National Defense Department Issues Report Establishing Dress Code For Canadian Military Transgender Personal

While America continues to debate an archaic policy prohibiting openly gay service personal, Canadian Forces have issued a new policy detailing how the organization should accommodate transsexual and transvestite troops, reports the National Post. Air force personal, sailors, and soldiers who change their sex or sexual identity have a right to privacy and respect around that decision, however they must conform to the dress code of their “target” gender, states the supplementary chapter of a military administration manual. Added as an entire chapter to a National Defence manual, the new document defines transsexual as someone with a psychological need to live as member of the opposite sex, whether or not they have undergone gender reassignment surgery, and it states that their unit must treat them with the “utmost privacy and respect.” It adds that a transsexual service person must comply with the dress code and standards of deportment of the gender to which he or she is changing. The written policy not new, however, the Forces have been dealing with the issue for years, paying for the first sex change of a member in 1998. Some observers, like Cherie MacLeod, executive director of PFLAG Canada, said she has helped several Forces members undergoing gender reassignment, surgery the military continues to fund, and that “This is an important step towards recognising a community that has always struggled for equal rights and basic human protection. When a government becomes more inclusive, over time, society will follow.” Others, however, like Scott Taylor, the published of Esprit de Corps, a military affairs magazine, expressed disappointment, the announcement arriving after a military ombudsman criticised the National Defence Department for its treatment of the grieving families of fallen soldiers in Afghanistan. “You couldn’t get much worse timing on that internally,” he said. “It’s so far removed from what the guys are facing over in Afghanistan ... That doesn’t really relate to dress codes of the transgendered.” Still, the National Defence Department, which says it helps an average of between one and two service members through gender reassignment surgery per year, says it drafted the report in response to questions from administrative staff, a spokesperson, Rana Sioufi, saying ““The CF is unique in that it must recruit, house, clothe, train and deploy its members,” she said. “This requires clear direction and standardized instructions to deal with individuals who may not fall into the generally accepted gender categories.”