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.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890197095151546369
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.”
A salute to the 15,000+ transgender patriots now currently serving in the United States Military. #ThankYouLGBT #TransRightsAreHumanRights pic.twitter.com/jm5Im4oHUd
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) July 26, 2017
Ortega explained that being a trans person involves years of suffering while trying to live a normal life. “I had to be extremely well-trained and mature and level-headed in order to understand the capacity of that job,” Ortega explained. “So, when President Trump tweets this, I have people still serving and friends still serving and they are trans military people and in Special Ops positions and other coveted positions. I’m entirely outraged and asking the American public to what degree and to what effort will you become outraged? What institution do we have to take where we take away the rights of these people who are literally sacrificing their very lives giving everything they have for you? And when are we going to start intervening and taking away this health care is a right we earned with our blood and sweat and time?”
There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr
— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017
“We give every ounce of everything we have to this country,” he said. “And for Donald Trump to tweet this, I feel like this is the operation level of an elementary school child. We have 18-year-old kids who perform and behave better than the capacity of our Commander in Chief.”
https://twitter.com/hillrod17/status/890295302502178816
There are many trans military men and women currently serving our country, especially after just last year they announced that transgender troops could serve openly and receive coverage for hormone therapy and gender-reassignment surgery. It may seem like a clear sign of discrimination and even though not many courts have ruled on the issue of whether the Constitution protects against discrimination of trans individuals, several courts are finding that discrimination against trans individuals is a form of sex discrimination.
https://twitter.com/GadotWarriors/status/890353496087822336
The Trans Lifeline is a non-profit organization dedicated to the well being of transgender people. They are staffed by transgender volunteers that are educated in the range of difficulties transgender people go through. If you are experiencing a crisis, don’t hesitate to reach out to the organization at Translifeline.org.