Transgender troops tell Congress they excel in military

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO

Transgender troops testifying for the first time to Congress on Wednesday said transitioning to another sex made them stronger, while Pentagon officials defended the Trump administration’s desire to bar people like them from enlisting in the future.

Army Capt. Alivia Stehlik, an infantry officer and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and Ranger School, told lawmakers she became a more “effective soldier” after she transitioned from male to female in 2017.

“What is the value of having transgender people in the military? Based on my experience first as a combat arms officer and medical provider, the answer is unequivocally that my transition – and so many others – has dramatically increased the readiness and lethality of every branch of the armed forces,” said Stehlik, who returned from a deployment to Afghanistan a month ago.

With the ban now blocked by lawsuits, active-duty transgender service members were invited to testify at the hearing called by Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier, chairwoman of the military personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.

Speier said the ban is “discriminatory, unconstitutional and self-defeating” and said the Obama administration’s 2016 lifting of the barrier to allow transgender people to serve has been an “unequivocal success.”

Retired Air Force Gen. James N. Stewart, who is now performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, defended the Trump administration’s policy, which is currently blocked by litigation.

He said current transgender troops will be allowed to continue to serve and other transgender people can join the military if they serve in their biological sex and have not been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.