Trump signs executive order to BAN transgender people joining military and reinstate troops who rejected Covid vaccines
WATCH: Donald Trump is sworn in as 47th president of the United States
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Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military while reinstating service members who rejected the Covid vaccine.
In a shocking move yesterday, Trump declared that “the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology,” claiming that trans people are medically and morally unfit to serve.
It is thought that there are about 15,000 trans people in the military, with a study in 2016 finding that there were 10,000.
There are around two million people who serve in the US military across all branches.
Trump declared that “the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology”
ReutersThe new order also reinstates troops who were discharged after refusing to receive the Covid-19 jab.
The order reads: “Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
The order equated being transgender to having a mental and physical illness, noting that “mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty, from conditions that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization”.
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This order could impact tens of thousands of US service members, at a time when enlistment numbers have already gone down.
It could also target those with mental health issues, as “[Diagnoses] that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization,” will also become a new condition of service.
The executive order has caused public chaos, with LGBT campaign groups threatening to sue.
Speaking to The Independent, advocacy groups Lambda Legal and Human Rights Campaign said: “We have been here before and seven years ago were able to successfully block the earlier administration’s effort to prevent patriotic, talented Americans from serving their country.”
The new order also reinstates troops who were discharged after refusing to receive the Covid-19 jab
GETTYLambda Legal Counsel Sasha Buchert added: “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.”
In 2021, former President Joe Biden allowed transgender troops to serve, curtailing an earlier ban by Trump.
While transgender military members are not immediately banned from serving, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security are now required to issue reports on how the various branches will implement the policy.
Trump’s ally Pete Hegseth, the new leader of the Defense Department, has long advocated against transgender people serving in the military.
During an interview in November, Hegseth vowed to remove “woke” service members, adding that anybody taking medication to aid a transition would be banned from serving.
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