Retirement Benefits Denied for AF Vets Involuntarily Separated for Being Trans

If this is how we treat Americans who served our country it’s no wonder how poorly we’re treating foreigners and the undocumented.

iluvatar5150 said:

https://apnews.com/article/air-forc...y-retirement-e6a4da806f2cc2bdc05f49438cbd26fd

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The U.S. Air Force said Thursday it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits.​

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The move means that transgender service members will now be faced with the choice of either taking a lump-sum separation payment offered to junior troops or be removed from the service.​

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An Air Force spokesperson told The Associated Press that “although service members with 15 to 18 years of honorable service were permitted to apply for an exception to policy, none of the exceptions to policy were approved.”​

The cruelty is the point.

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Arbitrarily cutting off benefits because of a retroactive decision by the Comannder-in-Chief?
This is somehow surprising at this stage?

The military covered transgender medical care and allowed transgender individuals to serve openly from 2016-2019 and 2021-2025. As military employees, they received medical benefits through Tri-Care (that's the military insurance plan, is it not?) In other words, for 8 of the last 9 years the military insurance plan was not only supportive of and complicit with but financially responsible for their transitions.

I can't see how it would be legal (but then again when has that ever stopped the most lawless 34 times convicted felon every to serve (?) as president) to punish these airmen for receiving medical care that had been financed by and supported by their employers. If the Air Force was unwilling to adhere to their employment contract and give them the same benefits as other military members, they should have sent them home with honorable discharges before 2016.

I acknowledge that as of March, 2025, the military is free to reject transgender recruits, thus adding to the list of those harmed by the current administration substantially, but they should be bound to offer pensions to those who received treatment the military paid for.

I suspect the next Dem president will fix this.