Guess what, world? We’re not a bunch of babies who can’t handle it if the soldiers serving in our military don’t all present as John Wayne. The Pentagon recently announced that transgender troops on active duty may qualify for sex-reassignment surgery if their physicians deem it necessary, clarifying a policy decision made by the U.S. Defense Department in 2016 to overturn its ban on transgender service. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter acknowledged that the decision was not exactly groundbreaking. “It’s worth noting,” he wrote in an official statement, “that at least 18 countries already allow transgender personnel to serve openly in their militaries. These include close allies such as the United Kingdom, Israel and Australia. And we were able to study how they dealt with this issue.” So, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom—we’ll see you at the grown-ups’ table.
