LIAmerican Governments In the recent election of 2016, Donald Trump made headlines for his rhetoric in regards to choice of vocabulary and outlandish opinions that not many previous presidential elections have seen in the United States of America. This election had discussed more issues regarding the bathroom bill that discriminated the trans experience due to the personal beliefs of the state and in general, America. Trans rights became a major topic of discussion in America when the North Carolina governor signed a controversial transgender bill that discriminated the trans individuals in choosing bathrooms on the gender- they identified with. This alone demonstrates the direction trans right has become a part of in American politics- especially with the recent supreme court decision on January 22nd, 2019 regarding the trans military ban.
Previously, Barack Obama had repealed a known transgender ban in the military, however, the Trump Administration would be known to reverse that with the supreme court decision with 5 to 4 in counting. On July 2017, Donald Trump took to twitter to take on his own personal opinions regarding trans in the military backed up with a “consultation” with his generals and military experts. In these tweets, Trump discusses the importance of a stable mindset in war and irritates that trans folk’s expenses for medical costs and their transition would be too much and almost burdensome. The Department of Defence discussed the importance of being mentally and physically stable in a high risk setting and deemed that the trans individuals would be unfit in this particular situation. This ban on the trans individuals being able to serve in the military represents a divide in America regarding personal opinions and human rights. It’s been known that since the Obama’s administration's repeal on the transgender military ban- they’ve been able to openly serve publicly in all branches of the United States militar. This is important to note because trans folk have participated actively in combat zones and the government up to this day has had no evidence whatsoever regarding harms or effectiveness trans have had in the military. About 17,000 trans individuals have participated in protecting the nation’s security in active duty and with this ban stops those Americans from their patriotic rights. The LGBTQ community have tooken part of this discussion constantly in military policies- especially when the Clinton Administration instituted a bill on February 28, 1984 known as the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” or DADT. DADT is known as a discriminatory policy of the United States government and military prohibiting open lesbian, gay, and bisexuals from serving in the military. In 2011, the Obama administration had repealed the DADT bill, however, anyone's experiencing “transvestism” or have abnormalities in their gentilitia were medically disqualified. Trans individuals have been a constant forefront in the fight for LGBT rights yet they’re often the last to even be in consideration for those rights. Ash Carter announced on June 30th, 2016 that the silence and secrecy for trans serving in the military have been cut and now they’re allowed to serve openly. Overall, it’s estimated that there are about 134,000 American veterans who identify as trans and about 15,000 active in duty. The numbers of trans in the military is never truly set because it hasn’t only been since recently that trans where allowed to serve openly instead of hiding in secrecy. Although, discrimination is still rampant with trans individuals receiving the same benefits as their cis-gendered (same-sex assigned at birth is their identified gender) counterparts. These benefits include the VA courage of medical needs and procedures such as any forms of body modifications surgeries. History repeats itself from 1993 to 2019 in the LGBT community with the military policies in American government. Secrecy becomes a constant theme in this particular communities’ discussion on serving their country without noting their own personal orientation or gender. The DADT received many backlash for forcing its lesbian, gay, bisexuals and trans to serve in secrecy and silence. The 2020 election leaves room for an impression on a recent supreme court decision on the transgender military ban. Democrats have been known to be the more liberal of the two parties and recently the democratic presidential candidates participated in a forum of LGBT policies. One of the first openly gay politicians to run for president know as Pete Buttigieg mayor of South Bend is expected to participate in this particular forum. In 2017, literally a day after President Trump’s tweet regarding trans military ban, Buttigieg took to his own accord to discuss his opinions on the topic. He spoke highly of anyone being able to serve as long as their able to do the job. He’s expected to be one of the more interesting candidate to partake in LGBT discussions especially previously serving in the military. With a lot of democratic presidential candidates- it is expected that this topic would be a forefront in discussion with the public.
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AuthorUndergraduate student generated content. Blog posting and updating done by Kristina Flores Victor, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CSUS Archives
March 2020
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