On July 26, 2017, Trump posted via his Twitter account, that the Military would no longer allow transgender individuals to serve our country (Twitter photo below).
According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), this would mean that roughly 15,000 transgender individuals would be affected by this mandate (Peters, 2017). However, the current tweets reflect coming “policy change” and do not yet reflect the current policy (Sellers, 2017).
Historically, there have existed bans that have barred gay men and lesbians from federal employment; yet, this is different from that as sexual orientation and gender identity are two different concepts (Sellers, 2017). The Obama administration had begun working to remove the ban on transgender military service–allowing already-enlisted service members to serve openly, while civilian transgender individuals were still disqualified from service (Sellers, 2017). What this could mean is that if these Tweets become policy, open transgender individuals may either opt for a medical discharge or be dishonorably discharged from service (Sellers, 2017).
If you are wondering what the justification is for banning transgender individuals in the military, there does not seem to be a good answer. According to the tweets from trump, it is the costs of health care; however, several major journalist, press, and new outlets have found that the government spends more on erectile dysfunction medication (approximately 5 times more than the costs associated with health care for transgender individuals) (Kimble, 2017).
In my personal opinion, I believe that Trump is losing ground on all of the other promises he made to his constituents (“The Wall,” repealing the ACA, travel bans, and so on) that he is looking for a victory that will appease both Republicans and the Conservatives that bought his political platform during the election. There are already a number of local and state governments that have shown their support for the Transgender community and have offered positions to anyone who may be discharged from the military–should these tweets become policy. Agencies from local and state governments to police departs, are willing to offer supplemental work in the face of this very blatant discrimination.
We are living in a country where to be Trans* is often met with harsh stigma and in some cases even violence. As of January 2017, we have seen 18 reported and identified cases of Trans* individuals murdered–with other 80% of those being people of color (Violence Against the Trans Community, 2017). Our government and POTUS should be acting in the best interests of the Trans* community and not offering further discrimination and isolation from our society.
I am angry.
I am tired of bigotry.
I am ready to fight this Trump Administration.
References
Kimble, L. (2017). Costs for Transgender people in military’exceedingly small’ despite President Trump’s clam, study says. Retrieved from http://people.com/politics/transgender-soldiers-military-cost-donald-trump-claims/
N.A. (2017). Violence against the Transgender community in 2017. Retrieved from http://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-transgender-community-in-2017
Peters, S. (2017). Breaking: Trump launches all out assault on service members. Retrieved from http://www.hrc.org/blog/breaking-president-trump-launches-all-out-assault-on-trans-service-members
Sellers, M. (2017). The 4 key things you need to know about Trump’s proposed ban on transgender military service. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/07/31/the-4-key-things-you-need-to-know-about-trumps-proposed-ban-on-transgender-military-service/?utm_term=.08b385032221
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