The Department of Defense should be about one thing and one thing only: Defense. Instead, it's now in the business of sensitivity training and "re-educating" service men and women on the myriad pronouns one might fancy using if one is transgender. 

The Weekly Standard shares details of the DoD's new guidebook for transgender service members, released just before a deadline that would see the military provide gender reassignment and transition medical care to service personnel. The "administrative management tool" is replete with official pronouns and, according to TWS, "defines key terms, such as 'gender dysphoria.'" There are also entries about how to deal with bullying. 

An excerpt from the guidebook reads: 

"Every person has the right to have their gender identity recognized and respected, and all Service members who receive a diagnosis that gender transition is medically necessary will be provided with support and management to transition, within the bounds of military readiness."

TWS adds:

The handbook guides a serviceperson seeking transition between genders to communicate his or her intent with his or her unit, via letter or in person. The pre-transition serviceperson in question should, however, consider the consequences such a decision might have on his or her career, the handbook says. (The handbook, wisely, uses second person pronouns.)

One should also bear in mind that there is a physical readiness test required post-transition. (This is noteworthy because the standard physical readiness test, or PRT, demands slightly different levels of rigor for men and women.) There is, as yet, no standard assessment of psychological fitness for transgender service members, Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon explained to TWS. 

"Service members are able to get the full gamut now. Counseling, hormone therapy, surgery—the whole deal," Pahon added. 

Because everything, including our military, is about identity politics now.