Do you think it's smart for the SecDef to allow Transgender individuals to serve in the military?

I wonder how many, like me, have no way to respond to this. With all of the problems confronting us, we have decided to focus on this one. The simple truth is that you can chop off your pecker, grow breasts, have a womb implanted, grow your hair longer, and whatever and you're still a man who chopped off his pecker, grown breast, had a womb implanted, grown longer hair, and whatever. I could make another list for women with the same result. How can I say such a thing? Am I a Neanderthal? Am I a bigot? Hell no. The simple truth is that one can make whatever changes they want but still cannot change their basic nature because they cannot change their genes. Either they have a "XX" or "XY" chromosomes or they don't. And no amount of social engineering is going to change it either. Every man and woman has to learn to live in their own skins. Accept who and what they are. If they are trapped in the wrong body, understand that almost everyone else feels they're equally trapped. Hell, I'm a handsome young man trapped in a flabby old man's body. I suspect that may be as difficult to alter as a transgender. Also, to be perfectly honest, I'm not clear on the difference between transgender and homosexuality. No, you needn't bother to explain it, not for my benefit. Just understand that we have learned (or, at least, most of us have learned) to live with homosexuals among us without social engineering (like altering bathroom rules). Why are we now imploding as we struggle to change our world for the benefit of a number that seems even rarer than homosexuals? The bottom line is that I don't care about any person's sexuality, nationality, gender, ethnicity, religion, ideological preference, or whatever other than my own. Yours is simply not my business. Please don't try to make it my business.

I have been doing my job as an infantry NCO while in the process of transition for over a year now. For parts of it my medical costs came out of my pocket and for parts they were covered by Tricare. I have never been non deplorable and have done an NTC rotation while on my medications. My transgender care has not caused me to miss out on any critical training events.
I am not alone. Many service members have served and even deployed while undergoing transgender medical care.
Studies have been done through the DOD and several 3rd party organizations on everything from the effects on readiness to the costs over the last 10 months and the consensus has come back that there will be no effect on readiness and that this course of action is not only feasible but preferable.
We all hate change and many are from an ideology which does not understand transgender people. There will initially be a resistance but ultimately we are service members. People will do their jobs and roger out. And a year later we will all wonder what the big fuss was about.
As for if these treatments should be done. Why don't we leave that to medical professionals to decide and all stay in our perspective lanes. I am an infantry soldier so I will worry about closing with and destroying the enemy. Yep, girls can do that too.

You mean to Openly Serve for the First Time. The More I'm Learning the More I'm realizing that they were there the whole time. Uncomfortably Too. While a Small Population of Americans as a Whole I am surprised at the Number of Military Lifers there are among them. Brave SOBs in my book and they have my support.