President Donald Trump tweeted that he wants to ban transgender people from serving in the military. We were all shocked and appalled, but why is he REALLY doing it?
He is pandering to the religious extremists on the right, naturally. He happened to announce this on the anniversary of Harry S. Truman’s desegregation of the military. He claimed to have made the decision after “consultation with my Generals and military experts.”
He tweeted that he would no longer allow “transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” but he didn’t specifically say what would happen to the 4,000 transgender individuals who are already in the military. They may be forced to separate from the military after they were only allowed to serve openly as of 2016.
Kendall Balentine transitioned two years ago after serving as a man in the Marines for eight years and in the Army for three. She said:
“Anyone who serves in the military has that commonality—they are willing to give the greatest sacrifice for our country—and now our government doesn’t want to give us the smallest concession to do that, to serve like anybody else. He’s empowering people in the military to believe in something that’s not true.”
As of today, the Department of Defense (DoD) website says this about the transgender policy:
“Effective immediately, transgender Service members may serve openly, and they can no longer be discharged or otherwise separated from the military solely for being transgender individuals.”
Capt. Jeff Davis said in an emailed statement:
“We refer all questions about the president’s statements to the White House. We will continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander in chief on transgender individuals serving the military. We will provide revised guidance to the department in the near future.”
Hopefully, they will figure it out soon. It would suck to be fired via Twitter.
Here is Trae Crowder’s take on the issue:
Featured image via Twitter.
