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Exclusive: Army Training Says Soldiers Must Shower with Transgender Persons of Opposite Sex

An Army training slide obtained by Breitbart News instructs soldiers to shower with transgender members of the opposite sex even if they have not undergone a surgical transition.

The training slide offers a “vignette” instructing soldiers on what to do if they encounter a female soldier who identifies as male according to the Department of Defense’s personnel tracking system known as Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS), but has not surgically transitioned and still has “female genitalia.”

The slide, titled “Soldier/Unit Training Barracks, Bathrooms, and Showers,” reads:

Vignette: Following his transition from female to male (which did not include sex reassignment surgery) and gender marker change in DEERS, a transgender Soldier begins using male barracks, bathroom, and shower facilities. Because he did not undergo a surgical change, the Soldier still has female genitalia.

The slide instructs soldiers: “Soldiers must accept living and working conditions that are often austere, primitive, and characterized by little or no privacy. … Understand anyone may encounter individuals in barracks, bathrooms, or shower facilities with physical characteristics of the opposite sex despite having the same gender marker in DEERS.”

It also tells soldiers that they should be “respectful of the privacy and modesty concerns of others,” but that “transgender Soldiers are not required or expected to modify or adjust their behavior based on the fact that they do not ‘match’ other Soldiers.”

The training slides warn soldiers that violations of Equal Opportunity (EO) policies may result in disciplinary actions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and that EO policies “apply to working, living, and recreational environment (on and off-post, during duty and non-duty hours).”

Soldiers with concerns or questions are told to discuss them with their chain of command.

While fear of reprimand may prevent soldiers who disagree with the policy from expressing those views publicly, some teammates of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas have shared how they felt about sharing a locker room with someone from the opposite sex.

One swimmer told the Daily Mail: “Multiple swimmers have raised it, multiple times… . But we were basically told that we could not ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and there’s nothing we can do about it, that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our locker room.”

The swimmer added, “It’s really upsetting because Lia doesn’t seem to care how it makes anyone else feel… . The 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one.”

The slide is part of a mandatory training presentation all soldiers must receive following the Biden administration’s January 2021 order to the Department of Defense that all qualified transgender persons be allowed to join the military and serve openly. The order reversed a policy under the Trump administration that prohibited transgender persons with gender dysphoria from serving.

Another slide from the presentation states that a soldier’s gender transition is considered administratively “complete” once the soldier has completed the “medical care necessary to achieve stability in the self-identified gender,” but that the medical care is the “medical process identified or approved by a military medical provider in a documented medical treatment plan” and “often does not include surgical treatment.”

“Once gender transition is complete and the Soldier’s gender marker in DEERS is changed, the Soldier is expected to adhere to all military standards associated with the Soldier’s gender marker in DEERS and use billeting, bathroom, and shower facilities in accordance with the DEERS gender marker,” it says.

The training slides are dated August 2021, but were distributed to soldiers earlier this year in March, according to the Free Beacon, which obtained different slides from the same training. Similar training slides have been circulated in the past, featuring slightly different scenarios.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), Navy reservist and member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement to Breitbart News, “Every soldier I know just wants to spend their day working hard to keep America safe and it’s shameful that they’re being forced to sit through these pointless and partisan trainings.”

“Our adversaries aren’t wasting their time with this stuff. We need to get serious about countering the serious threats we face abroad,” Banks, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, added.

Breitbart News contacted the Army for a comment but did not receive a response by deadline. (read more)