lambdalegal

This is a really big misconception. Anybody who starts a new medication (including hormones) is non-deployable for 90 days. After that, you go back to deployable status.

If you have any type of surgery, then your non-deployable time depends on how long it takes you to recover from your surgery, and what your doctor recommends.

In short, it isn't as big a deal as people make it out to be.

The PT standards depend on the DEERS marker. (personnel record) Nobody is getting their DEERS marker changed without having been on hormones for a long period of time. By then, all the changes to muscle mass, bone density, etc have all happened.

As far as my personal feelings, I think DOD made the right choice there. It's a long, arduous process to get your DEERS marker changed, and this prevents people from abusing the system. Nobody can just "decide" that they're going to follow the female standards now.

My service, I think, speaks for itself. When other soldiers are looking at me, they're not seeing "a trans soldier", they're seeing a Staff Sergeant. And that's really what matters.

David Gerrold promised us a fourth book in the Chtorr series and hasn't delivered.

It's called "moving the goalposts". They make the accusation that it's prohibitively expensive, then when they're shown it's not, they make the accusation that I'm incapable of my duties. Then, when they're shown I'm not, they move back to the spending argument.