As the new Trump administration prepared to issue an order forbidding transgender people to serve in the armed forces, a bunch of profoundly stupid news stories issued panicked warnings that military readiness would DEVASTATED by a giant purge of at least 15,000 transgender servicemembers, the very core of our military strength. Warplanes grounded! Ships trapped in port as all their trans sailors were tossed out! Whole artillery batteries sitting silent! Example from Newsweek:
"Should a trans ban be implemented from Day One of the Trump administration it would undermine the readiness of the military and create an even greater recruitment and retention crisis, not to mention signaling vulnerability to America's adversaries," she said.
"Abruptly discharging 15,000-plus service members, especially given that the military's recruiting targets fell short by 41,000 recruits last year, adds administrative burdens to war fighting units.
"There would be a significant financial cost, as well as a loss of experience and leadership that will take possibly 20 years and billions of dollars to replace."
The removal of trans servicemembers would inflict such a ghastly crisis on the armed forces that it would take twenty years to recover our military strength! Destruction and ruin and crisis and collapse!
Here’s the New Republic in late November, under the calm headline, “Here’s How Much Trump’s Extreme Transgender Ban Would Damage Military.”
Donald Trump’s plan to ban transgender people from the military would have a devastating effect: At least 15,000 members would be forced to leave.
I wrote several stories examining and dismissing those ludicrous estimates, and I argued that “the number may well turn out to be in the very low hundreds.” For example:
About the Supposedly Devastating Impact of that Supposed Transgender Ban in the American Military
The news media is calmly warning that Donald Trump is planning to ban transgender servicemembers from the American military, which will absolutely gut the armed forces.
Now the removal of transgender troops is actually underway, and guess what?
The number is “up to” 1,000. It’s in the hundreds.
So. When — quite recently! — dozens of panicked news stories reported as fact that 15,000-plus transgender servicemembers were about to be purged, the news was frankly and nakedly a complete invention. They made it up. They sold an invented panic. The “news” was entirely fake.
Remember that, and apply that lesson widely.
"They made it up. They sold an invented panic."
If your political/social/ideological movement is founded on the shameless emotional blackmail of "Do as we say or your kid will kill themselves!", there isn't much lower they can sink.
Gender Theory built its church on the shifting quicksand of total moral relativity and insists that there's no such thing as truth, facts, reality, biology, and that the mammalian sex binary is actually an oppressive political imposition.
Claiming that there were 15k trannies in the military doesn't even crack their Top Ten of lies.
i thought of your article when i saw that 1,000 number. they always play fast and loose with the trans number--as benefits them. "only a few" trans athletes, many thousands of trans troops.