Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Admiral Yi]

Sure. Look at his other statements and positions related to trans people or prison healthcare to determine the most likely context.

I personally can't recall any statements by Trump relating to trans people, but if you say he has a history of bashing them I'm inclined to believe you.

However, that doesn't make funding sex change operations a good policy.

[viper37]

Taylor Swift endorsed Harris today.

Terminally online cringe divorced guy:



Why are they so weird.

Is he going to give her one of his children or just pick a random child off the street and give that child to her?

I mean, he has so many children at this point that They may not mean much to him

Billionaires are notoriously cheap.
 
He would probably prefer to grab a homeless kid off the street and give it to her rather than one of his own.

[Jacob]

However, that doesn't make funding sex change operations a good policy.

Is that what is actually happening? And does whether it happens in rare instances or not at all make it into your top 100 important issues for this election? Top 50? Top 10?

[viper37]

Thus creepy and - I hope - somewhat motivating for decent people to turn out against Trump.

Funny.  I kinda thought it would be seen as a bold move, "Only Elon could do it" and incited voters to support Trump because that's his camp.

[viper37]

This dude is unwell.

You think? 

[Admiral Yi]

Is that what is actually happening? And does whether it happens in rare instances or not at all make it into your top 100 important issues for this election? Top 50? Top 10?

I'm not absolutely sure but I believe that Air Force transgender person who sold us out to Wikileaks was reassigned at company expense.  I suspect, but have even less reason to be sure, that the US military hands out reassignments to all recruits.

Definitely not top 10.

[Valmy]

However, that doesn't make funding sex change operations a good policy.

With the caveat I am completely ignorant as to what kind of health care is currently available to Federal Prisoners and what kind of expense gender affirming care is and whether or not such an operation is under serious consideration, I agree.

If you want the prisoners and guards to call you a different name and pronoun or whatever...alright whatever. But you probably should need to pay for it somehow if you are going to get that kind of care in prison. At least it seems to me.

[Josquius]

I could imagine trans prisoners are still being allowed their estrogen/ testosterone maybe and ignorance and hate around this is what is setting the angry uncles off?

No idea what medical treatment is like for American prisoners though. Does my mind deceive me or do I remember a story with a guy stabbing a postman in the leg to go to a federal prison as he couldn't afford some really small but important operation?

[Jacob]

I'm not absolutely sure but I believe that Air Force transgender person who sold us out to Wikileaks was reassigned at company expense.  I suspect, but have even less reason to be sure, that the US military hands out reassignments to all recruits.

Definitely not top 10.

Cool.

Question: Do you think that gender affirming care is a legitimate type of medical care for at least some people? Or do you believe that gender affirming care is always wrong?

[Admiral Yi]

Question: Do you think that gender affirming care is a legitimate type of medical care for at least some people? Or do you believe that gender affirming care is always wrong?

I believe hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery are a legitimate type of something for at least some people.

[Jacob]

I believe hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery are a legitimate type of something for at least some people.

Okay cool.

I'm not going to argue whether "medical care" is the right term compared to something, but I think you'll have to agree that whatever we chose to call it hormone therapy and surgery are services delivered through the medical system.

Additionally (at least as I understand it), to access those services you need to pass through the medical system as well. Do doctors and/ or psychiatrists agree that you qualify for the various medical actions?

In short, in the US access to these "somethings" (care, services) happens via the medical system.

Also in the US, access to the medical system is typically gained via insurance, and frequently via employer insurance.

If someone's need for gender affirming care is legitimate (by whatever process is used to determine legitimacy) and they have the appropriate insurance, they get access to hormone therapy and gender affirming surgery as appropriate. And like you said, it is legitimate for at least some people.

Hopefully there's nothing controversial so far...?

So... the US military is a major employer and it provides access to medical services as part the employment benefits it offers. That's pretty standard for the US.

If you accept that gender affirming care (or "something" if you prefer) is legitimate at least for some people, if you accept the fact that that care is delivered by the medical system (which I think is a simple matter of fact), and you agree that many if not most Americans access the medical system via insurance often provided by their employers - then it seems to follow that the US military as an employer should in fact provide hormone therapy and gender affirming surgery to those who legitimately need it (however we set the bar for that legitimacy).

I can only think of a two types of arguments against this:

1) The bar for legitimacy is set in the wrong place (and it's too easy to get). Personally I don't have enough information to judge this myself.

2) Transgender people are unfit for service because [insert reason], so therefore the military shouldn't provide that medical service for people because they shouldn't be in the military to begin with. Personally I think this type of argument consists primarily of prejudice, so I don't think I'd find it persuasive.

I'll get to prisoners a bit later, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this first.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't know which insurance plans pay for gender affirming something.  That's a private matter between the employee, the insurance company, and the employer.

In the military I'm the employer and I get a say in how much money gets spent.

[Sophie Scholl]

1) The bar for legitimacy is set in the wrong place (and it's too easy to get). Personally I don't have enough information to judge this myself.

I'll at least weigh in here and say it is *not* easy to access for the most part. Hormone Replacement Therapy can be somewhat easy to access depending on the age and location of the applicant (over 18 can utilize informed consent in some states), but gender affirming surgeries are a huge pain in the butt that require numerous, numerous hoops to jump through to obtain. Multiple doctors, multiple psychologists, the insurance company, and more all need to green light it. It is an awful process and can take months to years to get through. 

[Jacob]

In the military I'm the employer and I get a say in how much money gets spent.

For sure.

Three questions:

1) Do you also want a say in what sort of medical services are available to federal and state civil servants, to those employed emergency services, to municipal employees, and the judiciary - all of which are also funded by your tax dollars?

2) The US military spends a lot money on many many things. Do you think that the employer (you) should be involved at a granular level determining which specific medical services should be made available for things other than gender affirming care? For example breast reduction surgery? Should you be involved in that deciding whether the US military pays for that, or can that decision be left to the military (and the medical personnel they trust to make the appropriate determinations)? Are there other areas of spending outside of medical services where the employer (you) should be involved in spending decisions at the same level of detail?

3) As the employer do you personally think that the US military should not pay for gender affirming medical services (hormone therapy and/ or surgery) under any circumstances whatsoever, or do you imagine there could be situations in which paying for such medical services is in fact the right thing to do for the US military?

[Admiral Yi]

yes

yes

If the military is having a hard time finding recruits and gender affirming stuff is needed to fill the ranks I would approve.