It’s been over two weeks since President Donald Trump tweeted his decision to ban transgender people from serving from the military. On the Wednesday it happened, the White House was caught flat-footed and could not provide basic information about how the ban would be implemented and what it would mean for the thousands of transgender service members serving in the military today, many of them deployed overseas. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the armed forces the following day that there was no change yet to current policy and that no modifications would be made until the White House provided further direction. Now, two weeks later, no such guidance has been made public, and it’s unclear whether the Defense Department has received any updates either. Meanwhile, the ban is already being challenged in court on the ground’s that it violates the Constitution.
Just Security has published a series of articles on the topic, which have explored everything from the legal questions surrounding Trump’s ban to the history of discrimination in the military. Our authors have included one of the top military law scholars in the country, a sociology professor at West Point, a recently deployed combat veteran, and a leading advocate for LGBTQ rights in the military. Below is a collection of our coverage. Please stay tuned as we continue to track how the president’s tweets become policy and how that policy affects those wishing to serve in the U.S. military.
- We’ve Been Here Before: Discriminating Against Those Who Volunteer to Serve by Bishop Garrison
- Your Tweet is My Command by Eugene R. Fidell
- Trump’s Trans Ban is Bad for Military Readiness by Brenda S. “Sue” Fulton
- Tweets, Trans, and the American Military by Morten G. Ender