Tag Archives: transgender

Military Religious Freedom in a new Era

With the airwaves and mainstream media clogged with politics and other drama, issues of religious freedom in the US military largely fell to the wayside these past few months. The reason is that most (not all, but certainly most) military religious freedom issues begin as attacks from outside the military. With an inattentive public, those who would attack the religious liberty of US troops for their personal benefit haven’t been able to gain public traction – or have simply chosen not to, given the low monetary return they would see for their efforts.

Thus, organizations like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation have been either silent or largely ignored these past few months. (Mikey Weinstein’s Facebook page has been entertaining, as he’s been paying to promote otherwise ignored posts only to have the comments filled with “Who is this guy?” and “Why is this #$%$ on my feed!?!”)

With a new administration, there will certainly be changes that Read more

US Military Ignores Faith, Celebrates Pride in Homosexual Behavior

Last month, despite the lack of any pronouncement from their Commander-in-Chief, a few US military facilities continued the Obama-era tradition of celebrating the sexual behaviors of a few of their service members.

At Yokosuka, the US Navy held a socially-distanced Pride cake cutting, attended by about 10 people, including the facility’s commander, Navy Capt Rich Garrett.

Naval Warfare Center Dahlgren celebrated Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley in an in-depth personal profile, noting he

volunteers…in the Hampton Roads LGBTQ+ community by performing as the drag queen, Harpy Daniels.

That’s…disturbing.

March Air Reserve Base noted the “evangelistic” message of Marvin Tucker, who Read more

Former SecDef Explains Transgender Policy: We had no choice.

President Obama’s Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has been doing interviews to hawk his book, Inside the Five-Sided Box: Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership in the Pentagon, and spoke with the Military Times in September. In the interview he explained away the complexities, morality, and responsibility of some of the key DoD decisions with the simple “we had no choice.”

On the continuing presence of US troops in Afghanistan [emphasis added]:

I really do believe we’ve been on the best course, and the only course available to us.

On integrating women in combat arms within the US military [emphasis added]:  Read more

Teacher Sues After Being Fired for Transgender Pronoun Use

Peter Vlaming, a Virginia school teacher fired for using female pronouns for a female student who wanted to be male, has sued over his improper termination:

Vlaming’s termination in December as a French teacher at West Point (Virginia) High School came after he agreed to call a transgender ninth-grader by a new male name but declined to use male pronouns to reference the student, according to the lawsuit filed September 30 in Virginia state court. Instead, he never used pronouns in the student’s presence—except for one accidental slip-up.

Worse, of course, is the fact it appears to not be in dispute that Vlaming treated all of his students with respect.

Yet, that is not enough. It cannot Read more

Activists use Uniformed US Troops for Political Agenda

Members of the US military aren’t permitted to engage in partisan politics in uniform, nor are they supposed to permit others use them for that purpose. They are also not permitted to “use contemptuous words” against the Commander-in-Chief — in or out of uniform.*

Unless, of course, they’re LGBTQ.

For years the American Military Partner Association blatantly paraded uniformed military members around in support of its political agenda, and it did so even while engaging in outright political lobbying. Its successor, the oddly named “Modern Military Association of America” (apparently “modern” now means non-heterosexual), now Read more

Magistrate Recommends Dismissal in Transgender Pronoun Case

An Ohio magistrate has recommended that Dr. Nicholas Meriwether’s lawsuit against Shawnee State University (previously discussed) be dismissed. Meriwether had sued when it punished him after he refused to address a biologically male student with a female title — though he did agree to use only a last name.

“Speech by a government employee is protected under the First Amendment only if the speech was made ‘as a citizen’ while addressing ‘a matter of public concern,’” Litkovitz’s recommendation filing reads. “A government employee’s speech is made ‘as a citizen’ and is protected under the First Amendment only when the speech is not ‘pursuant to [the employee’s] duties.’”

That’s an awkward justification, because Meriwether was not punished for making what he claimed was protected speech. Instead, he was being required by the government to have certain content in his speech — content that conveyed a particular ideological view.

The ADF lawyers helping Meriwether said they’ll object on that basis: Read more

Report: US Army General Opposes President Trump as Uniformed Troops March in Protest

San Diego recently held its annual “Pride” Parade celebrating variations of sexuality — the same one then-Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning rode in as Grand Marshal in 2016. As then, uniformed military members played a prominent role [emphasis added]:

To show opposition to the Trump Administration’s ban on transgender troops, this year’s military contingent decided to have active-duty trans service members march at the front of the parade.

“I am a transgender sailor myself,” said Elijah Riddle, who currently serves in the U.S. Navy.

Let’s see: Participating in a political protest in uniform, and Read more

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