US soldiers | Photo: Flickr/Public Affairs Office Fort Wainwright
Despite courts ruling against Donald Trump’s proposed transgender military ban, it remains a huge headacher for trans people wanting to enlist.
A new report from the New York Times reveals the difficulties trans people have joining.
In one instance, Sparta, a group for trans recruits, troops, and veterans, revealed 140 of their members have tried to enlist since 1 January. Only two have made it.
Trump reversed the Obama administration’s decision to allow trans recruits in July 2017.
Then, earlier this year in March, Trump’s White House released a memo revising the ban.
The newest ban states: ‘Transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria — individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery — are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances.’
Activists, groups, and other citizens have slammed the ban since the start. Numerous judges and courts have struck down the ban as unconstitional, as recently as June.
Despite this, trans people are still running into major obstacles.
Why?
Most of the delays stem from medical information.
One recruit, Nicholas Bade, told the NYT he’s on round five of rejections. ‘Each time, they say they need even more medical information,’ he said. ‘My last one was a minor document from years ago.’
He began taking hormones in 2014 and had breast removal surgery in 2015. Still, the beauracratic red tape of medical documentation is causing major problems.
Another applicant in Ohio spent five months submitting documents. Then, he was finally rejected because of a knee surgery he had as an infant.
This is all despite the fact that recruits are down in numbers.
‘We want to give the military the benefit of the doubt, but at this point so few applicants have been accepted, there is reason to be concerned that there is some passive resistance to the injunctions, and people are getting slow-walked,’ said Shannon Minter, a lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. They sued the Trump administration over the ban alongside GLAD.
Most people, including military leaders, support transgender recruits.
