Trump Rules Transgenders Out
In July 2017, President Trump made yet another controversial argument via Twitter, this time arguing that trans individuals should not be allowed to serve openly in the army. He wrote, “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.” The following month, the White House released a policy which would effectively reverse the steps taken by the Obama administration to undo the long-standing ban of openly transgender individuals serving in the military. The policy banning transgenders in the military was set to go into effect in March of 2018 had it not been for the hold placed on the ban by federal courts that believed that trans service members who challenged the policy were likely to prevail in court. As a result, starting on January 1, 2018 openly trans men and women were able to join the military. Additionally, the military had even begun paying for some trans-inclusive medical services, including gender affirming surgeries.
However, on March 23, 2018 the White House issued a new version of this ban endorsed by Defense Secretary James Mattis entitled, “Department of Defense Report and Recommendations on Military Service by Transgender Persons” (also known as the “Implementation Report”). The Implementation Report declared that “transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria—individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery—are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances.” This ban would effectively forbid openly trans individuals from serving in the military with the exception of those who began serving prior to the memo and those who have been “stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to accession.” This was also placed on hold due to injunctions from lower courts. However, on Tuesday, January 22 the Supreme Court lifted all but one injunction.
This ban could lead to severe consequences for the trans community. They might face more abuse, be unfairly discharged from military service, and endanger their personal health and safety. The decision will also serve as another signal from our society that the trans community is not tolerated—much less accepted. Unsurprisingly, the rationale behind this ban is baseless. According to Vox, the empirical evidence, as demonstrated from countries such as Israel, the United Kingdom, and Canada, shows that letting trans individuals openly serve “poses minimal to no costs to the military’s budget or readiness.”
What is important to understand is that the trans ban is different than the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that was instituted in 1994. The history of banning trans individuals is a result of medical regulations that allowed commanders to dismiss trans troops at will. The Palm Center explained in their 2018 report, “DoD’s Rationale for Reinstating the Transgender Ban Is Contradicted by Evidence,” that the original trans ban was based on medical rationale that is outdated and incorrect. They stated explicitly that the case for reinstating the ban is “contradicted by ample evidence clearly demonstrating that transition-related care is effective, that transgender personnel diagnosed with gender dysphoria are deployable and medically fit, that inclusive policy has not compromised cohesion and instead promotes readiness, and that the financial costs of inclusion are not high.”
The Trump Implementation Report also argued that gender dysphoria—defined by Psychology Today as “strong, persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort with one's own assigned sex that results in significant distress or impairment”—would interfere with an individual’s service because it can lead to psychological conditions such as severe depression and anxiety. However, the American Psychological Association responded to this by stating “substantial psychological research shows that gender dysphoria is a treatable condition, and does not, by itself, limit the ability of individuals to function well and excel in their work, including in military service.” By enforcing this ban, many trans individuals are simply forced into hiding, leading to horrible conditions.
In January 2017, Vox journalist German Lopez interviewed the soon-to-be retired transgender soldier Shane Ortega, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan while in the Marines and Army. Ortega explained being transgender while in service: “Think about being an American spy in Russia and how difficult that would be, you have to be perfect in every sense of the word. You have to always question people around you. You can never relax. You have to always think ahead. And you have to always be observant and aware of yourself and your surroundings.” This kind of distrust in your surroundings and emotional stress due to the lack of understanding and acceptance is especially difficult in the military, which relies and thrives on the trust between soldiers.
It is on this basis of acceptance and factual evidence that the Obama administration moved to remove this ban in 2016. Expectedly, the Trump administration is both unconcerned and unaware of the facts behind President Trump’s tweets which state that trans serving in the United States military would affect its readiness and cost. The RAND Corporation released a study in 2016, entitled “Assessing the Implications of Allowing Transgender Personnel to Serve Openly,” addressing these accusations and the verity.
Based on RAND’s estimations, trans troops make up around 2,450 of the 1.3 million active-component service members. The think tank estimated, based on survey date and private health insurance claims, that only 29-129 service members in the active component will seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy yearly. Thus, the “readiness impact of transition-related treatment would lead to a loss of less than 0.0015 percent of total available labor-years in the active component.”Consequently, it is estimated that the cost of covering care for transgender personnel would only increase the active-component health costs by between 2.4 and 8.4 million dollars, representing a 0.04% to 0.13% increase in active-component health care expenditures.
This small cost does not mean much in terms of budget, but it means a great deal to the transgender community. Both the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association explain that gender transitioning helps reduce gender dysphoria. Transitioning could therefore lead to fewer mental health issues for trans people in service.
Unfortunately, Trump’s decision was not only political, but also rash and not well thought through. According to a report from Rachel Bade and Josh Dawsey at Politico, conservative Republicans in the House approached the then Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, to immediately ban Pentagon payments for gender-affirming surgeries. When Mattis refused to act quickly, the same Republicans approached President Trump directly with the same request. President Trump immediately agreed, and took further action, going so far as to ban trans from the military in totality. The president tweeted out his new policy ideas so quickly that the military itself was not notified about the policy change prior to the tweets, and the White House took two weeks following the tweets to send out an official guidance securing the change.
President Trump’s factually wrong, ill-considered, and fundamentally inhumane bans on transgenders in the military is just another reminder to the trans community that they are unaccepted in society. The president claims to love America and the American people, yet cowers in the corner of his office as he tweets to the nation policies that directly affect the lives and livelihood of American citizens. Trans individuals are Americans. Yet he demeans them. He attacks them personally. He forbids them from voluntarily fighting for this country based on “facts” that have no evidence. Look at our nation’s pledge of allegiance: we pledge “justice for all” not “justice for some.” Justice means fairness, lack of prejudice, open-mindedness. Men and women are standing up on the front lines making sure this nation is safe. Similarly, some are willing to hide their truths to continue fighting for this nation despite the fact that they are not seen as equal. President Trump purports “Make America Great Again” as if those trans who serve in our military are not.
Alexandra Billings, a star of Amazon’s Transparent and the first transgender woman to play a transgender character on television, put it best in her address to the President: “I learned a long time ago that holding on to hatred only leaves me hating those who do not care. So I release it. And I release you, Mr. Trump. You, personally, don’t matter. It is what you are trying to do that I will spend my energy fighting. We will not rest until you are defeated. And we know how to do this. For this time, we are wide awake. You see, Mr. Trump, we know you. And we see you. We always have.” Mr. President, we will see you at the ballot box.
