'I Just Wanted to Do My Job': Trans Military Members React to Impending Ban

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump will soon issue a memo directing the military to stop accepting transgender applicants. The military will also be able to consider current trans service members' "deployability" in order to decide who to discharge.

Additionally, the memo directs the Pentagon to stop paying for medical care to transgender troops, the publication reports. Broadly previously reported that a leaked email indicated that the military has stopped providing trans surgical care in the wake of Trump's initial tweets.

Trump has said that the military is "burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption" by accepting transgender people, but, as the ACLU has pointed out, the cost is "almost zero." In fact, a study by the Palm Center, an independent research institute, found that Trump's ban on transgender service members would cost $960 million—almost 100 times the cost of transgender health care.

Current and former transgender military members emphasized to Broadly that their health care shouldn't be thought of as a burden. "Undergoing treatment allows me to be a better soldier, which should be a win-win for both myself and the military," Tara, a solider in the Texas Army National Guard, said. She says she began her transition a month before the ban on transgender troops was lifted by President Obama in 2016, with full support from her unit. "[The ban] is frankly demoralizing to those who want to serve."

Current and former transgender military members also said that the ban will create a harmful and uncertain environment. Jennifer Sims, a communications officer for an infantry battalion stationed in Germany, said that deciding who should be expelled from the military based on "deployability" is vague and will leave trans people in the military at the whims of their commanding officers. (Sims said she is commenting as a private citizen.)

"A trans-friendly commander might be more inclined to say their transgender troops are deployable than a less friendly one. Some service members will get to stay in because they have a more understanding commander than others," she said. "How will they define 'deployable?'" Noting that trans troops are currently deployed in various places overseas, she continued, "There is nothing stopping transgender service members from being deployable. Will soldiers be deployable in reality, but not deployable in the system?"

Tara Macaluso, who has served in the National Guard for over eight and a half years, added that since Trump announced that he will reinstate the ban, she has been worried about her job and her ability to provide for her family. She says she's already received discriminatory treatment since Trump took office.

"My spouse and I were immediately concerned that if I was removed from the military, we would not be able to provide health care for our children, including my daughter who has asthma issues and a son who at one point needed a gastrointestinal tube to eat, or that we would have to pay two or three times as much to do so," she explained.

Ashlee Silcox is a veteran; she got out of the military last month. She remembers what it was like to serve under the original ban on trans military members. When Silcox came out as trans to her family and her supervisors at work in 2014, she was worried that she would lose her job. "My morale went down and my depression went up. It was a hard time. I just wanted to do my job," she explained. By the end of 2015, as the ban was soon to be lifted under Obama, she was finally allowed to wear the uniform that corresponded with her gender identity.

She said she's disappointed that the gains she fought for will be erased under Trump. "At that time [in 2015], there were a lot of questions about allowing trans people to openly serve in the military, and people were answering them by continuing to do their job. Trump's memo diminishes all our hard work. Trans troops just want to be themselves and do their job."

"It is disheartening to see the President continue to move forward with cruel, costly and discriminatory action against trans service members," Chase Strangio, an attorney with the ACLU told Broadly in a statement. "The ACLU will see the administration in court once these tweets become policy but the damage to service members and all trans people who worry for their financial well-being, safety, and dignity can never be undone. Our health care is necessary, our lives valuable, and we simply will not stand for this blatant discrimination and oppression."