DES MOINES — Iowa Fourth District Representative Steve King is being condemned after he gave a speech in Congress in which he compared transgender troops with castrated slaves as he battled to yank funding for genre re-assignment surgery in the military.
On Friday, July 14, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) gave a speech on the House floor comparing transgender troops who receive gender reassignment surgery through insurance provided by the U.S. military for their service with castrated slaves from the Ottoman Empire.
“And today, we’re here thinking somehow we’re going to make the military better by letting people line up at their recruitment center who have planned that they want to do sexual reassignment surgery, know that it’s expensive, and believe ‘if I can just get into any branch of the United States services — to the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines; maybe become a Navy SEAL — and then submit to sexual reassignment surgery and then go from a man to a woman,'” Rep. King said after implying that the Ottoman Empire stopped using castrated slaves in their military because they were no longer useful “fighting machines” after the procedure.
The House defeated the measure, which would have mandated that the Army not pay for gender transition surgery. The measure, which sought to rollback a regulation which took effect on Oct. 1, 2016, was voted down 214-209 by the House.
One Iowa Executive Director Daniel Hoffman-Zinnel issued a statement condemning Rep. King’s House floor speech.
“Rep. Steve King’s speech is absolutely unacceptable. Not only does he compare transgender troops to castrated slaves, but he insinuates that transgender people going into the service only do so to get free surgery. People join the military for a multitude of reasons, and the same goes for transgender individuals. To group all transgender people together and claim they all intend to somehow game the system is not only false, but contributes to harmful and untrue stereotypes transgender people face that contribute to harassment and violence.
“Rep. King has shown incredible disrespect for the transgender people who bravely serve our country with this horrific and dishonest speech. We urge him to apologize and educate himself about the realities of transgender service in the military, where transgender individuals are still prohibited from serving openly.”
One Iowa is the state’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) organization working toward equality for LGBTQ individuals through grassroots efforts, education and advocacy.
