Transgender Army Veteran Lands in Middle of Obama Controversy

A conservative military watchdog claims the Obama administration has taken another step in advancing the president’s radical social agenda, this time involving a transgendered civilian employed by the military.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel announced on Oct. 23 what liberal news-media outlets characterized as “a landmark determination” in transgender rights, that the Department of the Army engaged in “frequent, pervasive and humiliating,” gender-identity discrimination against Tamara Lusardi, a veteran and civilian Army software specialist who transitioned from male to female.

Lusardi was working in the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) in Redstone, Alabama, when she transitioned from male to female in 2010. During that time, the Army improperly restricted her restroom usage, referred to her with male pronouns and by her birth name and stopped giving her work, the OSC said in a report.

The Office of Special Counsel also accused the Army of discrimination against the transgender employee by not allowing him to use the female restroom and asking him to stop having uncomfortable and “unwanted” discussions with his coworkers about his upcoming sex change.

“I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that this change did not affect fellow employees, including women who should not have to surrender their rights of privacy in the workplace,” says Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness. “As for personal discussions about this transition process, that kind of a discussion is not appropriate in the workplace.”

The OSC stated that the Department of the Army committed gender identity discrimination against “Tamara” Lusardi, a civilian quality assurance specialist who announced he wanted to become a woman and began the transition in 2010. But female workers stated they did not feel comfortable when he used the female restroom three times.

Earlier this year President Obama—via executive order—banned the firing or harassment of federal employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Donnelly believes it is the goal of the administration to ultimately allow transgendered individuals into the uniformed service.

“This would be even more inappropriate,” she told a reporter. “If you’re in the armed forces, you live in conditions of forced intimacy. [And] if you introduce this element and it causes discomfort, to blame the majority—not the person who is causing the change—I think … really would be disruptive in the armed forces to extend a policy similarly to the deployed military.”

Donnelly considers the incident another example of the Obama administration pushing a political agenda at the expense of everyone else.

A veteran of Operation Desert Storm, he served in the Army as a man from 1986 to 1993.