Openly gay CNN anchor Anderson Cooper devoted a full quarter of his Thursday, June 6 program to the story of a transgender ex-Navy SEAL who laments that he could not serve in the military now as a man who identifies as a woman. [Listen to the audio here]
Cooper chronicled the adult life of Christopher Beck, who now goes by Kristin, who first enlisted in the Navy in 1990 and would eventually achieve his goal of serving as a member of the Navy SEALs. However, he claimed that he always had an inner struggle with his gender identity. He was born a man, but identified himself as a woman. He also claims to have signed up for the SEALs to try to suppress or “cure” his feminine desires but never could.
Since retiring 2011, Beck has begun undergoing hormone therapy and dressing like a woman. He was recently come out with a book entitled Warrior Princess that tells the story of his “coming out.”
At one point during the coverage, Cooper mentions that although the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell formally allowed openly homosexual men and women to serve in the military, that ruling does not apply to transgender men or women meaning that Beck would no longer be able to serve if he decided to come out of his retirement.
Beck claimed that “there’s a lot of [transgender people] right now” that are in the military, but that have to conceal their gender identity because of the ban on openly transgender people that the armed services has in place. Beck said that “you would never know that they are transgender” and that “it’s just too bad because they’re doing a great job.”
Left completely unexplored, however, was any consideration of the other side of the story, including a raft of disciplinary, training or logistical questions. For example, men and women in the armed forces have different fitness standards. Would a biologically female "man" be expected to meet the requirements of male servicemen? When deployed would a biologically male person like Beck bunk with biologically female soldiers? If so, this policy could lead to a feeling of discomfort for the rest of the soldiers, which may distract them from their mission of cohesively fighting to defend the freedoms of Americans.
That being said, it should not come as a surprise to the viewer that the liberal media would not be content simply with their Don’t Ask Don’t Tell victory. They have now moved into their next mission concerning the military, which seems to be allowing openly transgender individuals to serve in the military. Only time will tell if their level of success and how it will affect the coherency of our armed forces.
Ultimately, it is upsetting that CNN, a network that prides itself as being “among the world’s leaders in news,” would devote more than 25% of one of their primetime “news” shows to peddle an extremely liberal issue, especially without also covering the other views on the issue. News should be unbiased and should simply report on the happenings that affect the public in order to keep them informed. News stations should not try to push their political opinions or views from either side of the political arena while trying to claim that it is “news.”
