Pelosi: DOD Spent 5 Times More on Viagra Than It Would on – Transition-Related Care’ for Transgenders

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says that the Department of Defense is spending five times more on Viagra than it would on "transition-related care" for transgenders had President Donald Trump not ordered the Pentagon to bar transgenders from the military. "A study commissioned by the Department of Defense itself found that the cost of providing medically necessary care for transgender troops would be miniscule," Pelosi said in a press release put out Friday .

Transgender bathroom battle could be headed back to Supreme Court

A Wisconsin school district is asking the Supreme Court to review an appeals court's decision allowing a transgender teenager to use the boys' bathroom while the student's lawsuit proceeds through the courts. Ashton Whitaker, a biological 18-year-old girl who identifies as a male and has reportedly begun hormone replacement therapy, challenged as discriminatory a policy that directs boys and girls to use the bathroom that comports with the gender listed on their birth certificates.

Transgender troops call Trump ban step backward

Active-duty transgender troops say a policy change that puts them at risk of being removed from service and that indefinitely bars transgender people from enlisting in the military is a step backward for civil rights and will promote inequality in the armed forces. President Donald Trump on Friday directed the Pentagon to extend a ban on transgender individuals joining the military but gave the Pentagon the authority to decide how to handle openly transgender people already serving.

Trump gives new meaning to the Friday night news dump, enraging his critics

As a monster hurricane not seen on American shores in over a decade bore down on Texas on Friday night, a tsunami of news out of Washington was also on its way. President Donald Trump, in the space of four hours, formally announced a ban on transgender people serving in the military, pardoned a controversial sheriff accused of racial profiling and parted ways with polarizing aide and conservative media darling Sebastian Gorka.

Vi Lyles has deep knowledge of Charlotte. Is she bold enough to use it as mayor?

It would be tough for any of her challengers for Charlotte mayor to understand city government as thoroughly as Vi Lyles. But can Lyles be as bold as she is knowledgeable? Lyles, a Democrat who has been an at-large City Council member for four years, worked for the city for 29 years before that, mostly in the budget office.

Mother launches sickening attack on her PREGNANT daughter

Harvey slams into Texas with 130mph winds: Buildings collapse, dozens hurt and 155,000 without power as category four hurricane becomes the strongest to make landfall in America for 12 YEARS The dramatic moment a stormchaser's live feed cuts out while he describes buildings collapsing around him as Hurricane Harvey hits Texas with 130mph winds Trump under fire for his hurricane news dump: President announces Arpaio's pardon and transgender military ban - while Gorka reveals he is out - as Harvey hits Texas Trump declares a state of emergency: The president signs emergency order from Camp David after tweeting to warn Americans that Harvey is more powerful than thought Trump pardons controversial Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio after he was convicted of contempt for refusing to stop targeting illegal immigrants for arrest 'Worthless' Subway footlong class action settlement that gave customers ... (more)

It’s Official: Trump Directs Pentagon to Enact Trans Military Ban

Nearly one month after announcing via Twitter he'd ban transgender people from U.S. military, President Trump made good on his promise in a memo to the Pentagon Friday enacting a ban on their service -- although the fate of transgender people currently in the armed forces remains to be seen. In a memo dated Aug. 25 to the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security, Trump asserts the Obama administration "failed to identify a sufficient basis" to end the ban on transgender military service in June 2016 and directs the U.S. military to put the prohibition back in place.

LGBT community outrage as Trump signs directs Pentagon to enact transgender ban

US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday that directs the US military not to accept transgender men and women as recruits and halts the use of government funds for sex reassignment surgeries for active personnel unless the process is already underway. The memo, released by the White House, laid out in more detail a ban on transgender individuals serving in the US armed forces that Trump announced via Twitter last month, reversing a policy shift started under his predecessor Barack Obama.

