Ruling to block ban cheered by local transgender vets
Sex changes not covered by decision
This week’s temporary block of President Trump’s transgender military ban by a federal judge is being chalked up as a major victory for many in a community who say they feel persecuted in the current political climate.
“I’m hopeful that the ban is thrown out permanently, and I’m fairly confident that it will,” said Rebecca McDonald, a 60-yearold transgender South Boston resident who served as a senior airman in the Air Force.
Fellow transgender vet Emma Croft, 59, of Middleboro, told the Herald that when the initial ban came down, she couldn’t understand where the administration was coming from. Croft served in the Air Force and rose to the rank of sergeant.
“What is the issue? Just let people live. Just let people be,” Croft said.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barred the Trump administration from moving forward with its order preventing transgender people from serving in the military. Openly transgender service members were accepted thanks to a 2016 policy change under the Obama administration, but Trump reversed the rule.
In July, the president tweeted that the government would “not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.” The next month he sent a memo to the Pentagon to ban transgender individuals from enlisting.
Under Kollar-Kotelly’s preliminary injunction, transgender people can enlist starting Jan. 1.
The Trump administration could still appeal the ruling, but for now, the ban is lifted.
The decision did not address the president’s action to bar transgender service members from using federal funds to pay for gender reassignment surgeries.
That piece of the issue infuriates transgender veterans who say the costs of medical health care for transgender soldiers is being exaggerated by the administration.
“They come out and they say, ‘We can’t take the medical hit,’” Croft told the Herald. “They pay more for Viagra than for transgender health care. They spend more for guys to get Viagra than they would for transgender health. Hormones don’t cost a whole heck of a lot. The price of the surgery itself has come down.”
A 2015 study in the New England Journal of Medicine estimated annual health care costs for active-duty transgender service members at between $4.2 million and $5.6 million.