No Trannies In This Mans Army

Donald Trump Says Transgender People No Longer Allowed To Serve In Military

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that transgender people will no longer be allowed to serve in the U.S. military “in any capacity” ― a stunning reversal of an Obama-era policy that affects thousands of service members.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

….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

The move was wholly unexpected. It’s not clear why Trump decided to announce such a significant policy change via Twitter nor when it would take effect. His timing is also odd: He shared the news in the midst of Senate Republicans’ high-stakes fight to repeal Obamacare this week.

Trump claims he made the move after consulting with military experts, though the Pentagon lifted the ban on transgender service members in 2016 after an exhaustive review of its military readiness policies.

“Our mission is to defend this country, and we don’t want barriers unrelated to a person’s qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who can best accomplish the mission,” then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said. “We have to have access to 100% of America’s population for our all-volunteer force to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified — and to retain them.”

The biggest question is what the news means for the thousands of transgender men and women currently serving in the military. There are as many as 6,630 transgender people in active military service, per a RAND Corp. study. Another group, the Palm Center, put the number as high as 15,500 a few years ago.

Trump appears to have made the announcement without first giving any directives to military officials.

One thing that is clear is conservatives have been gunning for this change. The right-wing Family Research Council was among the first out with a statement praising Trump for taking the step.

“I applaud President Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities ― and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation’s military,” said the group’s president, Tony Perkins. “The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda.”

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), who unsuccessfully tried to deny hormone therapy and gender transition-related care to transgender troops during debate on a defense spending bill this month, also hailed Trump for being concerned about the cost of providing care to transgender service members.

But those costs are relatively low: RAND estimates 30 to 140 people would seek new hormone treatments per year, and 25 to 130 would seek gender transition-related surgeries. That amounts to a 0.04 to 0.13 percent increase in the Defense Department’s total health care spending, per RAND.

The American Medical Association has emphasized the medical necessity of mental health care, hormone therapy and gender-transition surgery as forms of therapeutic treatment for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a “serious medical condition” that stems from the distress a person feels when his or her gender identity does not correspond with his or her birth sex. Not all transgender people are diagnosed with gender dysphoria; some don’t experience that distress.

Civil rights groups slammed Trump for making the change solely to appease his conservative base.