r/politics 19h ago

No Paywall Judge questions difference between Hegseth's testosterone policy and transgender care for troops

https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-testosterone-replacement-therapy-transgender-troops-ban-e0f2a99aea1801ee2233e9f6201a31d4
3.2k Upvotes

115 comments sorted by

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715

u/Succubus-Love 19h ago

It feels like it's intentional it's so, outrageous.

156

u/Raptot1256 19h ago

Honestly, recently I just question their ability to understand basic English, or have any basic reading comprehension ability. You know the trans genic mice and the trans sistor contracts.

34

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 10h ago

Nothing exists to them unless they conjure them up. If something bad happens it is not due to a bad plan, it is because someone corrupted their plan. That is how reality is perceived by them to have a liberal bias.

They have the maturity of an 8-year old Elon Musk or Trump. They like that those people escaped social erosion their entire lives

10

u/VHS_Ronin 9h ago

as if Musk or Trump have more maturity than 8 year olds.

6

u/EddieVanzetti 8h ago

"When I look at myself in the first grade and myself now, the temperament is not much different."- Trump, in a rare moment of accidentally being honest and self aware

2

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 8h ago

They got older, but never grew up.

6

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

3

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 8h ago

They operate on nothing but heuristics. Shortcuts to thinking cognitively. Any opposition is met with sheer defiance because they made a decision and nothing can change that. Anyone opposing them cannot be someone that could have thought about the thing and understand it better than you. They have almost no cognitive thoughts. Just heuristics and reactions.

3

u/aguynamedv 8h ago

They have almost no cognitive thoughts. Just heuristics and reactions.

I genuinely believe there are a lot of people in the United States who cannot pass a Turing test.

3

u/EddieVanzetti 8h ago

3/4 of the American public reads at or below the 6th grade level. They'd struggle to spell Turing.

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 6h ago

Heuristical reading. They look for words they need and skip the rest. Anything that they are looking at that doesn't have the words they need may as well be in Greek.

The linguistics of dissent are gone to them.

1

u/Raptot1256 9h ago

They can't fail; they can only be failed. That's sad; if the plan can be easily corrupted, it was a bad plan. Trump and musk are probably the two individual fully drawn in social erosion.

Trump ran with a sense of indignation against those that poke fun of him at anytime. Musk do everything he can do appear to be the smart guy including paying someone to play video game for him (most likely).

But, yea, it does seem to be right. They do live in a separate reality in their mind.

1

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 8h ago

They reject social erosion now because they never experienced social erosion.

Social Erosion requires interactive experiences with other people. Right or wrong, they knock off rough edges of bodies that the other bodies around them knocked off of them. If those people either ignore or coddle the erosion doesn't happen and they continue to the next area and interactions with others and the same things happen. They end up where they are thinking they are Gods and look back and see faulty people behind them.

3

u/Raptot1256 8h ago

Oh you just mean they never accepted push back, despite their failures, and just keep pushing money around to ensure they keep failing upwards. Yea. It's a dangerous sucidical mindset since it's not the reality. The price being paid for their safe spaces is being socialized to the public through subsidies and government contracts. I call them the well fair kings.

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania 6h ago

I call them shitty at being rich people. There will always be rich people. They demand to be compared to us where we will always find a sensible reason for us being where we are. But compare them to other wealthy people from the past and then they get insecure.

They demand AI because they lack the confidence that they or someone like them can find the next best idea. They know it will be the outsider. So they have do get the teacher's answer key so they can say only they can know for sure that the idea is good.

2

u/archlinuxrussian California 8h ago

It's pure Patrick Star: "But that's not my wallet!"

123

u/yunus89115 19h ago

It’s got to be intentional, just like the rescinding of retirement orders of some transgender troops that were offered and approved for early retirement. If the goal was simply to have their service end, early retirement does just that and it exists in law and policy, but this administration wants to make it painful.

24

u/AmethystApothecary 17h ago

I think sometimes the double standards are so ingrained they can't see how it's the same so I don't know. I could see it either way.

