Navy secretary on transgender troops: 'Any patriot' should be allowed to serve

[demmiblue]

Source: The Hill

The recently confirmed secretary of the Navy says he will follow any order the president gives on transgender troops, but that “any patriot” should be allowed to serve.

“We will process and take direction of a policy that is developed by the [Defense] secretary [with] direction from the president and march out smartly,” Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer told reporters Thursday night after visiting Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.

"On a fundamental basis, any patriot that wants to serve and meets all the requirements should be able to serve in our military"

Spencer was confirmed a week after President Trump tweeted that he plans to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/346165-navy-secretary-on-transgender-troops-any-patriot-should-be-allowed-to-serve

---

[truthisfreedom]

1. 45 looks like an idiot in the face of his faves

The military he pretends to be part of.

[SummerSnow]

2. Trump will start attacking him soon

[heaven05]

3. hell yeah

they should be allowed to spill their blood for pres.bannon and his sock puppet toy potus and the MIC...who so need the money for more research on how to kill more people efficiently and in mass quantities. POC that is. I imagine they will need all the blood sacrifices on the alter of the MIC they can muster to the line in the upcoming months and years.

[Julian Englis]

4. That patriot requirement rules out most of the administration n/t

[spicysista]

5. I hope...

I can only hope that people/ would be allies of the community will continue to step up.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. These guys aren't patriots

all of tRUMPs' enablers/followers are greedy destructive capitalists, plain and simple.

They put way too much weight on the scales towards the business side always (1% of the 1%) of our country and way too little on the everyday little guys and/or gals that ironically need money in order to spend, to continually enable these guys even further. It's ironic because as our wages continue to get stagnated and less able to keep up w/ inflation, Americans will spend less and less (as we tend to do during economic hard times).

Seems like a lot of tRUMP guys need to take several economics classes, but I doubt they could understand the material...

[Hekate]

7. What does this have to do with the OP? Your comment is a complete non sequiter, SWBTATTReg.

[SWBTATTReg]

10. I think you are misreading me Hekate

my point is that I totally agree w/ anyone who wants to serve...they are truly the patriots here...
I am not sure what you are getting at w/ your statement, but you're jumping the gun here...I didn't intend any disrespect, and what in the world does OP mean?? Operating practice?

[Hekate]

8. Remember when President Obama oh-so-carefully brought the US military into the 21st century?

What the Mad King is doing for distraction and personal gain is nauseating.

But what I find outstanding is how many leaders in the military (the Coast Guard being one example) are quietly standing up and affirming that any citizen who is willing and able to serve should be able to serve -- and that the leadership will stand behind them. They are not going to change successful policy based on a damn tweet.

I think the solidity of this position can be traced to President Obama's care in getting us there, though it seemed slow at the time. The culture was ready for change, and now the culture has changed.

As with everything else, Trump and his minions are capable of great destruction, but we now know what progress we are capable of as well.

[riversedge]

9. He gave a good response at his confirmation.....Meanwhile Trump thinks the

military is confused and he stepped in to solve the problem! Idiot!



........“It’s been a very complicated issue for the military, it’s been a very confusing issue for the military, and I think I’m doing the military a great favor,” he said from his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

During his confirmation hearing last month, Spencer said he believes that individual military branches should not be a “petri dish for social experiments.” He added that by that he means policies should be developed by the Pentagon as a whole.

“I totally believe that policy should be developed at the [Department of Defense] level, and then discussed and socialized and deployed and then obeyed,” he continued. “We have to work together, including all our service people, to make sure that they are given what they need, whether that be spiritually, whether that be psychologically, whether that's materialistically, to fight forward so that — so readiness is the key and lethality is the product.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford has said the military’s transgender policy will remain unchanged until the White House send the Pentagon over an official directive, which has yet to happen.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft has pledged not to “break faith” with his transgender service members.

[haele]

11. Excuse me? The ending of DADT was discussed, socialized, and deployed by 2011/2012. And obeyed.

Even though the loud but insignificant minority of Evilangelicals in the service whined and cried about not having their special spaces respected enough that they could force their beliefs on everyone else.
Throughout my period of service, and from listening to the old guys and retirees, everyone knew who was straight, gay, lesbian, or transgendered in their units, and didn't care because we were all adults, not f'ing 12 year olds pretending to be grown ups. We did our jobs, we knew our hierarchy, and we knew we had to work as a unit, not act like pissy little a-hole individuals trying to be "king of the hill". The caveat here is that if someone "slacked" or was seen to not be able to carry his/her part of the load, the reaction from the others would tend to be sexually humiliating, because sex as a weapon is a quick and easy form of group punishment across the various power dynamics within a group, but for the most part, an individual's gender identification was never a problem on the job.

Anyway, politically or socially stabbing someone in the back because you wanted their billet didn't happen for the most part, because someone who is incapable of leadership or doing the work, but thinks they "deserve" a position screws with the mission and gets everyone else killed.

As usual, Drumpf has no clue what he's talking about, and isn't listening to anyone who doesn't reinforce his personal worldview.

Haele

[Gothmog]

12. Trump's trans ban is a really stupid idea