WATKINSVILLE, Georgia — A Republican congressional candidate in Georgia is urging the U.S. military to stop allowing transgender people to serve in the military, saying it weakens the armed forces amid the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“A strong military is key to preventing situations like Ukraine and Afghanistan from escalating,” said Mitchell Swan, who is also a retired Navy colonel. FoxNews. “Allowing transgender people to serve sends the message to our adversaries that we are more focused on social experimentation than defending our nation.
Swan, who introduces himself as a “shameless conservative fighteris running for Rep. Jody Hice’s (R-Ga.) seat in Georgia’s 10th congressional district, which encompasses much of urban and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta. Swan is part of a crowded GOP primary in the district as Hice will cede the seat to challenge Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is also a Republican, on “election integrity.”
Swan went on to say that “America’s reputation was developed by more than two centuries of inherent American military culture, not American waking culture.”
He also said the “wide mix of ethnicity, religion, citizenship, education and language within its ranks” of the US military makes it “truly unique”. But he added that “serving in the military is not a right”, so the military enforces “strict standards of ‘selective service'”.
“In fact, many people with certain conditions, such as bedwetting and sleepwalking, are disqualified from military service,” he said. “They are not disqualified because they are bad people, but because these symptoms are considered mental and emotional issues that are not conducive to combat environments. Gender dysphoria is no different and should be treated the same way; that it is not conducive to improving military performance or unit morale.
“We are in a battle to restore the American spirit and the values that built and sustained this country. We need leaders to fight for us in Congress – because our identity as Americans is being transformed under our feet by politicians who no longer cherish the traditional ideals we love: individual liberty, justice and freedom. self-government.
If we want to remain a Christian nation, a capitalist nation and a secure nation with effective borders, we must defend these principles.”~ Mitchell Swan via Colonel Mitchell Swan for Congress
In 2017, then-President Donald Trump announcement in a series of tweets that he would overturn an Obama-era rule and ban trans people from serving in the military, saying “our military must be focused on a decisive and overwhelming victory…and cannot be weighed down by the huge medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. It entered into force in 2019.
LGBTQ+ organizations and Democrats denounced Trump’s military trans ban at the time.
“As an active-duty veteran, we focused on the mission. We didn’t care if you were transgender, bald, gay or had freckles,” tweeted Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Ca.), Vice Chair of the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. “No evidence that a trans sniper is less accurate or a trans pilot is less effective.”
President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s ban early in office last year. “Transgender service members will no longer be subject to the possibility of termination or separation based on gender identity,” the White House said.
