密歇根新闻广播 变性人 军队 和我们

Forty years ago, I was in a special, high-pressure graduate program at the University of Michigan designed to make trained journalists out of otherwise hapless intellectuals like myself in a year and a half. It was an amazingly successful program.

Many of my classmates went on to jobs in senior management in places like both the New York and Los Angeles Times and the former International Herald¹ Tribune.

The fellow I was closest to was a very thoughtful, slight man from Okemos who was fascinated by Japan, had learned the language fluently and had a Japanese wife and son. He had a wonderful sense of humor and went on to become a correspondent for Newsweek.

Years later, I visited him in Tokyo. Not long afterwards, I got a letter from him, now her, explaining that she had realized she was transgender, and was taking hormones² and preparing for the surgery needed to become female. This was far less common in the 1980s than now.

I was stunned³ but I hope supportive. However, I am a certified⁴ coward when it comes to surgery, and was also rather naive⁵. I asked David, now Dana, why she did not choose just to dress and live as a woman. She said that she knew that if she didn’t have corrective surgery, she would have had to kill herself. I lost touch with her mainly due to the chaos⁶ of our careers, but wherever she is, I hope her life has been successful and happy.

I remember she was fascinated by issues involving the Japanese military, and I think we once went to see maneuvers⁷ together. And so I thought of her yesterday, when I heard of Donald Trump⁸’s sudden decision, if that is what it was, to ban all transgender persons from serving in our military “in any capacity whatsoever,” though thousands already are.

Trump cited the “enormous medical costs” to the taxpayers⁹ of transgender soldiers. In fact, those costs are somewhat less than one-tenth what the military spends on Viagra.

Whether transgender people now serving will have to leave is not clear. Senator John McCain, an authentic¹⁰ military hero, spoke¹¹ up to defend transgender soldiers, and in a statement sure to have overwhelming bipartisan support, added that this was “yet another example of why major policy announcements shouldn’t be made via Twitter.”

What seemed certain was that this would lead to a mass of lawsuits¹² and in an increase in the general chaos that is Washington these days. The New York Times indicated that this may be designed to win over religious conservatives who haven’t been inclined to support funding for President Trump’s wall to seal off the border with Mexico.

Last weekend I was at a party where someone asked Geoffrey Fieger, the famously flamboyant¹³ attorney, why he thought so many blue-collar people still supported this administration, even though its policies seemed not to be in their best interests.

“You know why. It’s that old dog-whistle of racism,” said Fieger, who has an African-American adopted child, and whose father worked for civil rights in Mississippi when that was dangerous. Attacking transgender persons is another form of that.

And I think we might all ask ourselves what sort of people we really are, and what we want this country to become.

1 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

2 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

3 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

4 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

5 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

6 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

7 maneuvers   

n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He suspected at once that she had been spying upon his maneuvers. 他立刻猜想到，她已经侦察到他的行动。 来自辞典例句
• Maneuvers in Guizhou occupied the Reds for four months. 贵州境内的作战占了红军四个月的时间。 来自辞典例句

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

9 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

10 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

13 flamboyant   

adj.火焰般的，华丽的，炫耀的

参考例句：

• His clothes were rather flamboyant for such a serious occasion.他的衣着在这种严肃场合太浮夸了。
• The King's flamboyant lifestyle is well known.国王的奢华生活方式是人尽皆知的。