On Wednesday afternoon, President Trump announced the reinstatement of a ban, via Twitter, preventing transgender people from serving in any and all branches of the military “in any capacity.” The ban would not only prohibit transgender people from joining military but would force military personnel already serving to give up their positions. This decision seems to have been made very abruptly considering that, during both his campaign and his presidency thus far, he has never voiced his interest or concern about whether or not he thinks trans people should be able to serve their country. In fact, senators from both major parties were quite shocked by this decision and immediately took to Twitter to advocate for trans involvement in the military, thanking them for their service and assuring them that who they are is not a “burden”, a word Trump used to describe the medical expenses of trans people in the armed forces. Even Republican Senator John McCain, who is notoriously socially conservative, voiced his outrage over Trump’s news, saying that the tweets Trump posted announcing the ban were “unclear” and that “There is no reason to force any service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military.” While Trump claims the ban is due to the cost of hormone replacement therapy and/or reassignment surgery that transgender military personnel may need, these expenses are a fraction of the cost of the Department of Defense’s healthcare expenditures, totaling to only around $8.4 million, at most, out of a 49 billion dollar budget. In other words, attempting to justify this ban as a way to decrease costs is simply untrue. In addition, banning an entire demographic of people from the military is not only discriminatory, and echoes not so distant moments in American history when black or gay people couldn’t serve, but it decreases the number of willing and able citizens who want to fight to protect their country. All the while, this regressive and discriminatory announcement of the ban falls on the 69th anniversary of the day President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces.
Everything about Trump is unreal. This is a movie, right?
If only
Well said.
Thanks!
You are the voice for all that is right and true!
Very awful indeed. But this is probably a smoke screen for his next awful act. Red meat to the bigots before he dismisses the bigot Sessions. Just saying…
Probably…
I keep hoping I’ll wake to find that Trump’s presidency was nothing more than a horrible dream. 😦
I would be very happy if that was the case.
That wouldn’t be a bad dream, that is a nightmare.
Actually, and I am no friend of Trump, the problem is much deeper than him. Do you think Mike Pence will reach out to the LGBTQ community? NO! Do you believe those backing, sup;porting and making excuses for Trump will support the community? Think again. America has been force fed a diet of “Reality TV”, “Reality News” and so much more false reality that they don’t even understand what it is. My fears are for my daughter, her partner and so many other people so dear to my heart. Why do you think that the establishment has been dumb-ing down education for decades? Educate the community, show them there are other ways to change things, if not, and the choice is still yours but it may not be for long.
Of course I don’t think that. Nothing in my article indicated otherwise.
Reblogged this on The Wonderful and Wacky World of One Single Mom and commented:
Absolutely stellar writing.
Thanks!