The Trump administration’s request to continue limiting transgender people from serving in the United States military has been approved per a Supreme Court ruling Jan. 21.
Kevin Baugh, the director of the LGBTQ Veterans Alliance, a local organization, said he views the ban as flawed and unproductive.
“I personally believe this ban is doing more harm than good to the readiness of our military as well as morale,” Baugh said. “It has been proven, and said aloud, that there is no reason to have such a ban.”
President Donald Trump has said several times through Twitter that transgender members force the military to be burdened with excessive medical costs and therefore should be banned from serving.
This ruling is a reversal of the 2016 decision by the Obama administration that allowed transgender people to openly serve in the military. Trump’s ban will prohibit transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces, but it might make exceptions for those who chose to serve in their biological sex and those who are already serving.
The RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank, conducted a study in 2016 titled “Assessing the Implications of allowing Transgender Personnel to Serve Openly,” which estimated between 1,320 and 6,630 active duty service members may identify as transgender.
Most transgender people will be disqualified from the military except service members who have been stable for 36 months after surgery and hormone treatment, those diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” after military enlistment if they don’t require a change of gender, service members diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” before the effective date of the policy and transgender individuals without a gender dysphoria diagnosis or history.
The Pentagon is not putting the policy in place right away because of an injunction by a federal judge from Maryland.
In response to Trump’s transgender ban, Baugh recounted some of his struggles as an LGBTQ community member serving in the Army. He said he was affected during his time in service, and it has had lasting impacts into today.
“I served for nearly six years in the Army during ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ which gave many young men and women dishonorable status for being LGBTQ,” Baugh said. “It also allowed for open discrimination and violence for those suspected of being homosexual.”
Baugh said the LGBTQ community should not be discouraged by this ruling.
“I believe the ban hurts our community because it tells the young ones in high school that the military is no longer an option,” Baugh said. “Those in the military now have to suffer with the consequences of the ban and now have to go back into the closet so to speak.”
Despite whichever side of this issue one may lean toward, this ban has been controversial.
University of Memphis sophomore Alexander Broadnax said he was disgusted by the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling.
“I think it is a load of crap,” Broadnax said. “I think being transgender has nothing to do with the military.”
Broadnax said the issue is unimportant and that the ruling is pointless.
“I have a lot of trans friends and I stand by my opinion that it is not a big problem,” Broadnax said. “There are so many worse things happening than this.”
