Our country needs fighters. It needs brave men and women who are willing to selflessly risk their life for the sake of their fellow Americans. These fighters will put everything else aside, feelings included, to defend the country that they call home. They won't ask for extra, and by sacrificing their lives, they are giving America an honorable gift: freedom.
But there are limits. Diabetics will be politely but firmly turned away because they will not be able to serve in the full capacity as a healthy counterpart can. They're going to need insulin, test strips, pumps, clean site changes, daily monitoring, and a special diet - all essential to their survival. A pregnant woman cannot put on a uniform and stand side by side with the troops because she needs prenatal care, rest, and a safe, healthy delivery. An obese person cannot sign up to fight because of the health risks and limitations that come with his or her daily lifestyle and capabilities.
These people and many others simply cannot fight because their physical needs will cost money, weaken the army, and put their life at greater risk of danger or even death. And so they are turned away, no matter how passionate they are to defend, because they just don't meet the rigorous qualifications enforced.
Enter the era of the transgender: a growing population of men and women who aren't content with their sex and believe that they can reverse science and become someone else. They, too, want to rise up and defend their country, for what greater honor is there than to fight for the freedom of those whom you love?
But with this quickly growing population group comes a new set of challenges. Hormone treatments. Anxiety. Breast implants. Sex change surgeries. Counseling. Depression. Medication. Risk. Increased chance of suicide. These supposedly essential factors cost our nation, and they cost our military.
If we're all about this "equal rights movement," where are the rights for the diabetic? The out of shape? The terminally ill? The problem is that they don't have the right to fight because no one does. I have yet to see crowds of obese people crowding the streets, petitioning for their right to serve.
In fact, I'll never see those parades because it's common sense that the military should not have to make special accommodations for those who have chosen to live the way they are and be the person they want to be. If you are physically capable of serving in the military, consider it an honor, not a right. When have you ever seen a war veteran come home and say "what a right it was to serve my country"? Hell no. Instead they walk through that door crying, "it was such an immense privilege to defend this nation I call home."
The problem is that the transgender community wants to be treated as special individuals. Check that, they don't just want it. They demand it. They believe that even though their physical needs can cost thousands of dollars and result in higher chances of additional mental illnesses and suicide, they should get that special care because they are special. They say that they're the proud and the brave because they embraced their "real" identity and came out as who they really are.
Wrong and wrong.
Let's instead spend that hormone treatment money on building a better air force. Let's take the breast implant funds and put them towards adequate provisions for the families sitting at home alone while their loved ones risk their lives. Defending America is SO much more necessary than a transgender transition, so yes, let's ban them from serving in the military, because a mentally ill presence will only weaken our forces and put more lives on the dangerous line between life and death.
If you can be transgender and ask for no special treatment or extra expenses, and your physical status matches that of the military standards, then please, fight. But from what it seems, the LGBTQ community only continues to demand special treatment, and Donald Trump shouldn't have to tolerate that, especially during a crucial time in this divided world.
The military isn't about equal rights and never should be. It's about strength and survival.