GOP congressman tried to insult trans men by introducing an amendment to draft them. He failed.

A Republican congressman has introduced an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would require trans men to register for the draft.

The amendment to the annual defense spending bill was one of five proposed by Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) and would change the requirements to register for Selective Service by defining “male citizen of the United States” to include a “transgender person who identifies as male,” Military.com reports.

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In a statement to the outlet, Burchett said that if transgender men “want to be treated like men, then they need to do what other men do and register for the Selective Service and get called up like everybody else.”

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While transgender Americans have been targeted by over 220 pieces of legislation aimed at limiting their rights this year alone, according to the Human Rights Campaign, and are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime, according to a 2021 study conducted by the Williams Institute, Burchett said, “This group of people is more protected than any other group, and it’s not right.”

Selective Services currently requires “individuals who are born male” to register for military conscription within 30 days of their eighteenth birthday in the event the U.S. ever institutes the draft again. That includes transgender women and non-binary people assigned male at birth. “Individuals who are born female” are not required to register, according to the Selective Service website.

Failure to register can be punished with prison and fines, although prosecution is rare. The real consequences are that many government benefits – like financial aid for college, citizenship, and future government employment – are tied to registering for Selective Service.

People who are assigned female at birth cannot register for the draft. For trans men, this can create problems when applying for federal benefits like financial aid because they have to get a letter from the Selective Service System explaining that they are exempt and effectively outing them as trans.

While Burchett’s amendment was intended to point out supposed hypocrisy among liberals, Democrats have actually tried to open up Selective Service registration to everyone. Former Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) put forward such an amendment to the NDAA in 2017.

The U.S. has not instituted the draft since 1973.

In January 2021, President Joe Biden overturned former President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. In February of this year, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced the “Ensuring Military Readiness Act,” which would ban out trans people from military service.

In 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by a men’s rights group challenging the Military Selective Service Act’s (MSSA) requirement that all people assigned male at birth register for the draft. The National Coalition for Men’s lawsuit claimed that the MSSA’s exemption of people assigned female at birth amounted to sex-based discrimination.

In a statement, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that they would leave matters of national defense and military affairs to Congress. “It remains to be seen, of course, whether Congress will end gender-based registration under the Military Selective Service Act,” she wrote in the statement, which was signed by Justices Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh as well.

As Military.com notes, Republicans have attempted to lard this year’s NDAA with anti-LGBTQ+ amendments, including a ban on the Pentagon funding drag shows, bans on gender-affirming care for service members and their families, and limits on service members’ abilities to transfer duty stations due to anti-LGBTQ+ state laws.

On Wednesday, Burchett tweeted that two of his five amendments had been included in the 2024 NDAA. The amendment requiring trans men to register for the draft was not one of them. On Thursday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he expected a final vote on the NDAA on Friday, The Hill reports.