Rico's rants: Trump on the transgendered

13 September 2017

Trump on the transgendered

Yahoo has an article by Michael Walsh about the latest from Trump:

President Trump announced on Wednesday that the military would not “accept or allow” any transgender service members. In a series of tweets, the Commander-in-Chief argued that too much is at stake in the military’s current operations for it to be “burdened” by the medical costs of transgender people, or the “disruption” he says transgender service members would cause.
The content of Trump’s statement is at odds with the current Department of Defense policy that was crafted with Armed Services leadership, as well as medical and personnel experts.

From the Defense Department website:
“Transgender service members may serve openly. They may not be discharged or separated from the military solely on the basis of their gender identity.
As with other major presidential announcements from Trump on Twitter, there will likely be extraordinary backlash to this statement from liberal and moderate circles.
When contacted by Yahoo News, a Pentagon spokesperson said that “right now we are referring all questions on the tweets to the White House.”
At the Wednesday afternoon press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about how Trump’s policies would affect current transgender service members. “That’s something that the Department of Defense and the White House will have to work together on as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully,” Sanders said. She did not provide any additional information when asked whether troops currently serving overseas in the Middle East would be immediately discharged and sent home.
Though Trump’s announcement may feel sudden, there have been rumblings that some officers in the military were not comfortable with the current policy.
Earlier this month, for instance, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced that there would be a six-month delay in implementing recruitment policies for transgender Americans so that military chiefs could determine how they would affect the force’s “readiness or lethality”.
Estimates vary concerning the transgender community’s presence in the military. The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates that more than fifteen thousand transgender individuals are currently serving in the military. But the RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank, puts the figure between thirteen hundred and six thousand.
According to a RAND study from June of 2016, only a subset (between 29 and 129) would pursue treatment related to gender transition each year. The researchers concluded that these treatments would increase health care costs for active-duty service members by $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase.
On the campaign trail, Trump reached out to the LGBT community and repeatedly promised to protect them from terrorism:
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’s daughter and top adviser Ivanka Trump also expressed support for the LGBT community in the past: I am proud to support my LGBTQ friends and the LGBTQ Americans who have made immense contributions to our society and economy.

As expected, backlash to Trump’s announcement was swift. GLAAD, a prominent LGBTQ advocacy organization, condemned the ban on transgender soldiers as part of “the full-scale attack on LGBTQ Americans by the Trump administration.”
“President Trump today issued a direct attack on transgender Americans, and his administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government, even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement. “Today further exposed President Trump’s overall goal to erase LGBTQ Americans from this nation. Trump has never been a friend to LGBTQ Americans, and this action couldn’t make that any more clear.”