August 26th, 2014
The Pentagon thinks that there are 15,500 transgendered people secretly serving in the military.
Some quick math:
There are 1,369,532 active duty military personnel. If 15,500 of them are transgendered, it means that 1.13 percent of our armed forces are transgendered.
For comparison’s sake, according to the CDC, 1.6 percent of Americans identify as gay or lesbian. So either:
(a) The number of transgendered people approaches the number of homosexual people, which seems, based on most anecdotal evidence to be unlikely.
(b) The military population is significantly more transgendered than the general population. Which also seems somewhat unlikely.
or
(c) The number reported by the Pentagon is a fiction.
-
Don’t ask, don’t tell has apparently been replaced by Don’t think, don’t count. Would love to hear what number they come up with for Muslims in the military.
-
I wonder if this number is higher because of the women who identify as FTM transsexuals. I imagine that Female-to-Male transsexuals would be overrepresented in the military by a very high percentage.
-
I actually think that the number or trans in the military is dramatically different than the US population is believable. I feel this way for the following reasons.
1 A great percentage of the military is 18-30 years old. One is much more likely to be confused about ones gender wile young than wile old. By the time you are in you 40’s and 50’s you figure it out, get an operation. learn to live a lie ETC. The medium age in the US is 41 and only about 24% or so of the military is over 41.
2 This is not the only example of the US Military not reflecting the US population. For example Atheists are about .6% of the military. Their is debate about what the actual number of atheists in the US is: a BBC poll say 9% CNN says 6% some conservative groups say it is only 3%. in any event the military number is significantly different from the population as a whole.
3 The number of Hispanics is also different from the US population. 11% of the military and 12% of the US population however they are 16% of the 18-25 year old demographic that the military wants.
I like the out dated assumption that our military reflects our society, but it just does not any more. And I think it is silly to assume that the military would be reflective of our population take any group any class any religion and some people are over represented and some people are under represented. Also, the assumption that people who are trans are less on average to have a valuable and important job in the military is silly.
Just my 2 cents and 15 minutes of Googling.
Abdul August 27, 2014 at 2:42 pm
When Bradley Manning changed his name to Chelsea, there was an article about the prevalence of gender identity in the military. It’s apparently higher in the military because people like Manning go into the military thinking that the uniformity and masculinity will straighten them out.