US president Donald Trump announced the transgender individuals would not be allowed to serve in the military claiming their medical needs would overburden the army, yesterday. This statement came through a series of tweets.
After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
This step might have been taken to win the appeal and support of a conservative faction of the community, but now leaves the transgender community, especially those who are serving in the US military, facing the prospect of being barred from their positions.
The response varied as the decision faced backlash from rights groups, who deemed it to be politically motivated discrimination, but was appalled by conservative activists and certain Republicans.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders has come forward to say that at this point it is uncertain, what measures will be taken in respect to the transgender individuals who are currently on duty and that this has yet to be discussed and decided by the White House and Pentagon.
This a reversal of the policies introduced in former president Barack Obama’s term where the ban was ended because it was deemed “outdated”.
Trump’s announcement might come as a shock to people because during the election he had tweeted support for the LGBTQ community and bashed his competition, Hillary Clinton claiming she did not have the community’s best interest at heart. His sudden change of stance has left people confused.
Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2016
Sandars however tried to explain that this was not a personal attack but was only in the interest of “military readiness”, “unit cohesion” and “army resource”.
According to RAND Corporation about 2,500 active-duty personnel and 1500 more in the military are transgender and they take up about $2.4 million to $8.4 million of the vast military budget.
His decision has caused a lot of legal threats to flood in where advocates are seeking to challenge this ban in court and a procession collected outside an armed forces recruiting station in Manhattan's Times Square, to show their disapproval.