Judge exposes small-minded idiocy of Trump's transgender military ban | Opinion
Trump has found a way to gain political support by catering to people's prejudices. But by the Defense Department's own counting, only 4,200 military members are transgender – a minuscule percentage.
The politicians who hate transgender people and want to legislate them out of existence, and the constituents who support that plan, are upset that a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Defense from removing transgender troops.
Basically, Judge Ana Reyes told President Donald Trump and his DOD enabler, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that a sense of loathing toward a group of people isn’t a legal reason to bar them from military service.
In his executive order leading to the Defense Department’s action, Trump said being transgender is a “falsehood” inconsistent with the “humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
He said it doesn’t fit with “with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
Reyes, in her 79-page opinion, said Trump’s DOD lawyers were presenting “pure conjecture,” while providing “nothing to support Defendants’ view that transgender military service is inconsistent with military readiness.”
The judge concluded, “The Ban at bottom invokes derogatory language to target a vulnerable group in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”
Trans service members make up a minuscule portion of military
The lawyer who represented service members challenging Trump’s order and the DOD effort said, “Their lives and careers are completely disrupted. That’s why getting them immediate relief is so important.”
This Trumped-up controversy should not be a controversy.
Attacking trans individuals has become a big deal because Trump found a way to gain political support by catering to people's prejudices.
The U.S. military has nearly 3 million members.
Three million.
By the Defense Department’s own counting, only 4,200 of them – a truly minuscule percentage – are transgender.
How much does Pentagon spend on transgender troops? Less than it does on Viagra.
Among them are pilots, senior officers, nuclear technicians and Green Berets as well as soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
All they want is to do their jobs, to serve their country.
Judge Reyes pointed out that a study submitted by the Department of Defense said that transgender service members were more deployable and had fewer lapses in service that other troops diagnosed with depression. And that they remained in the military longer.
She also noted an even more interesting and enlightening “fun” fact.
The DOD says that it spends roughly $5 million each year for therapy, hormones, etc. for its trans service members.
In 2023 alone, on the other hand, it spent eight times that much, more than $40 million … on Viagra.
EJ Montini is a columnist at the Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com