UPDATE: Trans Military Ban

Here’s the latest on Trump’s attempts to ban trans folk from the military.

Last week, the Trump Administration issued a memo stating 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.” Essentially, this ruling, if it passes, will treat trans folks like they have mental illness and disqualify them from service.

They also released a 46-page report explaining that they feel  “accommodating gender transition could impair unit readiness,” “undermine unit cohesion,” and “lead to disproportionate costs.” These are pretty much the reasons they outlined before, arguing that trans people would distract those in the military and lead to the high health care costs.

Finally, they released a statement that claimed “This new policy will enable the military to apply well-established mental and physical health standards — including those regarding the use of medical drugs — equally to all individuals who want to join and fight for the best military force the world has ever seen.”

Worst of all, the report explains that “nothing in this policy precludes service by transgender persons who do not have a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria and are willing and able to meet all standards that apply to their biological sex.”

In other words, this is a bit like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, except instead of covering sexual preference, it is asking trans folks to revert back to their biological sex and deny their trans identities. Not only is this an extremely unfair proposal, it also doesn’t make sense for those who have already invested time and money into expressing their genders.

This is very disheartening news, but LGBTQ folks plan to keep fighting. According to NBC News, there are still law suits pending against this action, claiming that the government needs to show justifiable evidence that trans folks are costing too much money or disrupting the military. As this struggle continues, queer folks won’t give up the fight, and will keep struggling to make the military open to all who want to serve.