Texas mailman has donated 100 GALLONS of blood

Harvey slams into Texas with 130mph winds: Buildings collapse, dozens hurt and 155,000 without power as category four hurricane becomes the strongest to make landfall in America for 12 YEARS The dramatic moment a stormchaser's live feed cuts out while he describes buildings collapsing around him as Hurricane Harvey hits Texas with 130mph winds Trump under fire for his hurricane news dump: President announces Arpaio's pardon and transgender military ban - while Gorka reveals he is out - as Harvey hits Texas Trump declares a state of emergency: The president signs emergency order from Camp David after tweeting to warn Americans that Harvey is more powerful than thought 'You should be ashamed of yourself': Houston man confronts alleged price gouger who was 'selling water at a 500 percent markup' as Texas faces shortages due to Hurricane Harvey Trump pardons controversial Arizona sheriff Joe ... (more)

Bachelor’s Leah, Jen fresh after Maxim Grounds Alexandria

Harvey slams into Texas with 130mph winds: Buildings collapse, dozens hurt and 155,000 without power as category four hurricane becomes the strongest to make landfall in America for 12 YEARS The dramatic moment a stormchaser's live feed cuts out while he describes buildings collapsing around him as Hurricane Harvey hits Texas with 130mph winds Trump under fire for his hurricane news dump: President announces Arpaio's pardon and transgender military ban - while Gorka reveals he is out - as Harvey hits Texas Trump declares a state of emergency: The president signs emergency order from Camp David after tweeting to warn Americans that Harvey is more powerful than thought 'You should be ashamed of yourself': Houston man confronts alleged price gouger who was 'selling water at a 500 percent markup' as Texas faces shortages due to Hurricane Harvey Trump pardons controversial Arizona sheriff Joe ... (more)

Trump signs directive banningtransgender military recruits

President Donald Trump on Friday directed the military not to move forward with an Obama-era plan that would have allowed transgender individuals to be recruited into the armed forces, following through on his intentions announced a month earlier to ban transgender people from serving. The presidential memorandum also bans the Department of Defense from using its resources to provide medical treatment regimens for transgender individuals currently serving in the military.

This is Transparent Discrimination: ACLU’s Chase Strangio on Trump’s Military Trans Ban

The White House has reportedly prepared a memo for the Pentagon outlining President Trump's call to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. The memo instructs the Pentagon to refuse to admit transgender people to the military and to stop paying for the medical treatments for transgender people currently serving.

White House Gives Pentagon Six Months to Create New Trans Military Ban Policy

White House guidance on the transgender military service ban President Trump ordered via tweet July 26 is headed to the Pentagon, as soon as Thursday afternoon or possibly Friday morning, a senior White House source told the Los Angeles Blade. The Guidance has been boiled down to a 21/2-page memo that directs Defense Sec. Mattis to come up with a policy in six months, stop spending money on transgender-related medical treatment for active duty trans servicemembers and gauges fitness for service based on "deployability"--whether the trans individual can ably serve in a war zone and engage in military exercises or function a ship for months, officials told the Wall Street Journal .

White House Preparing Rules for Military’s Transgender Ban

A rainbow flag flies as people protest U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military, in Times Square, in New York City, New York, July 26, 2017. The White House is expected to soon give the Pentagon guidance on implementing President Donald Trump's order to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

WSJ: Transgender military ban coming soon

The White House will send guidance to the Pentagon on President Donald Trump's transgender military ban -- including instructions to reject transgender applicants -- "in coming days," The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night, citing unnamed US officials familiar with the matter. Among the memo's directions: The military is to stop admitting transgender people; and for current transgender troops, the Pentagon should consider a service member's ability to deploy when determining whether to expel them, the newspaper reported, citing the officials.

Gov. Abbott suggests ‘bathroom bill’ is likely dead for now

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday he revived a "bathroom bill" targeting transgender people even though he was told it would never get a vote in the GOP-controlled state House, while signaling that the twice-failed effort is dead for the foreseeable future. A proposal requiring transgender Texans to use public restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificates fizzled Tuesday night, when lawmakers abruptly ended a month-long special legislative session Abbott convened.

‘Bathroom bill’ dies again in Texas as session abruptly ends

It is the second time that North Carolina-style bathroom restrictions have failed to pass in Texas, and Abbott gave no indication he would order weary lawmakers to stay in Austin and try again - which would risk a third failure over what has erupted into one of the most high-profile bills in any U.S. legislature. Corporate heavyweights from Amazon to Exxon Mobil lined up against the measure, as did some top law enforcement agencies, and opponents celebrated the latest failure despite the support from the governor and influential social conservatives who drive GOP politics and primaries in Texas.

How Trump administration ignores Trump: Presidential demands sometimes dismissed

Something strange has been happening lately in Washington when the most powerful man in town, the president of the United States, makes a headline-grabbing declaration on some new policy. Some recent presidential statements have been simply ignored, tuned out as meaningless noise by the federal apparatus he runs.