The US military could formally punish army personnel for refusing to use service member’s preferred pronouns, experts have warned.
Commanders could subject a member of the US military who declines to affirm a transgender service member's gender identity to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for charges related to harassment.
The move would likely violate a service member’s constitutional rights to uphold their conscience.
However, it might not stop chiefs from implementing more subtle ways of disciplining the army.
The US military could formally punish army personnel for refusing to use service member’s preferred pronouns, experts have warnedGettyMilitary experts are now urging Congress to step in to tackle the dispute.
Capt Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the US Military Academy said the military "is right to want to protect the rights and welfare of its transgender service members".
"But it owes the same protection to those who share a different perspective on the issue, especially when that perspective is a deep-seated expression of personal conscience," he told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Military rules do not explicitly ban "misgendering" when a member of the army uses the wrong pronoun to describe a transgender person.
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However, current guidance suggests that using pronouns declined by another person breaches Military Equal Opportunity (MEO) regulations against sex-based harassment and discrimination.
Service members could be court-martialed for "refusing to use another person’s self-identified pronouns, even when their refusal stems from principled religious conviction," Wheatley said.
"This law applies to service members at all times and in all locations, even when they’re off duty and in the privacy of their off-post residence."
The UCMJ also bans “conduct unbecoming of an officer” under Article 133.
Capt Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the US Military Academy said the military "is right to want to protect the rights and welfare of its transgender service members"
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Wheatley said: "Is it now ‘unbecoming’ and incompatible with service as a commissioned officer to openly hold sincere religious convictions surrounding the act of creation and the nature of human sex?"
He added that there are growing concerns over the possibility of service members being taken to criminal trial for perceived harassment if that person "misgendered" another military member.
"I knew, given the cultural gap between the civilian world and the military, the issue would be overlooked as it concerned service members. So, I got to work,” he said.