TRUMP TWEETS SAY HE'S BANNING TRANSGENDERS FROM THE MILITARY

By Jordan Damond

Miriam Raftery also contributed to this report

Photo:  Former Seal Team Six hero Kristin Beck, who transitioned to become a transgender woman after her military service, as challenged President Trump, stating, “I was defending individual liberty.”

July 27, 2017 (San Diego) -- On Twitter yesterday President Donald Trump announced that he was reinstating a ban prohibiting transgender personnel from working in any capacity in the U.S. armed forces. This was the reversal of a policy that Barack Obama implemented, which allowed transgenders to serve openly and gave the Defense Department until July 1, 2017 to craft plans for full implementation, a deadline Trump’s administration delayed before the President’s announcement today of cancelling the Obama policy.

Donald Trump touted “tremendous medical costs” as a core reasoning behind the decision. Recent studies have shown this to be untrue. According to RAND Corp the cost added from the inclusion of transgender people is $8.4 Million. While this may seem like a significant amount it’s only 0.0014% of Trump’s total defense budget proposal. An estimated 15,500 trans people served in the U.S. military during 2014 and there were an estimated 134,300 transgender veterans as well as retired National Guards and Reserves.

Many members of the public have voiced outrage over this decision, citing and mocking a previous tweet of Donald Trump’s where he stated he would fight for the LGBT community. Many also brought up Trump’s ‘hesitance’ to fight in the Vietnam War five different times. College was the reasoning for four of those differences while the final deferment was due to bone spurs in his heel. Yet more recently Trump has said he doesn’t recall that injury.

This decision to halt transgenders in the military could take away up to approximately, 0.012% of our active military forces only to save 0.0014% of our defense budget. Trump has not yet made clear, however, if his order will kick out transgender people already serving, or whether it will stop only the recruitment of openly transgender persons.

Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), long an opponent of gay and transgender rights in the military, has praised Trump’s action as the “absolute right decision” adding, “National security should trump social experimentation, always. It’s about time that a decision was made to restore the warrior culture and allow the military to get back to business.”

But Republican Senators John McCain and Orrin Hatch have sharply criticized the President’s transgender action, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," McCain said in a statement. "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military - regardless of their gender identity."

Senator Hatch, a Utah conservative, stated, "I don't think we should be discriminating against anyone."Transgender people are people and deserve the best we can do for them."

San Diego Democratic Congressman Scott Peters called the Trump action “backwards politics.”

Kristin Beck, a retired Seal Team Six hero, today challenged Trump, “Let’s meet face to face and you tell me I’m not worthy,” Business Insider reports.  Beck served 13 deployments, including 7 combat deployments as Chris Beck, and received multiple medals including a Bronze Star and Purple Heart before retiring from the military and transitioning to become a transgender woman.

The LGBT community is organizing protests in Washington D.C. and has pledged to challenge Trump's decision on transgender soldiers in court. 

OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which supports LGBT equality in the military, issued a statement which reads, "We are going to fight for them as hard as they are fighting for the country.”