In recent news President Trump issued an executive order as Commander and Chief of the US armed forces to no longer allow Transgender individuals to openly serve. He announced this new policy, you guessed it, via twitter. His exact tweet was; “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you,”
Thank you President Trump for taking the time to show your concern for not only the transgender community, but the entirety of your country by making a life changing policy known to the people by shooting out a tweet, real thoughtful.
My first problem with this policy starts on a very basic level with the way it was announced. Banning an entire group of people from serving our country is big news, not news that should be tweeted. Trump is generally known for his tweets that often get a significant amount of press, but choosing to announce national news via social media, is not the way to handle an already delicate situation. How many other presidents shared policies in that manner? Point made. Furthering my angst toward this tweet is the barring millennials receive from conservatives for their use of constant social media. Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe millennials and their social media use can create problems, but supporters of Trump shouldn’t be barring young people for their social media use when the president announces policies via twitter. What's next, declaring war with an Instagram post?
Now my apprehension with this new policy continues simply because all the hard work LGBTQ awareness groups put into lifting the original transgender ban was all for nothing. This was a huge step backwards in the long road toward equality, and I’m afraid this isn't going to be the last step back. During Trump's campaign for presidency he actively attempted to show his support for the LGBTQ community, whether anyone believed it was more of a personal matter, but now there is no doubt that we know he was lying through his teeth. This is just one example of Trumps dishonest campaign, and it’s no secret that politicians lie to get ahead, but agreeing to support an entire group of people and then begin chipping away at their rights is a new low, even for our lovely president.
Currently there is an estimate of 15,000 transgender persons actively serving in the US military, of which around 250 have applied to have gender reassignment surgery. Yes, that's right 250. Now Trump claimed that the reason for this new policy was that there is not enough money in the defense budget to fund surgeries or even hormones for transgender individuals. Mind you the defense budget is about 598 billion dollars. The cost to support the transgender individuals is around 2.3 to 8.5 million dollars, which is would be about a .013 percent increase. Not surprisingly enough the U.S military spends 5xs that to support retired veterans with erectile dysfunction, but the military can’t afford the funding for transgenders, yeah, right.
President Trump left me, and millions more, astonished by his decision to ban all transgenders in the military. Say what you must about our military, but this was a decision that was uncalled for and may potentially lead to further inequality in our new world of corrupt corporate leaders.
