This reverses an Obama order.
And it has enraged those intent on normalizing that which is not normal.
President Trump tweeted yesterday morning, "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military."
He said, "[our military] cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."
As you can imagine, social media exploded.
So did the mainstream "news" media.
NBC News was a banner carrier. Their comments characterize those of most other Left leaning news operations.
These are some of the far Left talking points that fed into local TV and newspaper reports across the nation by last night and this morning. The following is the anatomy of the news on the subject:
- The staff of Defense Secretary Mattis appeared to be caught off guard."
- "Navy Capt. Jeff Davis also unprepared for Trump's statement."
- "Trump's statements confusing and unclear."
- "It's not fair to the 250 service members who are currently transitioning to their preferred genders or who have already been approved..."
- Republicans not supportive. "John McCain critical of the President." Orin Hatch: "I don't think we should be discriminating against anyone."
- Multiple quotes from homosexual activists. Example from NBC: "Sarah McBride, a spokesman for the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, wrote, 'A man who received 5 deferments from Vietnam is threatening the careers of 15,000 trans troops. Reprehensible, unpatriotic, and dangerous'."
NBC and others also noted that President Trump's statement "fell on the anniversary of President Truman's action on July 26, 1948, to end racial segregation in the armed forces."
NBC also notes that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told USA Today, "Thousands of transgender Americans are currently serving in uniform and there is no reason to single out these brave men and women and deny the medical care that they require."
Millions of people will believe this narrative and what it implies and suggests.
Be informed.
There is much more at play in this matter than the politics, although the political consequences are real.
Barack Obama has said repeatedly that Hillary's strong support for transgenders contributed to her political defeat. Democrats are now being forced to oppose Trump publicly on the issue and may also experience consequences.
However, I believe there is a much deeper issue in this matter. A moral one. A matter of human identity that relates to Creation itself. A matter that has universal effect---not only for the -1% who suffer from gender confusion.
When President Trump announced this dramatic decision yesterday, it came as a direct rejection of the progressives' demand that American society should be remade to eliminate all civic recognition of the two different-and-complementary male and female sexes.
Government affirmation would have been government endorsement of the progressives' claim that a person's changeable gender is more important than their biological sex.
Government endorsement would have been a big step toward influencing the outcome of court challenges that are certain to come.
Neil Munro wrote this yesterday:
The progressive push to bend Americans’ attitudes and their two-sex civic society around the idea of “gender” has already attacked and cracked popular social rules for how Americans handle the many social preferences of equal, different and complementary men and women, boys and girls. For example, the gender claims have shifted rules or practices about different-sex bathrooms, shelters for battered women, sports leagues for girls, hiking groups for boys, K-12 curricula, university speech codes, religious freedoms, free speech, the social status of women, parents’ rights in childrearing, practices to help teenagers, women’s expectations of beauty, culture and civic society, scientific research, prison safety, civic ceremonies, school rules, men’s sense of masculinity, law enforcement, and children’s sexual privacy.
The progressives and homosexual activists not only push to bend cultural norms to accommodate their behavior but Scripture as well.
The religious Left---Campolo, Wallis, Bell and others who follow their teaching in support of same-sex marriage and their so-called Scriptural support for deviant sexual behavior and gender fluidity---often pose the question, "If God is both genders--or contains both genders---shouldn't people be free to choose their own identity?"
Advocates say if God is "androgynous"---both male and female, doesn't that suggest that human beings---made in His own image, have the prerogative of being either male or female---or perhaps both male and female, according to personal preference?
The Scriptural basis for human sexuality is Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."
I will be talking more about this verse on the radio today. You may join me live from anywhere in the world at 9 AM PDT. Here's how.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.