Rights are rights, and military service isn't one

Look at the military’s fitness standards. They directly contradict the so-called equal-opportunity theory, limiting participation to those with physical advantages. A thought experiment helps draw out the point here: Were these conditions for membership applied to free speech — which few would claim is not an unalienable right — there would be bipartisan outcry, because withdrawing someone’s right to peaceful protest on the basis of physical differences directly clashes with our idea that a person’s humanity qualifies him to exercise it.

If military service were a right, the only justification necessary to permit transgender soldiers to serve would be their inability to do so. Think of it this way: It doesn’t matter what reasons you may have for supporting a group’s ability to speak freely; the fact that free speech is a natural right makes any other argument about why a group should be allowed to speak freely redundant and irrelevant. The converse of this argument reasons that if you believe restrictions on combat readiness and effectiveness can or should block any particular group, you must also believe military service is not a right.