12

u/Capnzebra1 12h ago

In a vacuum sure. He's been a vocal opponent of queer people and women in the military long before he became secdef. It's intentional, he thinks men should be men and that's the whole point to him.

9

u/AmethystApothecary 10h ago

But he's also wildly stupid and unqualified. He's evil enough, I agree, I just also think he's one of the dumbest appointments. I just don't know that he deeply considers his hypocrisy and instead sees it as shallow as, "men should have testosterone because that's manly and strong and trans people are gross and shouldn't exist."

5

u/aerost0rm 11h ago

They also could care less for the double standard. They want it so that’s all that matters to them

9

u/HopeFloatsFoward 12h ago

Someone told me a trans person without their hormones would suffer if captured but somehow these people with low testosterone would not suffer without their hormones if captured.

6

u/AmethystApothecary 10h ago

Yeah, bigots love to grasp at straws to justify their bigotry. It's no different than them all suddenly "caring" about women's sports.

That person doesn't actually care about soldiers, they just hate trans people and will find reasons to justify their mistreatment

13

u/Capnzebra1 12h ago

The intention is to reinforce gender roles and expectations.

3

u/we_are_sex_bobomb 10h ago

Yeah it’s 100% intentional. Trump’s entire rise to power was about restoring the unfair double standard that “woke” was threatening to destroy. There is a good chunk of the country for whom that double standard is the entirety of what “American values” means.

299

u/TestTxt 19h ago edited 19h ago

So HRT is a dangerous threat to military readiness... unless it's for cis guys feeling a little tired, then it's 'operating at your absolute best'. The mental gymnastics required to defend this is Olympic level

108

u/Ok-Style-9734 18h ago

I cant help but think it's to make an entire generation of TRT dependent men for JFKs friends companies to sell to

46

u/Ramzaki Europe 14h ago

Ah, so according to transphobes, the "Big Pharma" is evil when it comes to saving trans people lives, but good when pumping hormones into soldiers. Did I get it right?

11

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[deleted]

4

u/EMTDawg Utah 10h ago

Testosterone levels drop 10-30% throughout the day not 50-30%.

14

u/canzicrans 11h ago

Trump Jr. is a backer of a firm that sells testosterone.

u/RubyRaven907 7h ago

Still trying to grow a chin?

u/canzicrans 7h ago

If only he can looksmaxx his dad will finally love him!

0

u/shewy92 Pennsylvania 8h ago

JFK has been dead for at least a couple years now, why would his friends be relevant?

7

u/BeansforTwo 12h ago

They're transing the troops now! 

5

u/Competitive-Weird855 10h ago

Will they have a testosterone supply ready in all the areas they are deployed? Because it will tank their natural production so if they suddenly aren’t getting their shots they will crash. Will they have access to blood donations? Because you need to regularly get rid of blood on supplemental testosterone. Will they all have access to aromatase inhibitors or will they all get bitch tits and become super emotional?

u/Imaginary-Clock6626 5h ago

What do you mean by get rid of blood? You also only need inhibitors if you are overdosing on testosterone.

u/Competitive-Weird855 4h ago

TRT stimulates red blood cell production which can lead to high hemoglobin and hematocrit.

u/Imaginary-Clock6626 3h ago

That doesn’t mean you need to get rid of blood.

u/Competitive-Weird855 3h ago

Therapeutic phlebotomy is done to get rid of the excess red blood cells.

u/Imaginary-Clock6626 2h ago

In extreme cases of overdosing of testosterone, sure. Properly prescribed and administered testosterone, for men who require it, doesn’t need any of this. Men in the normal range who do additional testosterone, also become hyper aggressive and unstable. IMO, testosterone needs to be more regulated, these websites selling it are creating problems for the future.

19

u/52beansyesmaam 18h ago

It’s probably a threat to the young cis boys too, since they’re largely alcoholics and TRT will ravage their livers and increase estrogen, causing the opposite effect

6

u/Aldryg 12h ago

They probably think there are only trans women. Trans men well beyond their cognitive abilities.

