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On Thursday, Nov. 8, Carson Graham of TransInclusive moderated a panel discussion for four transgender veterans about their experience in the military at the Stonewall Museum in Wilton Manors, Florida.

Transgender individuals have been allowed to serve openly in the United States since 2011. According to the U.S. government, there are approximately 15,000 transgender service members currently on active duty or in the reserves and over 150,000 transgender veterans.

Kristy Golba had served 31 years in the Marines with multiple deployments all around the world, including, Bahrain, Suriname, Iraq, Norway, Japan. “I joined when I was 18,” Golba said. “My family life was a bit distorted. My dad was a drunk, former marine – it was a combination of things, getting away and changing my environment. Now, but now I want to focus on myself.”

After all the panelists introduce themselves, Graham asked, “What advice do you have for future transmen or transwomen that would want to enlist?”

“If they are already transitioning, then they can’t,” was Nicki Ruiz’s quick reply.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis released a 44-page memorandum earlier this year which proposed a policy that was deemed as extremely discriminatory by The American Psychological Association. Mattis’ expert panel from the Pentagon has been heavily criticized for skewing data from various research studies.

There are three keys points that the Pentagon’s panel claims – there is minimal success with mental health and when hormone therapy was introduced to transgender servicemen and women, they were more prone to depression and suicide.

Secondly, the policy states, “Transgender persons who require or have undergone gender transition are disqualified from military service.” However, there is a bit of legal jargon following the statement, which allows the Pentagon the ability to make exceptions.

Third, the policy also states that transgender persons should serve as their biological sex.

“I don’t care if you are transgender, homosexual, heterosexual or what have you identify as, I would say no,” said Champagne Boudreaux. “I cannot recommend people to enlist. It’s a lot of mental work. You see how we are all up here, speaking monotone? We were trained that way, they put us in this kind of environment. Our experiences, we relive it, we go there. It is a tough road to live, [you have to] think of every aspect of your private life.”

“I did five years, I went to Kuwait for 6 months, and in 2016 I went to the countries surrounding Russia,” said Nicki Ruiz. “Bulgaria, Latvia, Jordan and Kuwait, it was hot, it was so fricken hot. If you can imagine standing outside, it was about 130 degrees, and [you have] about 60 pounds of [gear] on you and you’re just raining [sweat] inside of your cap.”

“I would say if you’re transitioning, I would say wait,” added Nicki Ruiz. “Unless you have already had bottom surgery, the military won’t give just one person any special treatment so you will end up sharing 5 showerheads with 30 people that were born your biological gender.” Ruiz then reiterated, “We are all one solider, we are all one sailor. There’s no room for special treatment.”

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TRUMP PROPOSED MAKING IT EASIER FOR EMPLOYERS TO DENY BIRTH CONTROL TO WOMEN

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The Trump Administration has proposed increasing an employer’s right to restrict birth control access to female employees based on religious differences, according to the New York Times. New rules on the measure were revealed this week, which allow an employer to obtain an exemption for providing access to the contraception.

The administration cited public health centers and the family planning program of 1970, under Title X, as a way women can quality for birth control without their employer’s help. The decision to encourage more attendance at healthcare clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, could present a problem, as these clinics are already overbooked and underfunded.

President Donald Trump also proposed axing the requirement that public healthcare clinics must provide information on abortion. The administration noted the Title X funding allowed to these clinics will only be provided to“health care providers who refuse to participate in abortion-related activity such as counseling and referrals,” meaning if a healthcare clinic continues to participate in sharing any information about abortion, they will not be given federal funding.

In May, he told an anti-abortion group his goal was to “prohibit Title X funding from going to any clinic that performs abortions.”

The proposal also notes healthcare clinics are not required to provide every variety of contraception. Employers, however, as of current federal regulation, are required to cover all methods of contraception. It also eliminates the language “medically approved” from the current healthcare provider’s federal stipulation to provide “medically approved family planning methods.”

In August, Trump shortened the funding period for institutions of this nature according to Fortune. Instead of allowing three years of grant-funding, Trump limited the time period to seven months. Many Republicans are against government funding of the public healthcare clinics because some provide abortions. Abortions are not federally funded.

Institutions, like Planned Parenthood, reserve the right to treat lower income patients before anyone else. To be considered a low-income patient, the household income must be below $20,780 for a family of three, according to the New York Times. Trump’s new proposal allows any employee who is rejected birth control through their workplace to automatically identify as a low-income patient.

The Trump administration noted these changes would “preserve conscience protections” while allowing comprehensive, low-cost care to all women.

President and Chief Executive of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, Clare Coleman, said these changes would “hijack Title X programs and use their limited federal funds to subsidize employers’ refusal to comply with the contraceptive coverage requirement.”

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