Bill Text: TX HCR156 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging Congress to oppose the transgender military ban.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-04-24 - Referred to Defense & Veterans' Affairs [HCR156 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HCR156-Introduced.html
| 86R25848 BPG-D | ||
| By: Reynolds | H.C.R. No. 156 | |
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| WHEREAS, Transgender service members have served openly in | ||
| the U.S. military since 2016, bravely defending our nation, but the | ||
| Trump administration is implementing a new de facto ban on | ||
| transgender troops; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Years of research and consideration by the Pentagon | ||
| and the secretary of defense guided the decision to officially | ||
| allow transgender people to serve in the military, and today, our | ||
| armed forces include nearly 15,000 transgender troops around the | ||
| world, in all occupational specialties; in 2018, all four service | ||
| chiefs, as well as the incoming commandant of the Coast Guard, | ||
| testified to the U.S. Congress that transgender service members do | ||
| not impair the cohesion of military units and that they had not seen | ||
| any discipline, morale, or unit readiness problems; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Previously, 56 retired generals and admirals | ||
| released a statement warning that the ban "would cause significant | ||
| disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and | ||
| compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced | ||
| to live a lie, as well as non-transgender peers who would be forced | ||
| to choose between reporting their comrades or disobeying policy"; | ||
| and | ||
| WHEREAS, Six former United States surgeons general issued a | ||
| statement to "underscore that transgender troops are as medically | ||
| fit as their non-transgender peers and that there is no medically | ||
| valid reason, including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, to exclude | ||
| them from military service or to limit their access to medically | ||
| necessary care"; the American Medical Association, the American | ||
| Psychological Association, and the American Psychiatric | ||
| Association have all expressed opposition to the ban, which is | ||
| based on flawed scientific and medical assertions; and | ||
| WHEREAS, A 2016 RAND study concluded that allowing | ||
| transgender people to serve would have "minimal impact" on Pentagon | ||
| readiness and health care costs and "little or no impact on unit | ||
| cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness"; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Historians relate that transgender soldiers fought | ||
| in the American Revolution and the Civil War, among them hundreds of | ||
| individuals assigned female gender at birth who enlisted and served | ||
| in the military as men; one well-known example, Union Army soldier | ||
| Albert Cashier, fought in the siege of Vicksburg and other battles | ||
| and continued to live as a transgender man after the war; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The ban on transgender troops is a policy dictated | ||
| by prejudice rather than sound, considered analysis of the needs of | ||
| our military and its personnel, and in an era when recruitment is a | ||
| challenge, it is particularly reprehensible to bar and eject | ||
| qualified individuals who want to serve our country; now, | ||
| therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
| hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to oppose the | ||
| transgender military ban; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
| copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
| the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
| Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
| members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
| this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
| memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. | ||
