Justice, Military / Military Law, Politics

Trump's Transgender Ban Is Bait, It's Not A Reality... Yet

Trump can make the military bigoted, but he has to actually make them.

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When are these colonies gonna rise up? (Photo Getty)

Donald Trump did not ban transgender individuals from serving in “any capacity in the U.S. military.” I know he just said so on Twitter. But a tweet is not an executive order. A tweet is not a law and, goddamnit, we are still a nation of laws.

As laws go, the president’s clear intention to deny equal protection to transgender individuals should make it even more difficult for him to implement his tweet as official U.S. policy. Trump just told us where he intends to attack next, without being ready to actually attack. WHICH IS DUMB. We now have what Sun-Tzu would call “foreknowledge” of our enemy’s plans. We can mount a defense and defeat him.

Trump can, absolutely, do this. But he hasn’t done it yet. The response from the Pentagon is instructive here. From USAToday:

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said in a brief written statement that the Pentagon is working with the White House to “address” what he calls “the new guidance” from the president on transgender individuals serving in the military.

Davis said the Pentagon will provide revised guidance to Defense Department officials “in the near future.”

That’s military-speak for “I have no idea what the old man is talking about, but I’m not ready to lead a junta, so we’ll get back to you.”

The devil’s in the “revised guidance.” The military has been proceeding along the lines that transgender people are allowed to serve openly. Last month the House defeated a proposal, with the help of 24 Republicans even, to deny Pentagon resources for gender reassignment surgery. This issue has been fought and decided. Trump cannot just roll all of that back ON TWITTER. The Pentagon is going to have to translate the president’s bigoted ravings into workable guidance that the ginormous U.S. Armed Services can implement as policy. And then that policy will be looked at in Congress and, likely, litigated in the courts.

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“Smear the Queer” is a command the “Commander-in-Chief” can utter, but he can’t do it like he’s telling his orc-humpers to defend a position in a Warhammer video game. How will the military determine transgender status? Who gets to ask? Who has to tell? What about all the transgender people who came out because Obama and Ash Carter said it was okay? Do they get honorable discharges? What about pensions? WHO KNEW DISCRIMINATING AGAINST TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS COULD BE SO COMPLICATED?

Trump’s tweets would not stop f**king MULAN from serving.

These tweets are for idiots. Trump’s supporters are literally too stupid to think through the first contact this ban would have with reality. But they know they hate “women” who still have “a penis” and so anything that sounds like it might make their lives more difficult gives them comfort while they feast on mayonnaise sandwiches and piss beer.

An oft-cited RAND Corporation study suggests that there are 2,450 active transgender service members, in our 1.3 million-member military. I struggle to conceive of how pathetic you have to be to CARE about the genital disposition of less than 1% of the men and women who are fighting for your oil. Trump people are literally the worst.

But “progressives” are easily distracted. Republicans are flying back from taxpayer-provided brain surgery to take health care away from taxpayers. Trump is trying to fire an independent investigator for investigating independently. The “beleaguered” Attorney General is trying to make cities more vulnerable to terrorist attacks if they aren’t racist enough. This entire administration is a disaster.

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Smacking around transgender individuals on Twitter without bothering to issue new actionable policy is like throwing some Christians to the lions to keep the mob on your side and the nobles suitably cowed. It’s an old trick.

Transgender people are being used as bait. That’s probably the most disgusting part of Trump’s tweetstorm. Trump isn’t even giving the transgender community the dignity of their destruction being his ultimate objective. He’s just using their lives as a means to his ends.

Trump Says That Transgender People Will Not Be Allowed in the Military [New York Times]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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