not to recruit such people. Several federal courts have outrageously ignored his authority to do so.  Gen. Mattis has established a sound basis for rejecting such anti-constitutional and dangerous judicial interference.