How The Transgender Military Ban Affects Me
by Percy Okoben
On April 12, 2019, the United States Military began to enforce its ban on transgender individuals joining the armed forces after the ban was announced nearly two years prior in a tweet by President Donald Trump. It also banned people currently serving in the military from physically transitioning. Trump’s 2017 tweet stated that the costs of physical transition backed his decision for the ban. However, according to the Washington Post in an article published the same day as the tweet, the military, at that time, spent about $8.4 million on transgender care. That was about .001% of the entire military budget, an amount surely not major enough to eliminate transgender individuals from the military entirely. Therefore, Trump’s own prejudices must have come into play when he ordered this ban.
As a transgender person, it hurts to know that my country hates my minority so much to bar us from serving in the armed forces. But what hurts more is that the people around me don’t seem to care. I found out about the ban on my way to my Geometry class last year, while I was walking with a friend who got an alert on her phone about the legislation. While I fumed, she stood next to me, not seeming to care. I knew that my friends were not altogether accepting of transgender people, judging by some statements of ignorance from a few of them, but I thought they would at least recognize this injustice and be half as outraged as I was, but I was sadly disappointed.
My family, too, were not altogether supportive of my feelings. My grandparents were in town that week because my parents were out of town. I was having breakfast with them and, just after my grandmother had told a story about how she had stood up for someone during the civil rights era, I decided to tell them of my outrage at the ban. I had not, and still haven’t, told my grandparents that I am transgender, but I decided to test the waters and see how my grandparents might react if I told them that I was transgender. But I was again disappointed when they voiced their approval of the ban, which summoned fear, anger, and sadness inside me. Would no one stand up not only for my rights but those of the millions of transgender people living in the United States? I supposed not.
I don’t know if or when transgender people will be able to serve in the military again, or especially when we will be accepted by our friends or relatives, entirely and completely. But what I do know is that we must have hope that one day the ignorant and bigoted individuals will change their minds or simply leave us alone, and we must appreciate the people that do accept us and be thankful for them, wherever we may find them.
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