Trump order targets transgender troops and ‘radical gender ideology’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/01/28/trump-transgender-troops-military-hegseth/

tRump is old and … intellectually challenged so he can not understand gender identification.  A lot of older people can’t handle the changes in society and the acceptance of new ways to be / live.  As far as the religious fanatics pushing the hate against LGBTQ+ people including trans people are cis people who do not feel a disconnect between their sex organs and their feelings of who they are in society.  Just as the same religious straight people can not understand the attraction gay people feel.  They don’t feel that way themselves, so don’t see being cis and straight being the only acceptable way to live as a problem. Instead they think because they don’t feel that way then no one else does so it must be a choice.  Or a mental defect to be cured.  They refuse to accept medical science / medical studies and all the evidence that it is real, exists, and normal.  We learn as a society and we as we grow in understanding we learn to accept new things.  Medical science and medical research tell us that being trans and gay is normal, also that medical care that affirms those feelings is important along with necessary.   Just because I don’t like a food or feel like I want to eat it, doesn’t mean no one likes it or don’t want to eat it.  But liking a food I don’t doesn’t mean it is a mental illness or makes a person unfit.  

saying that the U.S. military has been “afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists” and that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty.”

 

It also takes aim at transgender people in personal terms, accusing them of living in conflict “with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

 

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” it adds.

 

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former National Guard soldier who has said that “being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences,”

The above by the drunken wife abuser accused sexual predator Hegseth is wrong.  The only complication and differences caused by having transgender people in the military is not the trans people but the fundamentalist religious people / Christians like Hegseth who feel the entire LGBTQ+ is an abomination to his god and so shouldn’t be allowed to exist.   Or worse mix with the real children of god, people with good morals like the drunken wife abuser accused sexual predator Hegseth. This issue over transgender people in the military reminds me of when Clinton tried to make it legal for gay people to be out in the military.   Senator Sam Nunn went on a Navy ship and said no real service member wanted to be sleeping near, working next to, or using the bathroom facilities with the dreaded gay person, which some churches were desperate to keep from being accepted and live openly in society.  The anti-gay people claimed all sorts of horrors if gay people were allowed to service openly from the collapse of the military to mass exit of members.   None of that happened, the military stayed the world’s best and there was no mass fleeing from the service. 

These same people with the same hater mind set made the same claims about first black people being allowed to serve, and then when the military was desegregated.  The same was said of women in combat roles.  It always comes from the haters who use their personal bigotry as the metric for how everyone should be and feel.  And they never admit when all the horrors they claim will happen if those they are against get equality and inclusion never happen.  They just pick a new target and repeat the same attacks and hates.  Now it is the trans people’s turn to be accused of all the horrible things that blacks were, the gays were, that never were true.  Trans people have served openly for some time, studies show that they do not harm the military or lower the military readiness / effectiveness in any way.  Sadly far too many of our general public who know nothing about the military or who never served think they are experts and again feel that everyone has the same bigotries, racist, and misogynistic feelings they do.  Being in other countries or even different parts of the US will open closed minds.  Harris did not lose by much, she almost won.  It is too bad these hateful ignorant people are going to be able to enshrine their hates and bigotries into law and hurt so many people in the next few years. But remember if we can get the House then most of the damage can do with the passing of laws will stop, and if we can regain the Senate we can stop hateful ideolog judges from being installed.   It is up to us to get out the vote.   Hugs

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The executive order took aim at transgender individuals in personal terms, noting that physical and mental health conditions make them “incompatible” with military service.

January 28, 2025 at 12:28 a.m. EST
 
The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
 

President Donald Trump on Monday night issued an executive order targeting transgender service members and an array of other people, saying that the U.S. military has been “afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists” and that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty.”

 
 

The list of conditions identified could affect tens of thousands of people depending on how it is interpreted. It cites diagnoses “that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization.”

The order calls for the Pentagon to adopt updated policies on the medical standards required for military service. It also takes aim at transgender people in personal terms, accusing them of living in conflict “with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

 
 

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” it adds.

