Wednesday morning’s outrageous announcement that President Donald Trump intends to close the doors of the military to transgender individuals shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
This is a man who rolled back protections for transgender children as one of his first acts in office. He referred to members of our community as “the gays” and gleefully posed with an upside-down rainbow flag to court the LGBT vote. He has railed against every issue and ideal that the vast majority of the LGBT community holds close and exhibited a basic lack of understanding and respect for diversity around every corner.
Yet still, this week’s move was jarring.
This was a developing story as PGN went to press, but by all indications, Trump plans to take action to root out openly transgender individuals currently serving in the military and to disallow any future enlistments by trans people. It’s a plan that not only strips trans Americans of dignity and respect but walks back Trump’s pledge to strengthen our military might.
There are more than 15,000 transgender individuals currently serving in our armed forces. With just 140 characters fired off haphazardly from Trump’s smartphone, every single one of those people have now had their careers, livelihoods and futures upended. And the countless contributions these people have and would have made to protect and fight for our country have been stymied.
Trump’s latest atrocity smacks both of bigotry and a handout to his most-conservative, Bible-thumping base. A basic readout of Internet comments on Wednesday’s news shows Trump supporters rejoicing in the oppression of people they find to be less-than, reveling in the marginalization of an entire community of Americans.
The hatred and ignorance that Trump has inspired and empowered in segments of this country is dangerous and damaging. Regardless of the feasibility of this week’s announcement, that he so carelessly cast doubt on the worth and value of transgender lives will have ongoing reverberations.
However, the dignity of transgender lives is not up for debate — a message that the entire community needs to drive home to our lawmakers, thought leaders and our trans brothers and sisters.