House votes against ban on military funding of transgender surgery

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to reject a proposal to ban military funding of gender reassignment procedures for military service members.

Members of the House voted 209–214 to dismiss an amendment to the $696 billion 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which lays out military budget and expenditures.

The amendment, proposed by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), was aimed at rescinding the military's authority to fund hormone therapy, sex change surgeries and other treatments related to gender transition for service members and their families. The proposal, however, would have maintained funding for mental health services related to gender dysphoria.

Hartzler had expressed concern over funding the high-priced surgeries on the military's financially strapped budget, as well as the decrease in troop readiness due to post-surgery recovery time.

"There are many problems, but funding transition surgeries with tax dollars are problematic because the surgery is very costly," Hartzler stated, as reported by Church Militant. "Surgical recovery time decreases the deployability of our soldiers and funding transition surgeries means diverting money from other defense priorities," she added.

Hartzler's proposal came after the Obama administration ended the ban on openly serving transgender service members and enacted a policy last year that funds costly transgender health services for members of the military who are medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

At least two dozen Republicans joined 190 Democratic lawmakers in opposing the amendment. House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi argued that the proposal amounted to discrimination against transgender service members by not paying for such surgeries.

"Make no mistake, the effect and the intent of this unjust and mean-spirited amendment is to ban patriotic Americans from serving our country," Pelosi contended. "It is designed to throw transgender service members out of the military," she continued.

Congressman Duncan Hunter rejected Pelosi's argument, saying the amendment did not prevent transgenders from serving in the military. "You're joining the U.S. military. Choose what gender you are before you serve," he said.

On June 30, Defense Secretary James Mattis announced that he was postponing the July 1 deadline for the armed services to begin accepting transgender applicants by six months to study the new policy further.

However, service members have already been required to undergo training on the new policy, and female Army soldiers have been instructed to accept having biological men in their showers.

The new guidelines state that soldiers only need to obtain a diagnosis from a doctor and change their gender in the military's database prior to showering with members of the opposite sex.