Earlier this week, President Trump tweeted something that sparked a controversial response throughout the nation.

At first, my reaction was horror and anger. I still feel a little of that, if I’m being honest. But I’ve sat back and listened the past few days. I’ve listened to arguments and differing opinions on both sides of the debate, both of which had multiple convincing reasons for their side.

Everyone seems extremely one-sided on this issue. They either love it or they hate it. But honestly, I am torn on where I stand. I don’t like to be one of those people who shuts down when someone disagrees with them. I enjoy hearing other peoples reasoning on why they feel the way they do and throughout the course of the week, I’ve tried my best to do that.

And boy, it makes this article damn hard to write.

This article was originally going to me venting about how appalling this ban is. But now I don’t think I can do that. Now I’m not saying I agree with the ban whatsoever because I don’t. Like I said before: I see both sides. So before you get mad at me, let me explain.

Transgender people are not a burden. These are some of the people you promised you would fight for, President Trump. This isn’t the first attack on transgender rights. Shortly after President Trump was inaugurated, all content on LGBT issues were removed from the White House website. In February, he started to take away the protection of transgender students in their own bathrooms at school. The list goes on and here we are.

Before the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 was put into place, anyone who didn’t live a heterosexual life in the military had it incredibly rough. If someone were to find out about your lifestyle, it would mean that you would be discharged and not honorably. Soldiers would lose veteran benefits, despite their time spent fighting for our country.

I’m not an expert on the military by any means, but I do know that that’s an asinine policy.

Does this mean we are going to start discharging transgender soldiers who have been fighting for our country for the past several years? Is them serving our country faithfully not good enough for you?

I’ve also seen people state that because people that are mentally ill aren’t allowed in the military, then transgender people shouldn’t be allowed either. This leads them to the argument that being transgender is a mental problem. It’s not. Whether you agree with the lifestyle or not, they’re not mentally ill and they’re doing what they think is best for them to make them happiest.

But I also get some arguments for the ban...

From what I understand, transgender people wouldn’t be able to serve for six years after joining the military. Given this time frame, they’d have the ability to use the salary they’re being given and go through the transition process and leave the military before having to serve. Like I said before, I’m not in the military and I am most certainly not an expert on it, but I can see why people would be upset with this.

If you’re going to join the military, you should do it because you want to fight for our country, not so you can just reap the rewards without doing the job. That’s not fair to you, the US Military or the country you’re serving.

Another point I’ve seen that’s valid is suicide rates. Studies have shown that transgender people have higher suicide rates given how most of Society treats them. Suicide rates and PTSD are also common in people in the military. I wouldn’t want to increase those chances. But just imagine this: if we, as a society, treated transgender individuals as people and not as if they were sick, mentally ill or a burden, maybe their suicide rates wouldn’t be as high.

So after all of this, I am still torn on the issue. Transgender men and women are people and they are not a burden. That is something I will never back away from.

Thank you to all of the members of the LGBT community who have or are serving our country. Thank you to every member of the military for fighting for our country’s freedom.