Are Transgender Military Personnel Really Costing That Much?
President Trump sent the transgender community in shock after he announced that transgender people will not be allowed to serve in the military due to the high medical costs. As you can imagine, the transgender community has responded and all over social media, the response has been nothing but supportive, not of the President’s announcement, but to this underserved community that continues to get shut down.
….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
According to a 2016 study by the RAND Corporation, it is estimated that there are about 1,200 to 5,530 transgender service members on active duty and an additional 1,000 on reserve. They claim that not all transgender individuals will opt for medical transition and found that between 30 and 140 service members would seek hormone therapy and 25 to 130 personnel would pursue surgical treatment. According to a report from the Associated Press, Pentagon officials say that approximately 250 members of the military applied to change their gender and out of those not all of them will pursue surgery. This would cost an increase of anywhere from $2.4 to $8.4 million a year, the cost for viagra in the military is $45 million.
To all the trans folks currently serving in the military thank you for your service. I am sorry your "commander in chief" doesn't value it.
— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) July 26, 2017
Retired sergeant Shane Ortega is a transgender man that served as a helicopter crew chief in the Army’s 25th Infantry Division and has been through 3 combat tours, 2 in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He like many others that have served in the military is very upset at the President’s most recent tweet.
“This is a completely egotistical move on behalf of Donald Trump,” Ortega told MSNBC. “I think he’s honestly trying to circle the American people to deflect and detract the principles and goodwill of what it is to be an American service member. And he’s trying to use them as pawns right now in order to invoke some sort of emotional reaction from the public to circumvent his own investigations that are going right now towards his impeachment.”
