Donald Trump’s inhumane transgender military ban has been stopped in its tracks
(Getty)
Transgender people will be able to continue serving in the US military – for now.
Defence Secretary James Mattis said that he would set up a group of experts and wait until they had come to a conclusion on the issue before telling Donald Trump his recommendation.
In the meantime, Mattis has permitted trans people to continue serving their country.
General James Mattis (Getty)
The news will come as a huge relief to more than 10,000 trans service people whose livelihoods were threatened by Trump’s sudden announcement of his intention for a ban last month.
Mattis said in a statement: “Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning implementation of his policy direction.
“In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place.”
He added, perhaps in a swipe at the president, that “our focus must always be on what is best for the military’s combat effectiveness leading to victory on the battlefield.”
The cost of trans people serving and getting medical treatment has been estimated to be $8.4 million per year at most – a tiny fraction of US military spending.
(Getty)
And it has been calculated that it would cost the US 114 times more to implement a trans ban than to just keep these brave service people.
In a series of tweets in late July, Trump wrote: “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 US military.”
He added: “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.”
The move reversed a policy put in place by President Barack Obama last year.
The memo gave Mattis six months to implement the ban, by 23 March 2018.
(Getty)
Mattis was also instructed to stop using funds for gender reassignment surgeries or medication related to transition.
In 2014, The Department of Defense spent five times the amount of expected trans health care costs on medication for erectile dysfunction according to a Military Times article.
That’s $84 million on medications for ED and $41.6 million on Viagra.
Mattis’s statement (Twitter)
In 2015, $437 million was spent on military music.
The military purchased ONE F-35s fighter plane at the cost of $91.1 million, that’s TEN times the cost of the entire trans troop populous.
Even more staggering is the cost on just ONE Littoral Combat Ship at a whopping $478 million.
Currently, 18 countries allow transgender troops without a strain on their military budgets.
