Seth Moulton compares Trump’s transgender military ban to discrimination against gays, African Americans
"This is despicable."
When news of President Donald Trump’s reinstatement of the military ban on transgender people broke while Rep. Seth Moulton was giving a radio interview, the Salem Democrat was quick to condemn the decision.
“It sounds like the same argument used against African-Americans, used against gays, used against whoever else — simply people who are willing to put their lives on the country, which by the way, is far more than President Trump has ever been willing to do,” the Salem Democrat told WGBH’s Boston Public Radio, after being informed of the president’s announcement.
“[Trump] got five deferments to avoid serving, himself,” Moulton said.”This is despicable.”
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that the government “will not accept or allow … Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.”
Trump’s decision reinstates the military transgender ban that was lifted by President Barack Obama’s administration last June. Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter had announced that “transgender Americans may serve openly” and that the Pentagon would cover the medical costs of military members who wished to undergo gender transition.
Trump’s announcement Wednesday comes after a failed effort earlier this month by some House Republicans to end the Pentagon’s policy of providing gender transition surgeries and therapy for active-duty service members. The amendment was narrowly blocked when 24 Republicans joined the 190 House Democrats to vote no.
Rep. Joe Kennedy, the leader of a congressional transgender rights task force, also decried Trump’s move. In a House floor speech Wednesday, the Newton Democrat said that service members “do not discriminate” and that the government “owes them that same courtesy, that same decency in return.”
Our soldiers do not discriminate. They defend all of our nation’s people. Their government owes them that same decency in return. pic.twitter.com/ZQBsHhbnV8
— Joe Kennedy III (@joekennedy) July 26, 2017
Kennedy also retweeted a statement Trump made during the presidential campaign last year, in which he pledged to “fight” for the LGBT community.
“Correction,” Kennedy tweeted Wednesday. “They will fight for you. You will abandon them.”