 

The order builds on a previous directive, issued hours after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, overturning a 2021 Biden administration measure that permitted transgender troops to serve openly, which reversed an earlier ban from Trump’s first term in office. The new executive order does not immediately ban transgender individuals from serving, but it directs the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard, to revise medical standards and submit a report to the president outlining steps to comply with the directive.

While the Defense Department does not keep track of the number of transgender personnel across the force, the latest shift in the long-running policy back-and-forth could impact thousands of service members. It also represents one aspect of a far-reaching Trump administration effort to roll back diversity initiatives across the government.

 
 

Trump signed the new transgender order along with others calling for the reinstatement of troops who were discharged during the Biden administration for refusing coronavirus vaccines; the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion offices in the Defense Department; and the creation of an “Iron Dome for America,” Trump’s vision for expanded missile defense.

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former National Guard soldier who has said that “being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences,” promised in his first remarks to reporters at the Pentagon on Monday that he would ensure implementation of Trump’s priorities, which also include ordering the military to guard the southern border.

“This is happening quickly,” he said. “Our job is lethality and readiness and warfighting.”

 
 

In a November podcast, Hegseth said personnel receiving medication related to gender transitions would be unable to serve effectively.

Advocates for transgender people have said that there may be as many as 15,000 in the U.S. military. A 2016 Defense Department survey found that about 9,000 identified as such. Both figures represent less than 1 percent of the 2 million people who serve in the active-duty, reserve or National Guard components of the military.

For decades, the military considered transgender people to be sexual deviants who were unfit for service. But in 2016, after a year-long policy review, the Obama administration repealed a ban on transgender service, citing the value of ensuring that all qualified individuals were able to serve their country in uniform.

 

“We have to have access to 100 percent of America’s population for our all-volunteer forces to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified — and to retain them,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at the time.

 

The repeal followed the Obama administration in 2011 overturning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prohibited gay service members from serving openly, and the 2015 repeal of a ban on women serving in a wide array of jobs in ground combat units.

After taking office in 2017, Trump announced a ban on transgender military service in a series of tweets, without notifying key defense officials. The move triggered a scramble in the Pentagon, with then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordering another policy review.

 

In 2018, Mattis adopted a new policy with Trump’s tacit support that softened the full ban, effectively prohibiting new transgender service members from joining the military but allowing those already in uniform to stay on.

The ruling was challenged in court, but the Supreme Court upheld Trump’s partial ban in 2019. The military began enforcing that policy later that year.

President Joe Biden quickly reversed Trump’s ban in an executive order after taking office in 2021.

Trump’s Extreme ICE Plan Hit With Lawsuit—From the Quakers

After Trump removed a key restriction on where ICE agents can make arrests, the Quakers are fighting back.

The Quakers are suing Trump’s Department of Homeland Security for allowing ICE raids in places of worship.

The lawsuit, filed in Maryland on Monday by multiple different Quaker groups from across the country, states that “the very threat of [immigration] enforcement deters congregants from attending services, especially members of immigrant communities,” and notes that the raids infringe on religious freedom.

“A week ago today, President Trump swore an oath to defend the Constitution and yet today religious institutions that have existed since the 1600s in our country are having to go to court to challenge what is a violation of every individual’s constitutional right to worship and associate freely,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing the Quaker groups in court. “The troubling nature of the policy goes beyond just houses of worship with sanctuary programs—it is that ICE could enter religious and sacred spaces whenever it wants.” (snip-MORE)

https://newrepublic.com/post/190756/trump-ice-lawsuit-quakers

Some News Stories About FL’s Legislators Fighting the Gov. We’ll See If The Law Wins…

Florida lawmakers rebuke DeSantis, convene own immigration special session

Gray Rohrer Ana Goñi-Lessan USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida


Florida Republicans defy DeSantis to push their own immigration bill

By  STEPHANY MATAT and KATE PAYNE Updated 5:28 PM CST, January 27, 2025


A ‘blatant lie’: Fight escalates between DeSantis, Florida Legislature over immigration

Republican legislative leaders on Monday accused DeSantis of lying about their bill to beef up enforcement of immigration laws.

Gray Rohrer USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida

Republican legislative leaders on Monday accused Gov. Ron DeSantis of “not reading” and lying about their bill to beef up enforcement of immigration laws.

After Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez rejected his immigration proposals earlier in the day and put forward one of their own, DeSantis slammed their plan as “weak” and claimed they were “gutting” his proposal to require all law enforcement officials in the state to work with federal immigration enforcement officials. (snip-this was the newest update at 8 PM when I set this up. There could be more by now!)

What we must now fight against what is pushed worldwide by the wealthiest people.

Some clips of TizzyEnt. I like this guy because he is short and factual. Clarity of thought. Sort of like Beau of the fifth Column was.

They did / are doing what? Again!

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) wants to make ballot initiatives impossible.FL already requires 60% support to pass—abortion rights & legal weed failed despite 56-57% support in 2024.Last decade, voters passed amendments to end gerrymandering & restore voting rights, which DeSantis also undermined

Stephen Wolf (@stephenwolf.bsky.social) 2025-01-24T13:26:16.599Z

Several other intelligence agencies continue to favor the natural-origin theory, and there is no evidence SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the pandemic, was in any laboratory before the outbreak.

The conspiracy nut jobs are in power now, who needs evidence and facts for something to be true.

So Jared can build luxury beachfront condos.

All that valuable oceanfront property. Much too nice for those dirty people. The Israeli military has already done a good job of demolition. We need to rebuild for people who will appreciate the beauty of the place and be willing to pay to maintain it. /s

 

Letters From An American

January 26, 2025 by Heather Cox Richardson Read on Substack

On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln rose before the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, to make a speech. Just 28 years old, Lincoln had begun to practice law and had political ambitions. But he was worried that his generation might not preserve the republic that the founders had handed to it for transmission to yet another generation. He took as his topic for that January evening, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions.”

Lincoln saw trouble coming, but not from a foreign power, as other countries feared. The destruction of the United States, he warned, could come only from within. “If destruction be our lot,” he said, “we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

The trouble Lincoln perceived stemmed from the growing lawlessness in the country as men ignored the rule of law and acted on their passions, imposing their will on their neighbors through violence. He pointed specifically to two recent events: the 1836 lynching of free Black man Francis McIntosh in St. Louis, Missouri, and the 1837 murder of white abolitionist editor Elijah P. Lovejoy by a proslavery mob in Alton, Illinois.

But the problem of lawlessness was not limited to individual instances, he said. A public practice of ignoring the law eventually broke down all the guardrails designed to protect individuals, while lawbreakers, going unpunished, became convinced they were entitled to act without restraint. “Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane,” Lincoln said, “they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much as its total annihilation.”

The only way to guard against such destruction, Lincoln said, was to protect the rule of law on which the country was founded. “As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor…. Let reverence for the laws…become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.”

Lincoln was quick to clarify that he was not saying all laws were good. Indeed, he said, bad laws should be challenged and repealed. But the underlying structure of the rule of law, based in the Constitution, could not be abandoned without losing democracy.

Lincoln didn’t stop there. He warned that the very success of the American republic threatened its continuation. “[M]en of ambition and talents” could no longer make their name by building the nation—that glory had already been won. Their ambition could not be served simply by preserving what those before them had created, so they would achieve distinction through destruction.

For such a man, Lincoln said, “Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.” With no dangerous foreign power to turn people’s passions against, people would turn from the project of “establishing and maintaining civil and religious liberty” and would instead turn against each other.

Lincoln reminded his audience that the torch of American democracy had been passed to them. The Founders had used their passions to create a system of laws, but the time for passion had passed, lest it tear the nation apart. The next generation must support democracy through “sober reason,” he said. He called for Americans to exercise “general intelligencesound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.

“Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”

What became known as the Lyceum Address is one of the earliest speeches of Lincoln’s to have been preserved, and at the time it established him as a rising politician and political thinker. But his recognition, in a time of religious fervor and moral crusades, that the law must prevail over individual passions reverberates far beyond the specific crises of the 1830s.

Notes:

https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm

Sunday meme post and I forgot to get them thinking Wednesdays meme post was this one. Got up at 2 am to finish it

President Sheinbaum trolled Trump good displaying the first ever full map of North America in 1600s naming the entire continent America Mexicana.

