Loss of moral high-ground: The transgender ban, a military psychiatrist’s perspective and call to action

Abstract

Joseph E. Wise, MD, was on the Walter Reed Military Hospital Transgender Review Board from 2016–2017. He is a former US Army Psychiatrist, and an Iraq War Combat Veteran, psychoanalyst, and Certified Group Psychotherapist. He is the coeditor of Gay Mental Healthcare Providers and Patients in the Military, published by Springer (2018). In this first installment of the Perspectives series for JGLMH, Dr. Wise criticizes the recent reinstatement of a transgender service ban in the US military and uses his personal experience conducting reviews of transgender service members’ fitness for duty to illustrate the harm such a policy can cause to them, as well as the ethical conflict it creates for military medical personnel.