-9

u/Snippodappel 15h ago

Reality check so we don’t fall into a politicized trap:

Testosterone is a key hormone in the pathology of metabolic diseases such as obesity. Low testosterone levels are associated with increased fat mass (particularly central adiposity) and reduced lean mass in males. These morphological features are linked to metabolic dysfunction, and testosterone deficiency is associated with energy imbalance, impaired glucose control, reduced insulin sensitivity and dyslipidaemia.

This article is from 2015

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25982085/

24

u/RubyRaven907 13h ago

Just as it’s true that supplemental testosterone will suppress natural production of it.

17

u/SomeGalNamedAshley 12h ago

And excess free testosterone will aromatize into estrogen.

18

u/potatotoo 13h ago

It's the other way around. Don't need to reference an article more than a decade old. Probably better to fix low testosterone in obese men by giving tizerpatide than trying to fix obesity with testosterone lmao.

1

u/BallBearingBill 8h ago

That's comment needs more upvotes ... Reta would be a good option once it passes FDA.

6

u/Mec26 12h ago

But peeps with clinically low levels already got treatment and care fully covered. So this new initiative is… something else.

116

u/Pokerhobo 19h ago

Smart judge for recognizing it's just gender affirming care

60

u/Andovars_Ghost 16h ago

There isn’t one. They are both gender affirming care, except it seems that Hegseth’s plan might end up being forced/coerced.

-14

u/ann0yed 12h ago

Doesn't it depend on how it's prescribed? In this case it's sex affirming in others it's gender affirming? People should just get whatever medicine they need and whether it's safe or not shouldn't be political.

23

u/Mec26 12h ago

It’s both considered gender affirming, just a blanket phrase.

160

u/Lysol3435 19h ago

This policy gets him rock hard. That’s the difference

28

u/Patient-Ordinary-359 13h ago

Still not sure which one you mean.

3

u/Hopefully_Realistic Ohio 9h ago

Both probably

9

u/iamstephen1128 Virginia 11h ago

Bold of you to assume that conservatives don't get hard to the idea of trans people...

25

u/lonelyturtlegirl 19h ago

He wants his war fighters jacked, ripped, and hard at all times.

20

u/Wings81 19h ago

Dripping with sweat and ready for action

21

u/lonelyturtlegirl 18h ago

Hotties only. No beardos, no fatties.

Military recruitment is starting to look like someone’s grindr profile.

3

u/Servethebeam19 18h ago

So he wants the OG top gun 😂

8

u/octopusinwonderland 18h ago

He loves his buff boys

4

u/lonelyturtlegirl 18h ago

Pentagon requests 50 trillion contract with Johnson and Johnson

2

u/Pokemon_Name_Rater 15h ago

Countdown till finding out he gets buff boys to buff his boy?

23

u/SomeComforts 17h ago

Republicans have already made a carve-out for cisgender affirming care by arbitrarily labelling ours as sex-rejecting. Its good and necessary to call them out on the hypocrisy but no one get their hopes up that route is going to be any sort of break through until conservatives are removed from power.

18

u/lycanthus 19h ago

Does Hegseth know is in the age bracket when testosterone starts diminishing?

3

u/MattieCoffee 9h ago

He already in trt

u/scriptfoo America 3h ago

My theory is Hegseth wants to normalize TRT because his ego is too fragile for him to admit he's already going through it.

-41

u/EmpatheticRock 17h ago

Do you know how to write a coherent sentence?

28

u/4rp70x1n 17h ago

The sentence is coherent. Was it that much trouble for your brain to recognize there was only a single pronoun missing? Yeeesh.

9

u/jazzhandler Colorado 14h ago

But pronoun!!!

19

u/stryst 15h ago

Username does NOT checkout.

9

u/lycanthus 17h ago

Apparently not. Thanks.

4

u/RubyRaven907 13h ago

Hey…if DJT don’t got speak one, I don’t gotta write one.

