nor transgender peoples' medical problems posed any barrier to effective service. The study also argued that the rigidity of sexual difference, gender roles, and sexuality are "becoming increasingly less absolute," which could raise questions regarding the admission, retention, training, housing, and other services of intersex individuals in the armed forces. In 2010, Republican representative Duncan D. Hunter implied that intersex people were always banned from service. However, this claim was contradicted by a veteran who stated that she was allowed to serve openly and be deployed during Desert Storm as an intersex woman. Activist Autumn Sandeen also refuted Hunter's claims in a statement on her blog. In contrast, another response to Hunter was from Choire Sicha of The Awl who stated that "intersex people aren't welcome to serve, but no one's quite sure how and why", but did not elaborate on if they believed this referred to all conditions or just visible ones. Along with trans and non-heterosexual people, Hunter includes intersex people on his list of queer groups which he believes to be unfit for service because he holds the belief that they would disrupt unit cohesion. At the time when speaking about the subject he referred to intersex people by the term "hermaphrodites", which drew criticism from several intersex advocates and allies since it is a medically inaccurate term for a human being and is seen as a slur in the 20th century. His comments were also mocked on the NPR comedy news show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! which joked about his opinion on the subject, claiming that including intersex people would be advantageous to the military, since they could "pursue enemies into both men's and women's restrooms". This joke was poorly received by some, including writers of ShadowProof, who stated that it was both insulting to intersex people and a play on the negative stereotype of trans people as potential bathroom sexual predators, and Queerty. In May 2018, River Champion in E-International Relations noted the "struggles for autonomy" for intersex individuals within existing "military frameworks" Veterans Intersex veterans are entitled to "medically necessary" surgeries. When transgender people were banned from receiving sex reassignment surgery, intersex people were also banned from these surgeries. This meant that someone who was in the military presenting as male in their records could not transition to a female identity with help from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, even if