Ben Carson takes stand on transgender service: 'I liked the old ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ philosophy'
Ben Carson, once a medical whiz, displayed his complete ignorance about transgender service members last weekend, suggesting he'd like to ban trans service in the military by revisiting something akin to "don't ask, don't tell," reports Esther Yu-Hsi Lee:
“I do not appreciate using our military as a laboratory for social experimentation,” Carson said during a town hall hosted by the Concerned Veterans for America in Waterloo, Iowa on Saturday. “We have too many important things to do when our men and women are out there fighting the enemy. The last thing that we need to be doing is saying what would it be like if we introduced several transgender people into this platoon. Give me a break. Deal with the transgender thing somewhere else.”
“I liked the old ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ philosophy,” Carson added. “Why do you have to go around flaunting your sexuality? It’s not necessary. You don’t need to talk about that. We need to talk about how we eliminate the enemy.”
First of all, sorry Ben, the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal ship has sailed, and you're only five years late to the game. It ended. And guess what, no one batted an eye.
Fortunately, Carson is nose diving in the polls so badly that it's probably not worth explaining several things to him:
1) Being transgender has nothing to do with one's "sexuality" (i.e. sexual orientation).
2) Transgender people are already serving in the military—about 15,500 of them. They're not going to be suddenly "introduced" into units. Rather, what the Pentagon is trying to ensure is that qualified trans service members won't suddenly be kicked out of the units they are already ably serving in.
3) Give me a break—“we have too many important things to do” to be kicking out capable service members.
4) The only people obsessing over "flaunting" one’s sexuality are Republicans. Professional military personnel—whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender—are instead focused on all the "important things" that need to be done.