In a court document filed last night, the Trump administration has unjustly outlined the removal of transgender people from the military.
Like so many executive orders, this did not go through Congress. It was not reviewed by appropriate DoD agencies and channels.
The executive branch used the judicial branch to implement a ban during an ongoing court case.
Not only is this action an affront to democracy, the filing is hatelful.
The justification for this action, according to the court filing, reads:
“ It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for Service member readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria or who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria.”
I served 20 years in the Air Force.
I deployed five times.
I have three combat campaign credits.
And you want to describe people like me as lacking in honesty, humility, and integrity?
This language describing transgender people as having “mental health constraints” is not only offensive, it is contradictory to all established medicine and science.
I did not serve 20 years in the military to live in a country like this.
During my service, I was continually told that the communists and the terrorists were a threat to democracy and our way of life.
As an Air Force historian, I documented combat operations, watched people being killed and buildings destroyed, executed in the name of freedom, only to watch these freedoms be stripped away by this administration.
This is an affront to all that me, my friends, my father, my grandfather who died in World War II, my friend who is incarcerated for undertreated PTSD, served for.
President Trump, how dare you disrespect us, our sacrifices, our country.
