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Why the trans military ban matters for everyone

A man holds the transgender flag above his head.

This week, President Trump signed an executive order(link is external) banning transgender people from participating in the military. This order will effectively block any new trans people from signing up to serve and may also impact existing service members.  

The ban itself is not unexpected. Trump issued a similar executive order during his first administration. What’s different this time is the exact language used and how that language pulls back the curtain on what motivates the ongoing attacks on trans people. Let’s look at what’s included in the new order and why it’s so dangerous for so many people.  

What’s so shocking about the ban 

In previous attacks on trans people, both at the national and state levels, a typical narrative has been used. The false ideas that the science isn’t settled, that a large percentage of trans people change their minds, and that gender transition is being forced on children are all common tactics used to chip away at trans people’s basic rights. But now, with this recent executive order, President Trump is trying out a new way to put trans people in the crosshairs: by attacking their honesty, honor, and humanity.  

In this new executive order(link is external), President Trump asserts that the “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle…” The President of the United States is effectively calling trans people dishonorable, untruthful, and undisciplined. The order goes on to call trans identities a “falsehood” and says trans service members lack “humility and selflessness.” These are the  actions of a tyrant lashing out at an already marginalized group, and that should worry all of us.  

The impact this will have 

First, the ban will make life for trans service members infinitely more difficult. The order requires service members to use facilities, including bathrooms and sleeping quarters, that align with their designated sex at birth. It also ends “invented and identification-based pronoun usage,” meaning trans service members could be regularly misgendered with zero consequences. This is all countering an executive order issued by President Biden(link is external) in 2021 expanding the rights of trans people in the military.  

But these immediate effects are only the start. The military can be a place where societal change takes root before it spreads to the broader community. Sometimes this is positive, as when the military desegregated its ranks. But in this case, the societal impact could be deeply harmful.  

By impugning the  humanity of trans people with this new argument behind the bans on military service, the Trump administration is setting up a precedent by which trans people can be attacked in every aspect of society. If trans people aren’t honorable and trustworthy enough to be in the military, how can they be teachers, or pilots, or news hosts, or those people who walk around neighborhoods selling solar panels, or anything else? This is a strategic  attack that will have ripple effects for trans people everywhere.  

And don’t think this will be limited to trans people. This, like so much of what’s been happening in the first weeks of the Trump administration, is a test run. They want to see what they can get away with. And if they get away with this, what’s next? Will we see an attack on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other sexual minorities? Will similar tactics be used against women in the military and elsewhere? How long before the testing is  over and the larger threats start to surface? 

This ban is dangerous on its face, and we cannot stand by while the Trump administration makes targeted attacks on trans people. As the poem goes, “first they came for…”; you know the rest. Make no mistake, we’re well into that phase, and we can’t afford to go any deeper into authoritarianism.