Donald Trump Officially Ordered the Military to Ban Transgender Recruits
On Friday night President Donald Trump issued a directive banning transgender recruits from the military. It comes two days after news broke that a White House memo along these lines was being finalized to send to the Department of Defense. Along with the ban, the directive also bars funds for sex reassignment surgeries unless the transgender service member is already in treatment. What’s unclear from Friday’s official order, however, is whether transgender troops currently serving will be allowed to continue.
Trump’s order also applies to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard. According to the New York Times, it falls largely to Defense Secretary James Mattis to come up with how to implement Trump’s order—and to decide whether transgender troops can stay. Mattis’ decision, according to a press briefing about the memo reported by NPR, will be based on how their “continued service affects military effectiveness, lethality, resources and unit cohesion.” He has six months to come up with his proposal, according to the Times.
Trump’s ban marks an end to an initiative from President Obama’s administration that allowed the military to recruit transgender people into the armed forces. The current president had first announced his proposal in a series of tweets in July, saying, “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming … victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
Trump’s tweets caused an uproar, with people accusing Trump of discrimination when it came to his arguments about why trans people shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military. Case in point: the military actually spends more on Viagra than it does for trans health care—so the President’s point about medical costs being the issue is pretty weak.
When asked at Friday’s briefing if the President’s announcement was discriminatory, a White House official responded, “The president is the president for all Americans, and during last year’s campaign he was the first GOP nominee to talk about LGBTQ issues at the GOP convention, but he also was critical of the Obama administration’s change in that longstanding DOD policy.” He went on to say, “He’s going to continue to ensure that the rights of the LGBTQ community, as well as all Americans, is protected. This policy is based on a series of national security considerations.
Many people, including Senator Tammy Duckworth who served in the army in Iraq, have spoken out against Trump’s ban by arguing that gender identity has nothing to do with the ability to serve the country. If someone is able to do the job, that’s all that matters.
On Saturday morning, the ACLU announced that they’d be filing a lawsuit against Trump on Monday.
We’ll keep you posted with where this goes.
Related Stories:
–Senator Tammy Duckworth on Trump’s Trans Military Ban: ‘This Man Is Not Fit to Be Commander-in-Chief’
–President Donald Trump Bans Transgender People From Serving in the Military: Celebrities React
–Donald Trump’s Transgender Military Ban Is Set to Go Into Effect Within 6 Months, According to a New Memo