COMMANDER IN HATE
Prez bans trans people from the military NEWS SAYS: Cruel betrayal built on lies
President Trump, who paid lip service to LGBT rights in ’16 campaign, abruptly banned all transgender people from armed forces in Wednesday tweet that baffled Pentagon and drew fire as biased even from Republicans.
IN A TRIO OF TWEETS Wednesday, President Trump abruptly announced he was banning thousands of transgender Americans from serving in the U.S. military.
Trump used his Twitter account to unveil the ban that reverses a policy from former President Barack Obama and caught the Pentagon off guard.
“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. 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. Thank you,” Trump wrote in the morning tweets.
The declaration came with no further details, and even the White House admitted a policy isn’t in place for how to proceed with the ban.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House and Department of Defense would be working to figure out the logistics of how to “lawfully” deal with transgender troops who are already serving.
But those conversations have yet to take place, she said, leaving the future unclear for those already on active duty. The Pentagon has refused to release data on how many transgender troops there are. A 2016 study from the Rand Corp., commissioned by the Department of Defense, estimated that between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender people serve in the military. Studies from public policy groups have put the number as high as 15,500. The Human Rights Campaign calls the military the “largest employer of transgender people in America.” Trump’s decision drew immediate and intense outrage from LGBT advocates, as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle — some of whom highlighted the President’s deferments, for attending college and for bone spurs in his heels, that allowed him to avoid serving in Vietnam. “Any American who meets current medical & readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war, said in a statement. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, called it a “discriminatory decision” and vowed to introduce legislation to overturn it. Retired Army Staff Sgt. Shane Ortega — the first openly transgender soldier to serve in the U.S. military — said he received dozens of panicked calls from active
transgender service members.
“There is a panic and unrest,” Ortega said. “They’re panicking and trying to figure out what to do — and what their future holds.
“There’s no worse feeling when you’re in the military, to think that the country does not support you and basically abandons you,” he added.
Trump’s ban contradicted his claim to be progay and transgender rights during the 2016 presidential campaign. In his nomination speech, he said he’d “do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens.”
The decision also sparked protests outside of Trump Tower, where dozens of people gathered to rally against the ban.
Z. Klofta, 17, who’s transgender, said, “This isn’t just a trans issue. This is everyone’s issue.”Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since last year. Since Oct. 1, they’ve been able to receive medical care and start changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon’s personnel system.
Trump had initially delayed an Obama policy that would have let openly transgender people enlist effective July 1. Defense Secretary James Mattis (inset left) said in June he expected the Department of Defense to spend six months assessing how transgender recruits would affect the “readiness and lethality” of America’s armed forces.
At the time, Mattis said this “does not presuppose the outcome of the review.”
Mattis, who has been on vacation this week, was publicly silent, and the Pentagon referred all questions to the White House.
It remained a mystery why Trump ordered the ban now.
Politico reported that he lowered the boom to preserve a congressional spending bill aimed at funding his proposed Mexico border wall and a boost in overall Pentagon spending.
The White House did not outline Trump’s thinking beyond claiming his first concern was military safety.
“This was a decision based on what was best for the military and military cohesion,” Sanders said. She also threatened to end her press briefing early when reporters kept pressing her for answers.
Even the Pentagon seemed left in the dark.
Officials told BuzzFeed News that Trump’s first fragmented tweet raised fears that he was about to announce military action on North Korea or another nation. Only when the other tweets arrived, minutes later, did they know what he was talking about.
Sanders said the “President’s national security team was part of this consultation” and that Trump “informed” Mattis of his decision immediately after he made it on Tuesday.
Transgender people already in uniform were left in limbo and fearful of the future.
“Everybody is hurt, everybody is scared,” said Rudy Akbarian, 26, who is in the military but did not want to identify his branch.
Manypivotal U.S. allies allow transgender people to openly serve in their militaries, including Israel, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom. Trump’s ban came on the 69th anniversary of President Harry Truman’s order to racially integrate the armed forces.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice, in another blow to gay rights by the Trump administration, argued in a legal brief Wednesday that the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 offers no protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation.