On 26 July 2017, President Trump used his primary method of communication – Twitter – to drop a bombshell on the U.S. military, stating that transgender service members will no longer be allowed to serve openly. As a retired U.S. Marine officer and infantry platoon sergeant, Trump’s callous disregard for the lives and experiences of transgender service members is in direct conflict with the facts.
I enlisted in 1994, serving in California, Okinawa, North Carolina, the Congo, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, and Fallujah during Operation PHANTOM FURY. After returning from Iraq in 2005, I was commissioned and served as a judge advocate in Virginia, Rhode Island, Okinawa, JTF Guantanamo Bay, and finally at the Pentagon for my final duty station before retiring at the rank of Captain.
Despite Trump’s tweet and some of the Republican’s attestations otherwise, it has been proven over the past year, along with in-depth studies conducted before repeal, that transgender service members are not the “disruption” that Pres. Trump alleges and the total cost per year of medical care for transgender troops is “relatively low.”
This data comes from a 30 June 2016 Department of Defense-commissioned study by the RAND Corporation which scientifically estimates only a 0.04 – 0.13% increase in active-component health care expenditures at a maximum estimate at $8.4 million per year. Let’s compare this figure to other health care related costs: A single F-35 costs $95 million; the President has flown to his Mar-a-Lago resort seven times so far since his inauguration, costing taxpayers at least $25 million; the annual cost of the military’s treatment of erectile dysfunction is $84 million, $41.6 million on Viagra alone. To put these numbers in context, providing health care will cost at the maximum 8.4% of one F-35, 32% of the cost to send Trump to Mar-a-Lago during just the first 2 ½ months of his presidency, or just 9.5% of the cost of military erectile dysfunction treatment.
People like Air Force SSgt Logan Ireland, Navy LCDR Blake Dremann, Army SGT Ken Ochoa and the several thousands of actively serving troops are the proof that open service actually increases our military’s readiness, not detracts from it. Even Congressional Republicans voiced their opposition to Pres. Trump’s unilateral declaration, including Arizona’s Sen. John McCain, who is the chairman of the Senate armed services committee, Alabama’s Sen. Richard Shelby and South Carolina’s Sen. Lindsay Graham, who is a retired Air Force judge advocate.
In the face of bipartisan Congressional support and substantial evidence for open transgender service, President Trump is blind to the actual needs of our military, instead focusing on his own myopic need for self-aggrandizement. I urge you to support all of our troops and celebrate the rich diversity that truly makes America great.
Semper Fidelis!
Emma Shinn spent 20 years as an enlisted Marine and as a judge advocate before retiring and opening her own private criminal law practice dedicated to representing service members at courts-martial and administrative separation proceedings.
Fabulous letter, Emma. Of course, you know that drumpf didn’t do all this just because HE believe it; in fact, he might not believe it at all. But evil Pence does. And his black blank face covers all the evil in him when we see his photos…..and of course, there’s the red herring concept. drumpf is in the hotseat…..and maybe the lard will melt, so he’s doing what bullies do. I can’t wait for Kristin Beck to confront him.
Well, we’re all writing letters and calling the WH (to no avail). I have read that there aren’t any teeth in his tweet.
The military has reversed their position and they will now allow trans-gender soldiers. Like most other social-political issues, there are two sides to this and each needs to be open to hearing the other side with an open mind. Easy to say but each thinks theirs is the only “correct” way. How stupid. I believe that gender should not matter and trans-genders will eventually be fully accepted (but it will take time). However, I do not believe that the government (aka the American taxpayer) should foot the bill for a trans-gender operation. This is where many who are fine with the idea of accepting trans-genders into the military will have an issue.
Some would argue that these facts actually confirm that there is a financial burden, and the financial burden was only one aspect of the argument for not allowing trans in the military. I don’t have much of an opinion on the topic either way, but I’d like to see a study on the psychological aspects, suicide rates, performance, etc.