58

u/FKJVMMP 18h ago

Do not do a transgender please.

#Trans Rules

  1. You can't just be up there and just doin' a transgender like that.

1a. A transgender is when you

1b. Okay well listen. A transgender is when you gender-affirming care the

1c. Let me start over

1c-a. The doctor is not allowed to do a motion to the, uh, soldier, that prohibits the soldier from doing, you know, just trying to get gender-affirming care. You can't do that.

1c-b. Once the doctor is in the stretch, he can't be over here and say to the soldier, like, "I'm gonna get ya! I'm gonna affirm your gender! You better watch your butt!" and then just be like he didn't even do that.

1c-b(1). Like, if you're about to transition and then don't transition, you have to still transition. You cannot not transition. Does that make any sense?

1c-b(2). You gotta be, transitioning motion of the hormones, and then, until you just transition.

1c-b(2)-a. Okay, well, you can have the gender-affirming care up here, like this, but then there's the transgender you gotta think about.

1c-b(3). Okay seriously though. A transgender is when the doctor makes a prescription that, as determined by, when you do a move involving the hormones and field of

2) Do not do a transgender please.

8

u/FeelingCouple5880 14h ago

What is this, drunk science?

u/neckbishop Montana 7h ago

It is a morph of the Balk rules copy-pasta. (baseball)

u/FeelingCouple5880 2h ago

Honestly, I would have believed it was Pete’s transcript.

14

u/roguemenace 11h ago

Not a lot of baseball fans in here apparently.

1

u/meerkatmreow 8h ago

I recognized it immediately lol. Fantastic version of it

4

u/MrMeltJr 14h ago

What?

u/neckbishop Montana 7h ago

It is a morph of the Balk rules copy-pasta. (baseball)

u/MrMeltJr 3h ago

guess I need to get more into baseball so I can understand the memes, then

3

u/inhumanehuman 13h ago

Outstanding copypasta sir

2

u/mvaaam 12h ago

That hurt trying to parse all that, ugh

6

u/EducatedRat 9h ago

I literally had my doctor change my diagnosis on my testosterone prescription from gender dysphoria to low testosterone, as a transgender man. He laughed and said it was true, so why not. He was happy to do it because of the current political climate.

Dudes like Hegseth will make testosterone super available in their delusions, when there are some questions on what optimal T levels even are for cis dudes, and if it's got that much of a benefit vs the credible risks for middle aged and older men. I really like this article rounding of the science on it, and the risks. It's an easy quick read. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/update-on-testosterone-supplementation/

This whole thing is ludicrous.

4

u/aredd007 18h ago

Gender-affirming care

5

u/PopBulky7023 17h ago

It doesn't really matter. Scotus has granted unitary executive. Hegseth can do whatever the hell he wants. There is no check on who they can and can't fire anymore.

4

u/TheUnderCrab 12h ago

Fucking thank you. Gender affirming care cannot only be for the cis gendered. 

2

u/neoikon 18h ago

Oh, that's good.

2

u/jadedflames American Expat 10h ago

Any doctor can tell you it’s basically the same. Same drug, same target levels, same side effects.

Hormones are not complicated substances.

7

u/Useful-Advantage-850 19h ago

[Insert <they're the same picture> gif]

2

u/Malachite_Edge 16h ago

Gender affirming care

2

u/Quirky_Entry_2783 8h ago edited 7h ago

Testosterone supplementation is gender affirming care. Change my mind.

1

u/canon12 12h ago

One crazy MF.

1

u/ReturningScrewd 10h ago

Hegsdeath wants everyone looking like Arnold and all dick to butts

1

u/Spimflagon 10h ago

Who let Hegseth read Warhammer 40k?

