Officials are investigating a Texas Army chaplain after he suggested in a social media post that transgender soldiers were “mentally unfit” and “unqualified to serve.”
Maj. Andrew Calvert made the comments on a military newspaper’s Facebook page on Monday, the same day President Joe Biden signed an executive order lifting a ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, according to officials. He is a chaplain with the 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade in Fort Hood.
“How is rejecting reality (biology) not evidence that a person is mentally unfit (ill), and thus making that person unqualified to serve? There is little difference in this than over those who believe and argue for a ‘flat earth,’ despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary,” Calvert wrote in the post on the Army Times’ Facebook page, according to screenshots.
“The motivation is different, but the argument is the same. This person is a MedBoard for Mental Wellness waiting to happen. What a waste of military resources and funding!”
The Army’s Security Force Assistance Command reminded its soldiers of its “Think, Type, Post” social media policy in an online statement on Tuesday.
“We are aware of the recent comments posted to the Army Times Facebook in regard to the ban being removed on transgender service members. This incident is under investigation,” officials said in the statement.
Biden’s order on Monday reversed a ban that former President Donald Trump put in effect. The new directive “immediately prohibits involuntary separations, discharges, and denials of reenlistment or continuation of service” on the basis of gender identity, according to the White House.
The order also directed immediate “correction of” military records for those who had been affected by Trump’s ban.
