In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, President Trump announced that the United States government would not be allowing transgender people to serve in the military.
Before 9 a.m. ET, Trump began to tweet that after he consulted generals and military experts, he has come to the conclusion not to allow transgender people in the military because “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
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
Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced a policy in 2016 to allow transgender people to openly serve in the military and receive medical benefits related to transitioning. A recent bill to ban the government from funding gender transition surgery and hormone treatments for transgender servicemen failed in the House of Representatives.
The National Center for Transgender Equality claims there are over 15,000 trans people currently serving the military and 134,000 transgender veterans. A Rand Corp. survey, however, claims there are between 2,500 to 7,000 transgender people in active-duty military and approximately 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.
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