"Public" broadcasting demonstrates how dramatically one-sided it is by allowing only one side of the "LGBTQIA+" debate -- because they believe there should be no debate. There is no defensible position in opposition. On Saturday's Consider This podcast, National Public Radio spent more than 11 minutes mourning the Trump administration's decision to remove transgender troops from service. [Graphic from NPR's story.]
The star of the story was Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former general in charge of troops in Afghanistan under President Obama -- until he ripped the adminstration in a Rolling Stone profile. Then he had to go. But since then, McChrystal has become an opponent of Trump, and endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024, so he's good again. NPR's headline:
Former top general calls military's removal of trans troops a costly mistake
Anchor Scott Detrow set the scene: "The Pentagon is now actively removing nearly all remaining openly transgender troops. In the parting messages, they and their allies say it is only hurting, not helping military readiness." Yes, "they and their allies" were the only ones they found worth airing. Producer Lauren Hodges began with McChrystal's ceremony in a civilian suit and tie:
LAUREN HODGES: The room applauds as 71-year-old retired four-star general Stanley McChrystal approaches the podium. I can't believe he's here, someone whispers. Almost as if he heard them, McChrystal says this into the microphone.
STANLEY McCHRYSTAL: First off, we shouldn't be here.
HODGES: Here is a retirement ceremony for five transgender service members who have been forcibly separated from the military under the Trump administration's second ban. The event has been organized by the [leftist] advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign in lieu of a proper Pentagon ceremony.
McCHRYSTAL: When these professionals finally decide to retire, it should happen on parade fields, in offices, on the deck of ships, wherever the Space Force goes, I don't know.
The NPR bio for Hodges relays: "Lauren works on many beats but leans toward national security, extremism, reproductive rights, poverty and social justice issues." Her story loaded up on the outraged transgender troops:
KARA CORCORAN: It's systematic oppression. It should be the same standard of care and the same process as anybody would have with a shoulder surgery or a knee surgery, which, by the way, for all the surgeries we get, the recovery period is less, and we're back in the fight.
Then came the inevitable anonymous sources. NPR loves these, because it adds Creeping Tyranny drama to the story:
HODGES: W is a transgender woman who serves in the Navy. She has asked to only go by an initial because she's, quote, "stealth," meaning she's not out as trans. She presents as a man and hasn't undergone any gender affirmation surgery. She knows she'll lose her job if it's made public. W says only about four of her colleagues know, and those people are helping by asking questions on her behalf so no one suspects anything….
That experience is shared by a fellow sailor, A, who is also stealth and using only an initial for the same reasons as W. But, A, a trans man, is stealth in a different way.
A: It's two very different experiences. You've got people like me, who transitioned prior to the military, so there was no change in documents when I joined.
HODGES: When A started boot camp, he pulled a sergeant aside to let her know, and she arranged for separate showers for, quote, "religious reasons."
This lobby is anything but God-fearing. There was one soundbite of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to denounce the Left in terms the NPR audience will despise:
PETE HEGSETH: This administration has done a great deal from Day 1 to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses.
The story returned to McChrystal at the end:
HODGES: General McChrystal says the separations are a mistake and that they're affecting mission readiness, one of the listed values that Secretary Hegseth claims as a priority for his Department of War amidst several simmering global conflicts.
McCHRYSTAL: God forbid, if we had a major war and we need to start calling everybody up, I would hope that we would not suddenly say we are only going to draft people of a certain type because we wouldn't have enough.
