President Trump signed an executive order on Monday night ordering the Secretary of Defense to determine a policy for transgender military service members within 30 days, putting into motion a ban on transgender Americans serving their country in the armed forces.
In the text of the order, Trump declared trans identity to be “inconsistent” with “high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.” He ordered the immediate end to “invented and identification-based pronoun usage” and the restriction of sleeping quarters, changing facilities and bathrooms to his definition of biological sex laid out in an executive order last week.
Trump also revived language from his 2017 ban on trans military service — then announced through a series of tweets — saying that trans identity is incompatible with the military’s mission of protecting the American people.
“Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” Trump wrote in the order.
Ohio veterans respond
Columbus’ Jody Davis immediately pushed back on Trump’s false assertions regarding readiness. Davis served as an Armor Crewman and Cavalry Scout in the Ohio Army National Guard from 1987 to 1995. She said that active trans service members, by definition, meet the standards for readiness and have served this country with distinction for as long as the military has existed.
“If a female identified person is able to meet the standards and wants to serve and possibly die for our country, why should we stop them?
If a male identified person is able to meet the standards and wants to serve and possibly die for our country, why should we stop them?” Davis said.
Davis also questioned how Trump’s executive order would affect recruitment.
“We’re having a hard enough time finding twenty-somethings that want to make the sacrifices to serve, and now we want to exclude thousands more qualified people from service?” Davis said. “We have always had LGBTQ people serving in the military and we always will.”
Akron’s Gio Santiago feels deep frustration. It’s a frustration the air force veteran felt four years ago when Trump — who avoided being drafted in the Vietnam War due to “bone spurs” — took similar action to limit military service by trans Americans.
“Trump’s thoughts and feelings and concerns are not of this country and those who are serving it,” said Santiago. “This is a continuous attack on marginalized individuals, and specifically transgender individuals.”
Santiago highlighted that there are thousands of trans individuals actively serving in the military and putting their lives secondary to protecting the American people. He warned that the fallout from Trump’s latest executive order will be similar to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” President Clinton’s controversial policy on LGBTQ+ military service.
“You’re going to see people outed and removed from service,” Santiago said. “From there, you will see people losing their pensions, losing their medical benefits, losing their financial resources and then put into a bucket of poverty, regardless of their service. This is degrading, dehumanizing and disgusting.”
Cleveland’s Eliana Turan served in the U.S. Army from 2000 to 2006 and survived three deployments. She noted the military’s role in quelling the January 6 insurrection and how that ties into Trump’s actions.
“On January 6, 2021, a mob of domestic terrorists attempted to overthrow American democracy,” Turan said. “They failed because our brave troops (National Guard and Capitol Police) defeated them in deadly battle. The former and current administration neither forgot nor forgave this. What we are seeing now goes beyond another Lavender Scare. Targeting our Trans troops is part of a larger effort to gut the American military of our best and brightest with one simple goal: to break and humble our fighting forces into obedience. Ultimately, it all is part of the current administration’s deliberate effort to remain in power after 2028.”
On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal announced their intent to sue the Trump administration to block this latest executive order.
“We have been here before and seven years ago successfully blocked the earlier administration’s effort to prevent patriotic, talented Americans from serving their country,” Lambda Legal counsel Sasha Buchert said. “Not only is such a move cruel, it compromises the safety and security of our country and is particularly dangerous and wrong. As we promised then, so do we now: we will sue to block this action.”
Until then, Santiago advises active service members to stay strong.
“Hold your truth to know that you’re valid, you’re important and you exist,” Santiago said. “The one thing that we learned in the military was to adapt and overcome, so you know what to do.” 🔥
ignite action
- If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are an transgender adult in need of immediate help, please contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
- To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state senator, click here.
- To access an interactive map of Ohio’s House and Senate districts, click here.
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