The leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. Under questioning Comandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert Neller and Admiral John Richardson, chief of naval operations testified that "they have seen no discipline, morale or unit readiness problems with transgender troops now serving openly in the military."
Neller testfied that
some of his commanders have said there are no problems at all. Others, he said, say they’re spending “a lot of time” with transgender individuals as they work through medical requirements involving the transition from birth gender to preferred gender.
Neller said that there are currently 27 people in his force who have identified themselves as transgender. Dealing with the medical requirements, he said, can be a burden on commanders. Those issues don’t include any unit cohesion or discipline problems.
Neller said he met with four transgender troops and learned about their desire to serve.
Those that came forward, we have to honor the fact that they came out and they trusted us to say that, and we need to make sure that we help them get through that process.
--Neller
Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, says he’s not aware of any problems with transgender service members in the Navy. He said the Navy is dealing with transgender individuals in much the same way as it handled the integration of women sailors on submarines.
One of the pillars of that was to make sure that there were really no differences highlighted in our approach to training those sailors. That program has gone very well. So, maintaining that level playing field of a standards-based approach seems to be the key to success.
--Richardson