ABOUT-FACE
TRUMP ON TWITTER DECLARES BAN ON TRANSGENDER PEOPLE IN MILITARY
SHE SERVED AS A MALE PILOT AND WANTS TO RETURN – BUT NOT SURE SHE CAN
‘Nobody thinks about transgenders in a combat zone’
WASHINGTON — Civil rights and legal advocacy groups vowed swift court challenges if President Trump’s Twitter-declared ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military becomes Pentagon policy.
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump tweeted yesterday.
“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,” the president said. “Thank you”
Matt Thorn, executive director of the legal services group OutServe-SLDN, joined groups including the ACLU and Lambda Legal in promising legal challenges.
If the Defense Department adopts the ban, Thorn said yesterday on Boston Herald Radio, “We have every intention of taking him to court, and we will let a judge decide on this issue.”
Pentagon officials directed questions to the White House yesterday. Defense Secretary James Mattis is on vacation this week, though a senior White House official said Mattis was consulted before Trump’s announcement.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was no clear timetable on when the policy would be adopted.
“That’s something that the Department of Defense and the White House will have to work together as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully,” Sanders said at yesterday’s White House briefing.
An Axios report quoted a Trump administration official as saying the policy “forces Democrats in Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, to take complete ownership of this issue.”
But Sanders told reporters, “The decision is based on a military decision. It’s not meant to be anything more than that.”
On Capitol Hill, the announcement was met largely by bipartisan backlash, though a handful of lawmakers voiced support.
“Pleased to hear that @realDonaldTrump shares my readiness and cost concerns, & will be changing this costly and damaging policy,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.).
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) questioned if the Pentagon was even considering such a policy.
“The statement was unclear,” McCain said of Trump’s tweet. “The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today.”
McCain added: “There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military — regardless of their gender identity.”
Bay State U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton also questioned whether the policy was driven by generals’ recommendations.
“Let’s not forget that this is a president that says he knows more than the generals,” the Salem Democrat and House Armed Services Committee member said on Boston Herald Radio.
“He’s also someone who, frankly, lies all the time,” Moulton added. “So the sad thing is I don’t know if we can even believe what he said in this tweet, that he’s talked to generals, or even who these generals are.”
Former Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brynn Tannehill said she never thought about being accepted as transgender while flying over Iraq supporting ground troops. It wasn’t on her mind during survival training in Maine or while on a training run on a nuclear submarine in Groton, Conn.
She served as a male pilot and now wants to come back part-time — but President Trump’s tweet yesterday announcing he’ll ban transgender people from serving in the military puts that dream in jeopardy. Here’s her story as told to the Herald’s Joe Dwinell:
“Flying over Iraq in P-3C (surveillance plane), I was thinking about getting the job done. People on the ground counted on us. Nobody thinks about transgenders while in a combat zone. They’re there to do a job.
But that was 2004 and I wasn’t allowed to do my job and be myself. I transitioned in 2010. I’m married with three kids and because of this decision I can’t get back into uniform and retire. My retirement plan now is Alpo or retire at my desk.
I’m a 42-year-old defense analyst in D.C. and was planning on getting back into the reserves. I know a lot of people in the Pentagon who would want my skills — basically for free — on weekends.
But I’m hearing Trump did this with one tweet in order to get his precious funding for his wall. He’s screwing over those of us who vowed to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.
These are really good people. He’s throwing (an estimated 11,000 transgenders in the military) into the unemployment line. He’s destroying pensions and careers. Wives, children and their health care will all suffer.
They were doing critical missions. They are the best America has to offer.
If he treats America’s best like this, what can I say?
The folks in the field now don’t need to be thinking about being fired. Trump’s policy by Twitter is no way to run a government.
People shouldn’t need to go back to hiding their gender identity. But people will go back into hiding.
The personal and emotional toll this will take will not help them accomplish the mission. Instead it’s punishing them.
It makes no sense. The military is spending five times more on Viagra than transgender health care.
But it’s not about the cost now. It’s about punishing those who followed the rules.
Maybe this time Congress will finally stand up to him. It will say a lot about our country if they do.”