‘GI NO’ TRANS BAN
Trump’s order blindsides Pentagon brass
President Trump announced on Wednesday that transgender Americans could no longer serve in the US military in any capacity, a move championed by religious conservatives that 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,” Trump tweeted just before 9 a.m.
“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.”
The announcement — which came 69 years to the day after President Harry Truman ordered that the US military be racially in- tegrated — left the fate of the roughly 4,000 transgender service members in limbo.
The Pentagon, unaware the announcement was coming, referred questions back to the White House.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that officials would figure out how to implement the hastily announced plan and determine the fate of those already serving.
Sources said Trump made the abrupt announcement to break up a logjam in the House over a budget bill that would fund his border wall and help fulfil other campaign promises, Politico reported.
Defense hawks threatened to stall the bill unless they got a ban on taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery — something GOP leaders refused to consider.
So the lawmakers took the matter to the Trump administration. And when Defense Secretary James Mattis refused to immedi- ately upend the policy, they approached the president himself.
He granted their wish — and then some — in the tweets.
“This is like someone told the White House to light a candle on the table and the WH set the whole table on fire,” a senior GOP official told Politico.
Trump’s comments reversed the stance he took during the presidential campaign when he accused Hillary Clinton of imperiling the rights of LGBT individuals.
“Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs,” Trump tweeted in June 2016.
Condemnation was swift from both sides of the aisle, as well as from transgender activists and a transgender ex-Navy SEAL.
Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called Trump’s announcement “unclear” and said it was inappro- priate, given an ongoing Pentagon study on the issue. Caitlyn Jenner also weighed in. “There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us,” she tweeted, likely referring to an estimate from a 2014 study. “What happened to your promise to fight for them?”
Kristin Beck, a retired Navy SEAL Team 6 member who is transgender, issued a challenge to Trump, who won five deferments that allowed him to skip military service in Vietnam.
“Let’s meet face to face, and you tell me I’m not worthy,” Beck told Business Insider. “Transgender doesn’t matter. Do your service.”
ACLU attorney Joshua Block called Trump’s action outrageous, saying the president rejected the “basic humanity” of transgender service members.