Great British Bake Off star stands up to Trump trans ban with amazing military cake
A former Great British Bake Off star is standing up to Donald Trump’s transgender ban in a creative way.
Thomas Gilliford, who was a contestant on the final BBC series of the reality baking competition in 2016, made a statement with the recipe as the Pentagon moves to implement Trump’s transgender ban.
Defense Secretary James Mattis this week confirmed the implementation of a ban on transgender troops, blocking their recruitment indefinitely, and announcing a ‘study’ on whether to purge the thousands of transgender people already serving in the US Armed Forces.
Gilliford responded in the best way possible – with cake.
He shared a free recipe in support of the trans patriots in the US military, titled Soldier’s Sponge.
The sponge of the cake is made in the blue, pink and white colours of the transgender pride flag.
However, the outside is coated in green camo patches – symbolising the integration of trans people into the core of the armed forces.
The baker urged people to donate to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is leading a lawsuit against Trump’s ban.
He explained: “The 45th president of the United States wants to ban Trans people from the military.
“It is the responsibility of everyone to resist this bigoted attack on those that serve their country.
“Inside this cake might be the Trans pride flag, but on the outside it is in uniform – because solider has no gender. You can help but donating to the ACLU today.”
You can donate to the American Civil Liberties Union here.
This week the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the president’s directive banning transgender service members from continuing to serve in the military or receiving medically necessary health care, and banning men and women who are transgender from enlisting.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the ACLU of Maryland and six current members of the armed forces who are transgender: Petty Officer First Class Brock Stone, Senior Airman John Doe, Airman First Class Seven Ero George, Petty Officer First Class Teagan Gilbert, Staff Sergeant Kate Cole, and Technical Sergeant Tommie Parker.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU argues that the ban violates the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and substantive due process by singling out transgender individuals for unequal and discriminatory treatment.
The lawsuit argues that the ban discriminates based on sex and transgender status and that the ban is based on uninformed speculation, myths and stereotypes, moral disapproval, and a bare desire to harm this already vulnerable group.
Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, said: “Each and every claim made by President Trump to justify this ban can be easily debunked by the conclusions drawn from the Department of Defense’s own review process.
“Allowing men and women who are transgender to serve openly and providing them with necessary health care does nothing to harm military readiness or unit cohesion.
“Men and women who are transgender with the courage and capacity to serve deserve more from their commander-in-chief.”
At the culmination of a thorough process, the Department of Defense concluded in 2016 that there was no basis for the military to exclude transgender individuals from openly serving their country, subject to the same fitness requirements as other service members.
This review process carefully considered and rejected the notion that medical costs, military readiness, or other factors presented any reason to discriminate against transgender service members, many of whom had already been serving with honor in silence for years.
For example, Petty Officer First Class Brock Stone has served in the U.S. Navy for 9 years, including a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan.
He has received extensive and costly training and is skilled in his field. He has devoted and risked his life for the United States and is seeking nothing more than the ability to continue to do so on the same terms as his fellow officers.
Related: Trump calls Chelsea Manning ‘he’ in attack on transgender soldier
