Trump Says No to
Transgender Personnel Serving in the Military
By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter
Jul 26, 2017 | 10:25 AM
(Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
U.S. President Donald Trump greets members of the
military as he arrives at Raleigh County Memorial Airport in Beaver, West
Virginia, U.S., July 24, 2017.
President Donald Trump has announced on social media that
the Pentagon will not allow transgender individuals to serve openly in the
United States Armed Forces, reversing an Obama era proposal.
In a series of Twitter postings made Wednesday morning,
President Trump explained that the decision came after consulting with military
commanders and experts.
"After consultation with my Generals and military
experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or
allow ... Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,"
tweeted Trump.
(Photo: Patrickneil/Wikipedia )
The Pentagon, located in Arlington, Virginia.
"[Our military] cannot be burdened with the
tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would
entail," he
added.
The series of posts to Twitter have garnered immense
social media attention, with comments, likes, and retweets each numbering in
the thousands within an hour of their posting.
With his announcement, Trump is reversing a measure that
began to take effect last year at the direction of former President Barack
Obama.
While transgender military personnel were allowed to
serve openly with the new policy, Obama had delayed implementation of allowing
transgender people to enlist until July 1, 2017.
Top generals requested a delay in that policy, which was approved
by Secretary of Defense James Mattis on June 30. The new deadline
was set for Jan. 1, 2018.
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Paul
Selva told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that
the new measures could have "unintended consequences."
"Our decision to delay the accessions of transgender
individuals into the services was largely based on a disagreement on the
science of how mental health care and hormone therapy for transgender
individuals would help solve their medical issues that are associated with
gender dysphoria," added
Gen. Selva.
Some conservatives and military personnel took issue with
the lifting of the ban and of military funds being used for gender transition
surgeries.
The Washington, DC-based group the Family Research
Council argued that allowing the transgender policy to remain would place both
a financial and psychological burden on the armed forces.
"[We have] concerns about the psychological fitness
of persons who identify as transgender to serve (because of high levels of
psychopathology within that population), and about the effect of allowing
people to present themselves as the opposite of their biological sex on good
order and discipline, readiness, recruitment, and retention," argued
the FRC in a column from last month.
"However, the financial costs alone are reason
enough to put a halt to this policy. Both the Trump administration and Congress
should act to postpone implementation of the July 1 transgender recruitment
policy, and ultimately roll back a policy that promotes political correctness
at the expense of military readiness."
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