Yesterday, President Donald “Tiny Hands” Trump issued a Twitter decree that he would ban transgender individuals from serving in the military another one of several troubling executive actions taken by Trump that has excited his base and enraged everyone else. After all, how else would the guy have a staggering 36 per cent approval rating, the lowest of any president since polling began or, as Trump put it, “not bad.” Whenever you think he can’t do anything more draconian, he surprises us with a Muslim ban, or Antonin Scalia 2.0 on the Supreme Court, or killing net neutrality through ending Title II oversight.
The thing about him banning trans people from serving is that he went cringeworthily out of his way to pander to LGBT Republicans, even saying that he’s “fine” with gay marriage and wouldn’t have a problem with Caitlyn Jenner using the women’s restroom in Trump Tower. The red flag was in the form of his VP Mike Pence, a guy who probably saw the torture scene in A Clockwork Orange and thought it was a good idea; in other words, a total sociopath. The problem with having someone like Pence in the White House is that he dragged Trump’s backward ideologies even farther to the right than they already were and now this is what happens.
I can’t believe I still have to say this in the year 2017 but, just to reiterate, trans people deserve and are entitled to everything that cisgender individuals do; this includes feeling comfortable in their skin. Transgenderism isn’t a mental disorder in the same way that being black, or gay, or a woman aren’t mental disorders. We aren’t treating any of these groups like protected species, we’re treating them with the respect and dignity that they deserve as human beings, and transgender people are no different. Simple as that.
Trump says that he made his decision because “our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” That may seem reasonable at face value but allow me to destroy this argument with what I like to call FACTS. First of all, not all transgender individuals undergo surgery or hormone treatment as part of their transition (those things cost money after all, and not everyone can afford it). Also, if you’re worried about the cost of a pretty cheap expense, you really shouldn’t; the United States has by far the largest military in the world and we spend more money on defense than the next 26 countries combined. Trust me, Mr. President, we’ll be fine.
I remember vividly the day that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed by former President Barack Obama and how transformative it was for the country and LGBT rights in general. We went from only allowing gay people to serve under specific circumstances to opening our doors to Wills and Jacks alike. I thought we would never go back to the dark days of discrimination in the military, but I was mistaken. I thought we were better than this, but I was wrong. The time for crying is over, we now need to fight for the rights of all our transgender brothers and sisters; no exceptions. After all, they would do the same for us in a heartbeat.
