On Wednesday July 26th, 2017, Trump tweeted that he and HIS generals have decided to disbar transgender individuals from any facet of the military. Trump stated, via Twitter (so presidential) that the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” Oh, and he ended the tweet saying, “thank you.” What a kind man. Not only are the ‘tremendous medical costs’ untrue and simply an excuse, but the entire policy sounds familiar due to the United States military’s past of denying oppressed and discriminated minority groups from enlisting. African Americans, Women, and Homosexuals were all barred from entering the military at one point probably because as Gen. James F. Amos of the United States Marine Corps once said in 2010, ‘you don’t want anything distracting…Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines’ lives” (Washington Post). From a civilian perspective, if someone is willing to pick up a gun and fight for the safety of my country and myself, I find it hard to believe that they are enlisting to cause a distraction.
The issue, not only with the aforementioned statement by General Amos, is the idea and belief that certain individuals could be distracting or a liability based solely on how they were born. It is quite ignorant to believe something without having any prior understanding or knowledge. That is merely a process to keep oneself secure. It is simply being afraid of what is foreign, to protect oneself from a possible danger, but one cannot know if that something new is truly dangerous until they attempt to understand it. It is akin to a wild rabbit you find in your yard. You may think it is adorable and try to pet it, but feeling afraid of the foreign and possibly dangerous human, the rabbit runs away. The rabbit does not allow itself the opportunity to understand and befriend you, because of its innate ignorance and natural stereotyping of all humans. The rabbit does this because of its inability to perform true empathetic and comprehensive thoughts, functioning strictly on instinct. We are not rabbits, we are empathetic and intelligent creatures that can think, so let us think, why should we discriminate fellow individuals who are a little different? Why must we label and oppress these same individuals whose only crime is being born? They are fellow members of the human race, just like us, there is absolutely no reason to be afraid.
Even with this disturbing announcement, as a society, I feel we are getting closer to grander sense of acceptance of all individuals in every sense of the individual. When Trump tweeted the decision to remove all transgender soldiers from the military, my younger brother had called me very upset and angry with this news because he felt we had moved past such bigotry and ignorance. He had also been down due to some people agreeing with Trump’s new policy, and the effect it has had on his transgender friends and the LGBTQ community. He may be my brother, and I may be a little over zealous to praise him, but he is just an example of the type of empathetic kindness and sincerity that many people have been exhibiting over the past few days, and leaves me with a sense of optimism. To my brother, and all those who too are reeling and upset with this unjust move, I say that there is no stopping progress. We have seen what the power of a collective and passionate groups can do when it comes to civil liberties. We have seen integration, the induction of women’s rights, and the admittance of gay marriage in all states. This ludicrous policy is just another hurdle to leap over, and nothing that we as progressive individuals of the United States can handle.
