- So, if you watch the testimony,
my opening statement I may have
come across as a bit angry,
and that's because about 20 minutes before
the testimony started in the Green Room,
I walked up to a gentleman
and introduced myself.
I didn't realize who he was.
It was the Undersecretary of Defense for
Personnel and Manning, James Stewart.
I didn't know who he was.
I said my hellos and we shook hands
and I asked if he was there
for the Department of Defense
and he said he was.
So I physically turned away from him.
I had lost interest in
speaking with him that day.
Myself and Captain Alivia
Stehlik were standing there
and he looked over at us and he said,
"This should be fun today."
The reason that I brought
up that we weren't
wearing uniforms and that
Vice Admiral Bono was,
is because in my mind at that point,
and I think accurately so,
he was representing the interests of the
Department of Defense and
the Department of Defense's
official position, according
to the Undersecretary
of Defense for Manning
and Personal Readiness
is now that testifying before
Congress with the intent
to discharge 15,000 service members,
to him is fun.
That's their description.
So I was pretty angry going into that,
and the testimony I think,
that was terrible with these
five-minute conversations
where you feel like you can never really
have a discussion.
And then I listened to the testimony of
Vice Admiral Bono and
Mr. Stewart after that.
I think it was accurately
reported that unfortunately,
they were very misleading
in their testimony
and I think that not
advocating from a position
of a political position
about what I think about
their testimony, or how I feel about it,
I think it is accurate to
say that their testimony
was misleading and inaccurate.
You could see them, I
think, running out of
positions to go to.
Initially the cost of
trans service members
and the care was brought up.
You saw on the film it was estimated to be
eight million a year,
it actually turned out to be closer to
two and a half million a year,
so eight million over three years.
The cost of Viagra over that
same period was 140 million
and the cost to our army band
was over a billion dollars.
They talk about readiness,
and we know that all five
of the service chiefs have
come out and said that
this has no readiness on
morale impact or anything else.
And then they went to the readiness issue,
and they inaccurately described
how long a trans person
is non-deployable for, saying
it was in excess of a year
and that it was different
than most service members,
which is completely inaccurate.
The average trans service
member is non-deployable
for around four months,
compared to a pregnancy
which is closer to 16.
They also revealed that
they're inaccurately counting
their healthcare visits
because they require you to see
a healthcare provider
to receive trans care,
and then they say that
trans people are receiving
more mental health
visits than anyone else.
So they're creating their own arguments.
They also started counting
if you go to a support group,
because often the Behavioral Health hosts
the support group in their space.
So they were counting that
as a mental health visit.
So as you listen to them, you just realize
it's unfortunate really that the basis
for this policy can only
end in discrimination.
All the other arguments, I think,
during that testimony really washed away.
There just wasn't anything left,
and that was almost disheartening,
because some part of you
sort of hopes that there is
a basis for this policy.
That their interest
really is in protecting
national security and providing
for the common defense,
but that testimony I
think finally showed that
there just isn't anything
there except discrimination.
(upbeat music)
