The U.S. Senate on Wednesday cleared a national defense authorization bill celebrated for troop pay raises but condemned by Democrats for targeting transgender children in military families, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Senators voted 83-12, with five not voting, to approve the $884.9 billion National Defense Authorization Act that received bipartisan praise for the pay bump, upgrades to military housing and investments in artificial intelligence and other advanced technology.
But the annual legislation drew ire this year from Democrats for a provision banning the military’s health program from covering certain treatments for youth experiencing gender dysphoria, defined by doctors as the mismatch between a person’s sex assigned at birth and the gender they experience in everyday life.
All Democrats present for the Dec. 11 U.S. House vote opposed the defense package, which passed along party lines under the Republican majority.
The White House has not released its position on the bill, as it generally does with legislation ready for the president’s signature.
The percentage of people who were left handed magically rose from less than 1% to around 10% after we stopped persecuting people for being left handed. The same dynamic is at play here.
The thing about trans people is we’re often an invisible minority. If you met me on the street or even were my coworker for years, you wouldn’t know I’m trans. I’m a trans woman in my mid 30s. I simply don’t bring it up with people who aren’t really close to me. That’s both for my own protection and because frankly, most of the time I just want people to see me as a woman, not as a trans woman. And just in case you’re one of those people who thinks you can magically identify all the trans people around you, well confirmation bias is a thing. You only see the trans people you see. Some of us are out and proud gender-fucking pink haired gender studies majors, but most of us are just pretty regular boring people. We have jobs and lives like everyone else. I live with my husband in a 3 bed 2.5 bath house in a regular suburban neighborhood. You could be my neighbor or coworker and not know it.