Walt Heyer, who lived eight years as a trans woman before having surgeries to become a man again, says President Donald Trump is right to ban trans people from the military.
Walt Heyer, who lived eight years as a trans woman before having surgeries to become a man again, says President Donald Trump is right to ban trans people from the military.
In a column published at The Daily Signal, Heyer argues that loss of military cohesiveness — as well as the costs of the military providing funding for members’ gender reassignment surgeries — undermines the true mission of the armed services.
The U. S. military, he said, “was forged to be the world’s strongest fighting force, not a government-funded, politically correct, medical sex change clinic for people with gender dysphoria.”
Heyer doesn’t agree with those who say people are born with “gender dysphoria, ” a condition in which a person identifies not as the biological gender to which he or she was born. According to Heyer, who runs a website to counsel those who say they regret their decision to change genders, the condition actually “develops from prolonged anxiety and depression.”
“The military is expected to prepare its members in warfare: to kill, destroy, and break our enemies, ” he said. “The most important factors in preparing a strong military are not hormone therapy, surgical sex changes, or politically correct education.”
Instead, he said, “We need psychologically fit, emotionally sound, highly trained troops to protect our nation from its enemies.”
Heyer also blasted the fact that costly treatments are being provided to military members, saying the money should instead be spent to help homeless and sick veterans.
“Transitioning can be expensive—up to $130,000 per person for numerous body-mutilating and cosmetic procedures over many months (or years) to fashion the body to appear as the opposite sex, ” he said.
The change is only cosmetic, he argued, and leads up to 40 percent of trans people to attempt suicide, with some succeeding.
Some service members will regret the surgery and seek to detransition, Heyer said. “Will the military pay for the sex change reversal procedure, too?”
