Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

An Openly Transgender Military Recruit Just Made History and There's Nothing Donald Trump Can Do About It

An Openly Transgender Military Recruit Just Made History and There's Nothing Donald Trump Can Do About It
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 23: U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the East Room of the White House February 23, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

History made.

The first openly transgender recruit has joined the U.S. military since federal courts ruled against President Donald Trump’s ban transgender service members.

“The Department of Defense confirms that as of Feb. 23, 2018, there is one transgender individual under contract for service in the U.S. military,” Pentagon spokesman Major David Eastburn told CNN, adding that the individual has signed a contract but not yet started basic training. Eastburn did not confirm who the recruit is or say which branch the recruit signed up for.


The news comes as the president continues to debate how the Defense Department will integrate transgender persons into military service. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis provided his recommendations to the White House on transgender people serving in the military last week. Reports suggested Mattis would recommend that transgender troops be allowed to serve.

“The Secretary of Defense made his recommendation to the White House this morning,” Eastburn toldThe Huffington Post on Friday. “The recommendation was a private conversation between the secretary and the White House, and the contents of the conversation will remain private.”

In July 2017, the president announced he would ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity, an abrupt reversal of an Obama administration decision which would have allowed them to serve openly.

Trump’s decision came a month after Defense Secretary Mattis announced he would delay implementation of the plan to allow transgender troops by six months. Mattis made the decision on the eve of a deadline set nearly two years ago by then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had requested a six-month reprieve, saying they needed to conduct a review of how allowing transgender recruits to serve would affect the military’s effectiveness.

“Since becoming the Secretary of Defense, I have emphasized that the Department of Defense must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force?” Mattis said at the time. “Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America’s military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military Services.”

Former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s decision––a historic shift in gender policy––would have required all services to allow transgender individuals to enlist starting this year. In October, the Department of Defense distributed a commander’s training handbook and rolled out medical protocol and guidance for changing a service member’s gender in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment System per Carter’s guidelines.

“This is the right thing to do for our people and for the force,” Carter said in 2016, explaining his landmark decision. “We’re talking about talented Americans who are serving with distinction or who want the opportunity to serve. We can’t allow barriers unrelated to a person’s qualifications prevent us from recruiting and retaining those who can best accomplish the mission.”

Estimates of the number of transgender troops vary considerably. A RAND Corporation study says roughly 2,500 transgender personnel may be serving in the active duty military, and 1,500 in the reserves. The study estimates only 30 to 130 active duty troops out of a force of 1.3 million would seek transition-related health care each year, which would cost $2.4 million to $8.4 million. (Although Trump cited “medical costs” as the primary driver of the decision, total military spending on erectile dysfunction medicines amounts to $84 million annually, according to a Military Times analysis.)

Even as Trump’s announcement attempted to appeal to his hardline GOP base, the backlash from Republicans, including those with military experience, signals that there is bipartisan support for transgender people serving in the military. The statements from those with military service––including Arizona Senator John McCain and Iowa Senator Joni Ernst––counter the president’s claim that allowing transgender people to serve would create a “disruption” in the armed forces.

Following Trump’s announcement, a White House official insisted politics “was never an impetus” for Trump’s decision but said that “it will be fun to watch some of them [Democrats] have to defend this.” Another official said the move “forces Democrats in Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, to take complete ownership of this issue,” which could hurt their political prospects.

Reports indicate that Trump’s decision to bar transgender individuals from military service came as a response to an internal House Republican fight over sex reassignment surgery which threatened funding for his border wall. White House sources told reporters that Trump’s sudden decision “was, in part, a last-ditch attempt to save a House proposal full of his campaign promises that was on the verge of defeat.”

Several federal judges have blocked the president's ban. In November 2017, for example, Judge Marvin Garbis noted, “A capricious, arbitrary, and unqualified tweet of new policy does not trump the methodical and systematic review by military stakeholders qualified to understand the ramifications of policy changes."

More from News/lgbtq

Donald Trump
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Fox News Just Listed Off Trump's 'Accomplishments' So Far—And They're Completely Bananas

As shown during coverage of a cabinet meeting when members spent time telling the President how great he is, MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's biggest priority is Donald Trump's image and ego.

Also caught on video was Trump telling a Fox News correspondent to make sure the network praised his cabinet meeting.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Donald Trump and Terry Moran
ABC News

Trump Bizarrely Clashes With Reporter Over Photoshopped 'Tattoo' On Abrego Garcia's Knuckles

President Donald Trump sparked criticism after claiming during an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran that an edited photo depicting tattoos of wrongly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia showed that he has an alleged connection to the MS-13 gang.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who arrived in the U.S. in 2012, was labeled a threat in 2019 due to an alleged connection to MS-13. He spent months in detention before an immigration judge found he had a credible fear of persecution—not from MS-13, but from a rival group, Barrio 18, which he said had been extorting his family.

Keep ReadingShow less
Karoline Leavitt; Jeff Bezos
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Leavitt Lashes Out At Amazon Over 'Hostile' Plan To Display Added Tariff Costs For Products On Website

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lashed out at Amazon over news that the commerce giant planned to display increased "import charges" on items on their Amazon Haul website, essentially showing to customers the extra money they'd have to shell out as a result of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Trump has escalated a growing trade war by imposing tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese imports, prompting China to retaliate with its own 125% tariffs on American goods. Additionally, the U.S. has slapped a 10% tax on imports from most other countries, while temporarily suspending higher rates for several nations for 90 days.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Canadian voter
CNN

Canadian Voter's Epic Take On Trump In Viral Interview Clip Has The Internet Cheering

A Canadian woman has gone viral following her NSFW interview with CNN in which she explained that her decision of whom to support for prime minister In Monday's election was based primarily on who could "take care of" President Donald Trump, who had threatened Canadian sovereignty amid an ongoing trade war.

In the end, Canadian voters returned the Liberal Party to power for a fourth consecutive term, although Prime Minister Mark Carney will lead a minority government, according to projections from CNN’s broadcast partner CBC.

Keep ReadingShow less
man and woman with cardboard boxes on their heads with faces drawn on them
julio andres rosario ortiz on Unsplash

People Describe The Most Unhinged Things They've Seen Someone Do In Public

One person's "most unhinged thing they've ever seen" is another person's everyday occurrence. It's all about perspective.

If you live 24/7 in an insane environment, unhinged starts to seem completely normal.

Keep ReadingShow less