Trump bans transgender people from US military
‘Forces must be focused’ ‘They’re heroes like anyone else’
DONALD Trump banned transgender people from serving in the US military yesterday ‘in any capacity’.
The US President tweeted that the forces had to be ‘focused on decisive and overwhelming victory’ and that transgender people were a distraction. LGBT rights campaigners vowed to take Mr Trump to court last night and accused him of being ‘un-American’.
There are up to 15,000 transgender members of the American military, accounting for 1.1 per cent of the 1.3million in the US armed forces.
Last year, an academic report estimated there are 1.4million US adults who identified themselves as transgender – or 0.6 per cent of the adult population.
On Twitter Mr Trump wrote: ‘ 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.’
Retired Major James ‘Spider’ Marks said that it would be wrong to throw serving transgender people out, but warned future recruits to be sure about their gender before signing up.
He added: ‘ Make that decision, determine where you want to be and when you want to raise your right hand and join the military you should be down the path of having your identity solved.’
Analysts said that implementing a ban would be difficult at best – and possibly unconstitutional at worst.
Trans activist Sarah McBride called Mr Trump’s announcement a ‘mean-spirited and dangerous attack on patriotic Americans who are bravely serving their country’.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said last night she would introduce legislation to ‘fight to overturn this discriminatory decision’.
The news comes after it was announced this week that, under reforms of the Gender Recognition Act, British adults could be allowed to choose their sex legally without the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Men will be able to identify themselves as women, and women as men, and have their birth certificates change to record their new gender.
At present, transgender people have to provide evidence that they have been in transition for at least two years before they can apply to legally change their gender.
Reforms to help transgender people choose their legal sex will go out to consultation in the autumn.
In the US, analysis by the Rand Corporation estimates the healthcare costs of transgender people in the military could be up to £6.4million a year, which it said was an ‘exceeding small proportion’ of healthcare expenditure given that the US military spends five times more on Viagra.
Cory Booker, a Democratic senator, tweeted: ‘Transgender Americans in military are heroes like anyone else risking their lives to defend us.’
Senator Tammy Duckworth, a double amputee veteran of the Iraq War, said that when her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, she didn’t care ‘if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender or anything else’, adding: ‘All that mattered was they didn’t leave me behind.’
It was not clear how Mr Trump planned to enforce the ban and whether serving transgender people would be forced out.
Mr Trump’s announcement appeared to be designed to appease conservative supporters and the Evangelical Right.
The policy change went against the tide of the Obama administration, which in 2011 allowed gay men and lesbians to serve openly by ending the so-called ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy that kept homosexuals out of the military.
Last June, President Obama’s defence secretary Ash Carter ruled that transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military, and those already serving could be open about their status.
The policy was to be implemented in full this month, but current defence secretary James Mattis delayed that until the end of the year so Pentagon officials could decide whether transgender people would affect the ‘ readiness and lethality of the force’.
Mr Trump’s announcement appeared to mark a final policy decision following that delay.
Mr Carter said Mr Trump’s edict sent the ‘wrong message to a younger generation thinking about military service’.