How Long Before Tony Perkins Calls Transgender Military Vets 'Scam Artists'?
http://www.queerty.com/how-long-before-tony-perkins-calls-transgender-military-vets-scam-artists-20110111/ (http://www.queerty.com/how-long-before-tony-perkins-calls-transgender-military-vets-scam-artists-20110111/)
Not content with seeing its gay brothers and sisters on the cusp of being able to serve openly in the military, America's transgender community is still longing for the day when the Pentagon won't view them as a bunch of he-shes. Banned from service by default, transgender civilians looking to serve must either mask their gender identity (hard to do if you've had below-the-waist surgery, which constitutes "physical abnormalities," making you unfit for duty), or waiting until they leave service to embark on a more complete transition, paid for by the federal government: "[T]he military's long-standing posture on gender-identity has not prevented transgender citizens from signing up before they come out, or from obtaining psychological counseling, hormones and routine health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs once they return to civilian life."
When I was a sophomore in college I filled out the application for a student deferment from the draft. The Vietnam war was going strong then and a lot of kids my age were doing anything and everything they could to get out of the draft.
Several weeks after submitting the application I got back a 1-A classification. I satisfied all the requirements so I figured the selective service was "overlooking" that fact and would do anything they could to fill their quotas. I submitted another application and that too was denied. Then I got the call to report for a physical. My dad refused to buy me a plane ticket to report to the place back home.
All sorts of things went through my head as I tried to figure out how to avoid being drafted. I was a high school ROTC graduate and our Army instructors told us if we enlisted we'd automatically get a PFC grade. And if we graduated from college ROTC we'd start as second lieutenants. The two ranks with the shortest life span in Vietnam at the time were PFCs and 2nd lieutenants.
My dad's response was to take a life insurance policy out on me.
Now if I had known all I had to do was have GRS to get out of the draft, maybe I could have gotten my dad to pay for it. :D