WASHINGTON – Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) wants answers from the Merchant Marine Academy after the Long Island institution implemented a new policy allowing midshipmen undergoing gender transition to request exemptions from their military service requirement .
The policy, which will go into effect on October 13, aims to establish procedures for the admission and education of transgender students and those “in transition while enrolled in the academy to eliminate barriers for those with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or who They identify as transgender. “
Banks, who chairs the House Anti-Woke Caucus, led a congressional letter to the academy on Friday expressing concerns.
“Our service academies are institutions critical to our nation’s security, not laboratories for far-left social experiments,” he told The Post exclusively. “Imposing radical gender ideology on young men and women who want to serve their country is dangerous and wrong.”
The new policy maintains that midshipmen “with a diagnosis indicating that gender transition is medically necessary” will be treated “in the same manner and to the same extent as students with other medical conditions that affect the student’s ability to enroll, graduate and fulfill their service obligation.”
The policy was developed in response to President Biden’s 2021 executive order requiring all federal agencies to “ensure compliance with the stated policy of preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation,” according to the document. .
The Merchant Marine Academy is implementing a new policy that would allow midshipmen undergoing gender transition to apply for exemption from military service. AP Photo/Frank Eltman, File
It also follows a 2021 Department of Defense guidance that allows service members seeking to undergo a gender transition to request a leave of absence or a transfer to another unit if the person is deemed unfit to serve during the process.
The Merchant Marine Academy’s gender transition provision is based on that of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Department of Transportation Maritime Administration spokesman TV Johnson told The Post.
The Coast Guard maintains that “any consequences of the determination that a member is not deployable will also be made in accordance with the Coast Guard standard similar to that of other members who are not deployable for medical reasons unrelated to gender identity or gender transition. ” according to its latest transgender troops policy.
Academy policy states that midshipmen with a “diagnosis indicating that gender transition is medically necessary” will be treated as students who have conditions that affect their “ability to enroll, graduate, and fulfill their service obligation.” Photo by Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
But Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), who joined Banks’ letter, called the policy “radical” and argued that it would “lead to the exploitation of our once pristine academies,” which offer free college education in exchange for future military service.
“Left-wing transgender policies have not only infiltrated American colleges and universities, but also our service academies; This must end,” he said.
In the letter, which was also signed by Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Doug LaMalfa (R -Calif.), Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), lawmakers asked the service academy why “gender dysphoria [is] Is it considered a ‘medically disqualifying condition?’”
Rep. Jim Banks told The Post that “imposing radical gender ideology on young men and women who want to serve their country is dangerous and wrong.” AP Photo/José Luis Magaña
“We are concerned about policy guidelines that would allow midshipmen who identify as transgender during their third or fourth year in the USMMA to receive a medical exemption from their mandatory service,” the lawmakers wrote.
“This creates a dangerous avenue for exploiting our nation’s prestigious service academies,” they added.
In addition to the service exemption, the new policy also requires that transgender students be able to live as their chosen gender regardless of their biological sex.
That provision prompted concerned parents of current midshipmen to bring the new policy to lawmakers’ attention, Banks’ office said.
One parent cited the school’s recent history in combating sexual assault among students.
“The school has done everything it can to try to improve sexual assault safety on campus and at sea. Now, this policy reverses the good work that has been done,” they told The Post.
“I fear for young women who will be forced into uncomfortable positions as full-blown biological men are introduced as roommates and into the locker room-style communal women’s showers at school,” the father added. who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“Kings Point women should not have to compromise their safety or virtue in order to be educated at the federal maritime academy.”
“No accommodations will be made for them and complaints will be considered honor violations, which could cost them their education and careers,” the father continued. “With a national shortage of sailors, the school should not erode its recruiting base.”
LaMalfa agreed, telling The Post that “biological men do not belong in sports, bathrooms, showers or women’s living quarters.”
According to a spokesperson, the Merchant Marine Academy’s policy is based on that of the United States Coast Guard Academy. Robert Sabo for NY POST
“This policy endangers young women, who only want to serve their country, in the places where they are supposed to be safest,” she said.
Hageman argued that given the current national security environment, with wars in Ukraine and Israel, “woke ideology and social experiments cannot be tolerated, supported, or funded in any branch of our military.”
“Our world is on fire due to the failed policies and weakness of the Biden administration,” he said, “leaving our military unable to operate simultaneously in two theaters of war.”
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