US Senator Marco Rubio has introduced legislation to ban transgender individuals from serving in the US military – with limited exceptions.
The Military Readiness Act would prohibit anyone with a confirmed history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria from serving in the military, unless they have stabilized in their biological gender 36 months prior to joining the military or are listed and living stable as their biological gender. .
The law would allow any transgender person, without a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria, to serve in their biological sex, who is otherwise eligible for service.
Senators Marsha Blackburn, Ted Budd, Tommy Tuberville and Mike Brown co-sponsored the bill. Congressman Jim Banks will introduce companion legislation in the House.
“The military has strict standards for who can and cannot be eligible for service. For example, under President Biden, you can’t serve someone with a peanut allergy. Biden has turned our military into a vigilante social experiment. It’s a stupid way to go about protecting our nation. We need to spend more time dealing with threats like China, Russia and North Korea and less time thinking about pronouns,” Senator Rubio said in a statement about the legislation.
Senator Blackburn added that “the United States military is no place for social experimentation. Communist China, Russia, Iran and North Korea don’t care what our service members’ nicknames are. We must maintain a strong military and show the rest of the world that the U.S. The United States is serious about our security and continued freedom. Any time we’re not spending preparing is when the New Axis of Evil gains an upper hand.”
Senator Tuberville noted that the world is on the brink of a major conflict and that this is not the time to “socially experiment with our armed forces”.
“The world is on the brink of a major conflict, and America’s military must be ready to fight at a moment’s notice,” the senator said. “Now is not the time to socially experiment with our armed forces at the expense of readiness, morale and our national defense. The military maintains strict mental and physical requirements because our service members need to be as capable and deployable as possible. These requirements should include all conditions that make a service member physically unfit to serve, including the lengthy and expensive process of gender reassignment.
Conservative organizations including Heritage Action, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, CatholicVote, and the American Principles Project supported the legislation.
“Service in the U.S. military is a privilege, not a right,” said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, in a statement. “To ensure effectiveness in combat, it is understood that our armed forces will accept only those who are physically and mentally fit to serve. Unfortunately, vigilante politicians have undermined this goal in recent years, turning our military into a radical social experiment and injecting gender ideology into nearly every aspect of its operations. Biological reality and proven fitness standards should not be pushed off the political agenda. Sen. The Military Readiness Act confirmed by Rubio is an important step toward restoring the military to its proper mission, and APP urges all members of Congress to support it.”