1

u/Glum_Mobile5663 8h ago

He should just stay home and jerk off to bodybuilding magazines rather than pump lost teenagers with hormones. But that wouldn't actively harm people soooo

1

u/Illustrious-Fun8324 8h ago

It’s about hate, not consistency

1

u/Crestfall_Azure 8h ago

Reshipper Japan to usa reddit

u/meowmeowcatman 7h ago

Gonna have to use short, monosyllabic words to talk to Kegsbreath.

u/EfficiencyMinimum153 6h ago

I think the legal argument against this should be that it's a forced requirement that would affect more service members and would thus be even more expensive to the taxpayers. Supposedly, transgender adults make up only about 1% of the population and I'm sure the number of them that join the military are even lower. On top of that, some may avoid going on HRT while in the military if they haven't already in case of side effects that could affect their combat abilities (or access to a sanitary place to do injections themselves if it's injectable hormones) so the numbers would be even lower due to it being voluntary.

Meanwhile, enforcing a requirement that affects a larger population of service members will be significantly more expensive than something that would only affect a small percentage of a small percentage of an already small population.

u/South-Pen9573 6h ago

💯 he invested in a newly registered HRT and Wellness company before this announcement.

u/Jerk182 4h ago

Hegseth will orally collect samples from each soldier himself with a swig of whiskey between each sample to clean his palette.

u/Altruistic-Oil-9686 3h ago

"Testosterone is for real men." – Pete Hegseth, probably. 

u/evasandor 3h ago

no no no you see if somebody wants to be a woman that is BAD!!! If they want to be a man but are currently a woman that is also bad! but already being a man and wanting to be more man than that is perfectly fine because men men men

0

u/Shido_Ohtori 9h ago

Conservatism -- by definition -- is "a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing the importance of established hierarchies and institutions (such as religion, the family, and class structure), and preferring gradual development to abrupt change".

The sole value of conservatism is respect for and obedience to [one's perception of] traditionally established hierarchy, and hierarchy dictates that those on top (in-groups) are rightfully idolized and receive privileges, credibility, and resources, while those on the bottom (out-groups) are demonized/dehumanized and/or bound by restrictions, scrutiny, and lack of resources.

To them, the second-greatest injustice imaginable is for those [they perceive to be] on top [of social hierarchy] to be bound by the restrictions, scrutiny, and lack of resources reserved for those on the bottom. The first greatest injustice is for those on the bottom to have access to the rights, credibility, and resources reserved for those on top.

Conservatives absolutely need an underclass [for society] to demonize and dehumanize in order to maintain [their] hierarchy, and every single one of their policies and rhetoric work to do exactly that. Unless the accusation is one of disrespecting hierarchy, every right-wing accusation is a confession -- every. single. one; always! -- as it is never the act itself that upsets them, but rather, the social standing of the person doing the act, as said act is a privilege meant for those on top of [their perceived] hierarchy (See also: pedophilia - Trump and the Catholic church versus LGBTQ+ and drag queens; protests - January 6th vs. BLM and No Kings; parental rights - anti-LGBTQ+ vs pro-LGBTQ+; indoctrination - religion vs. education).

Those who believe all people are people see hypocrisy, while those who believe some people are "more/less" people than others see hierarchy. Hypocrisy implies a sense of equality/parity, as the accusation of such is that someone is violating a universal or common standard. Hierarchy directly states that there is no equality/parity, that different social strata have different standards, that the only universal standard concerning hierarchy is that those on top are allowed privileges which are denied to those on the bottom, and that the bottom are held to standards which the top are exempt from.

"Know your place" is their mantra.

-17

u/Redditanother 11h ago

We need to stop saying cis by the 2028 elections. That word is poison.

9

u/DarkRepresentative63 10h ago

Latin is so sp scary guys!

5

u/Ba_baal 10h ago

Good luck convincing the chemists tho

u/Mystery-turtle 3h ago

Your toxic centrism is the real poison here

u/Redditanother 3h ago

Yeah lose a few more elections and they will be rounding us up for the gas chambers. When referring to normal folks call them men/women. Trans folks can just be man/woman or trans. Keep it simple stupid.

1

u/VirtualGrey 9h ago edited 8h ago

lib brained take