President Trump announced, via his favorite public platform of Twitter, that he is reinstating the ban on transgendered people serving openly in the United States military.
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
Last June, it was announced that the plan was to allow for openly transgendered individuals to serve in the military. Trans people were supposed to be allowed to openly enroll starting on July 1 of this year, but Defense Secretary James Mattis had delayed this by six months.
Since then, Republicans have been doing what they can to outright ban transgender service, or, at the very least, make it difficult or unlikely for trans people to serve. Earlier this month, a Republican effort to ban military funds from being spent on transition-related health care was defeated in the House.
The push to limit health care for trans people in the military has been spearheaded by Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) who claims that the medical costs to the military would be $1.35 billion over ten years. Yet, according to ThinkProgress, this number is 16 times higher than even the highest estimates they could find.
According to the RAND corporation, the increase in cost would total (at most) around $8.4 million a year, a small increase of only 0.13 percent.
The Trump administration’s moves so far have shown it to be highly anti-trans rights. In addition to now banning trans people from serving in the military, they have also rescinded the Obama administration’s guidance protecting transgender students in schools and are attempting to reverse Obamacare’s guidance protecting transgender patients in health care.
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