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Republican Jesus:
I was hungry, and you called me a moocher
I was thirsty, and you smashed my water bottle
I was naked, and you called me a pervert
I was sick, and you cut off my insurance
I was in prison, and you called for longer minimum sentences
I was a foreigner, and you demanded to see my papers

A lawyer who represents Federal Employees.. the last bit is chilling.

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Forget the belt! “Daddy” really needs to take the lifts off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some things I found a need to know

A lawyer who represents Federal Employees.. the last bit is chilling.

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 Today’s speeches were delivered from behind bulletproof glass. Meanwhile, Trump just gave violent anti-abortion zealots free rein to blockade clinics and probably much worse.

The proposed school is being defended by the governor and state attorney general.

In 2022, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared, “Father, we just claim Oklahoma for you. Every square inch, we claim it for you in the name of Jesus. Father, we can do nothing apart from you. We don’t battle against flesh and blood but against principalities and darkness.”

During his 2018 inauguration, Stitt pledged that his primary mission would be to “bring people to Jesus.”

Stitt last appeared here in November 2024 when he warned that “Satan is trying to take over my state” because a pagan woman gave the invocation at Tulsa’s city council meeting.

In June 2024, Still signed a bill allowing public school students to leave campus three times a week for “religious instruction.”

Peace & Justice History for 1/26

January 26, 1784
Benjamin Franklin, noting the bald eagle was “a bird of bad moral character” who lived “by sharping and robbing,” expressed regret it had been selected to be the U.S. national symbol.


Benjamin Franklin
Franklin proposed the wild turkey, “a much more respectable Bird and a true original Native of America.” He said the eastern wild turkey, known for its intelligence, cunning and boldness, was a far better symbol of the United States.
In a 1775 letter published in a magazine, Franklin made a good case for the rattlesnake as an appropriate symbol of “the temper and conduct of America.

How the bald eagle became our national bird (Interestingly, the link on the P&J History page leads to “Forbidden.” I thought I oughta make a note of it. The link here is on History.com, not forbidden when I posted.)
Frankin’s letter on the rattlesnake
January 26, 1930
Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders of the anti-colonial movement in India pledged to achieve complete independence, or Purna Swaraj, from Great Britain.
Nehru said:

“The British Government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally and spiritually . . . We hold it to be a crime against men and God to submit any longer to a rule that has caused this fourfold disaster to our country.”
January 26, 1950
The Indian Constitution became law and India proclaimed itself a republic. The new president replaced the King of England as head of state after nearly 100 years of British colonial rule. The Republic of India considered its sovereignty derived from the people, becoming the most populous democracy in the world. The day is now celebrated as Republic Day.
The new President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, after taking the oath of office:
“Today, for the first time in our long and chequered history, we find the whole of this vast land . . . brought together under the jurisdiction of one constitution and one union which takes over responsibility for the welfare of more than 320 million men and women who inhabit it.”
More About Republic Day
January 26, 1956
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for the first time, for driving 30 mph (48 kph) in a 25 mph (40 kph) zone in Montgomery, Alabama. This occurred shortly after the beginning of the citywide bus boycott he had helped organize. His home was bombed a few days later.
January 26, 1962

Bishop Joseph A. Burke of the Buffalo, New York, Catholic Diocese banned a new song and dance, “The Twist,” by Chubby Checker.
It couldn’t be danced, sung, or listened to in any Catholic school, parish, or youth event. Later in the year, the Twist was banned from community center dances in Tampa, Florida, as well. It was claimed the Twist was actually a pagan fertility dance.

“The Twist” by its originator
January 26, 1969
Police wielding truncheons and firing tear gas from pressure canisters broke up a march by hundreds of demonstrators in central Prague.

Jan Palach
The violence erupted as officers tried to disperse the crowd gathered at the foot of the Wenceslas Statue to pay tribute to Jan Palach, the student who burned himself to death in protest at the Soviet invasion the previous summer, and their ongoing occupation of Czechoslovakia.
More about Jan Palach 
January 26, 1991
Germans protested their country’s membership in the coalition prosecuting the first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq after he invaded Kuwait. Rallying out in many cities, the largest turnout brought 200,000 to Bonn. The number of those claiming conscientious objector status jumped 35% in that month to 30,000.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january26