The made-up billion dollar figure for treating transgender members of the United States Armed Services suggests that there are already that many transgender members of the United States Armed Services.
Do President Trump and his supporters wish to give that impression?
Do President Trump and his supporters wish to give that impression?
The fact of the matter is that there are between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender personnel among an active-duty force of 1.3 million.
Somewhere between 30 and 140 of those might want hormone treatment, and perhaps 25 to 130 might seek gender reassignment surgery.
Giving a cost of somewhere between $2.4 million and $8 million per annum.
The argument from operational effectiveness, I honestly do not know about, although again there is the question of just how few people are involved.
But as to cost, the US military spends $42 million per year on Viagra.
Oh, and $1.4 trillion on the useless F-35 jet that costs more than Australia's entire defence budget while being decades out of date from day one.
Trump still cannot tell you which of his feet had the problem that prevented him from going to Vietnam.
No one who served there has ever been President, although three of the last four Presidents have been the right age.
The President of the United States might one day be transgender, but he or she will never have served in Vietnam. Nor in any of the wars of Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump.
Likewise, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom might one day be transgender, but he or she will never have served in any of the wars of Blair, Brown, Cameron and May.
From Tom Tugendhat to Dan Jarvis, those who did so can forget it.
Although no such disqualification afflicts either of Tony Blair's elder sons, both of whom were the right age, and neither of whom has ever appeared to have any health problem.
Neither of them, however, put on the uniform. Therefore, they could still, in principle, become Prime Minster.
Which is nice.
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