5 Trans People of Color Open Up About Their Military Experience
January 28, 2019Last Tuesday, The U.S. Supreme Court disappointed trans military servicemembers, activists, and allies when it gave the Trump administration a 5-4 vote against fast-tracking a case involving its signature trans military ban.
Though the ban won’t go into effect immediately, as two lower court injunctions continue to block it, SCOTUS has left the door of discrimination open and resisted a chance to rule on the legality of the ban itself. Mirroring many of the stigmatizing and silencing elements of the now-repealed “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, trans servicemembers and their supporters are experiencing a range of emotions from fear, to anger, to disappointment.
In a Democracy NOW! interview, ACLU Staff Attorney Chase Strangio said, “This is a question about whether the largest employer in our country can tell transgender people that they are not welcome, that they cannot actively be who they are and retain their employment. So we should be incredibly concerned not only about what this means for trans people, for our employment, for our healthcare, for our survival in absolutely every context, but also whether or not we’re going to accept a government policy that’s premised on the idea that we don’t exist, and that if we do exist, we should not be protected in any way.”