The transgender tweet

In the pantheon of Donald Trump tweets, his threepart missive declaring that transgender people would not be allowed in the military was not his most rude, mindless or irrational. But it is deeply troubling nevertheless. He essentially called for a step backward in time that goes counter to all the slow but necessary progress the United States has made in recent years in its treatment of transgender people.

“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,” he tweeted.

Trump offers two separate justifications that just don’t stand up. The “tremendous medical costs” for gendertran sition-related healthcare are, in fact, negligibly small – an increase of between $2.4 million and $8.4m. The military spends some $50 billion each year on healthcare, according to a Rand Corp study.

Shamefully, Trump made his toxic policy pronouncement on the anniversary of the day that President Truman ordered the military desegregated.

And Trump’s assertion that transgender troops “disrupt” the military is equally specious. There are already 18 allied militaries that allow transgender individuals to serve openly; of the four studied closely by Rand, none reported a negative impact on the operational readiness, operational effectiveness or force cohesion.