Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) introduced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would ban gender-affirming health care for transgender members of the military and their families.

And he defended his amendment to the NDAA to deny health care to some members of the military by saying that trans and nonbinary service members could launch ICBM missiles because they don’t know if “they are a man or a woman.”

...Rosendale offered several amendments to the NDAA – the annual defense policy bill that funds the military – including one that he says “would prohibit TRICARE from covering and the Department of Defense from furnishing sex reassignment surgeries and gender hormone treatments for transgender individuals.” TRICARE is the health care program for active duty service members, the National Guard, and the family members of active duty service members.

That LGBTQ+ people are allowed to serve in the military at all is a major point of contention for some on the right. Florida Republicans voted on a bill earlier this year that would have the state send a sternly-worded letter to federal officials, telling them to end “woke social engineering and experimentation practices” in the military. The bill cited the military’s opposition to racism in the workplace and the facts that “openly gay and bisexual men and women have been allowed to serve in the military” and “the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military was lifted” as examples of “woke” military policies.