Trump bans transgender people from US military
DONALD Trump yesterday banned transgender people from serving in America’s military “in any capacity”.
The US president tweeted soldiers had to be “focused on decisive and overwhelming victory” and that transgender people brought “tremendous medical costs and disruption”.
LGBT rights campaigners vowed to take Mr Trump to court and said he was being “un-American”.
Analysts said implementing a ban could be difficult at best and unconstitutional at worst.
Activist Sarah McBride said it was a “mean-spirited and dangerous attack on patriotic Americans who are bravely serving their country”.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she would introduce legislation to “fight to overturn this discriminatory decision”.
But on Twitter Trump supporter Jack Posobiec wrote: “The President is correct. The US military must put defense of the nation ahead of social experiments.”
About 15,000 transgender people serve in the US army, a 2014 study by the University of California, LA, found. The figure represents 1.1 per cent of 1.3 million military personnel.
Mr Trump’s announcement appeared to be aimed at his support base and the Christian Right.
It caught the Pentagon off guard, especially as Defence Secretary James Mattis is away on holiday.
The policy change went against the Obama administration’s decision to allow transgender people to serve.
Last June, then defence secretary Ash Carter told transgender service members already on duty they would be able to immediately serve openly while the change would come into full effect from July this year.
But Mr Mattis delayed that while Pentagon officials looked at whether transgender people would affect the “readiness and lethality of the force”.
Mr Carter said in a statement that Mr Trump’s decision sent the “wrong message to a younger generation thinking about military service”.
He said: “To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military.”
Transgender former army private Chelsea Manning, who was jailed for leaking classified information to Wikileaks in 2010 but freed by Mr Obama, tweeted that the policy change “sounds like cowardice”.