Army captain: Trump's bigoted ban creates 'a second class of soldiers'

Jennifer Peace, a captain currently serving in the U.S. Army, blasted Trump for his bigoted ban on transgender military service, pointing out that it has created a “second class of soldiers.”

Peace’s comments add to the torrent of criticism Trump has received for the disruptive military policy, designed more as a method of shoring up support from bigots who back his presidency than as a coherent or rational military strategy.

Peace is a transgender woman who has served in the military for over 13 years, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“If I’m in a leadership position, and I have a soldier who comes out to me as trans, now we’ve been told that trans people, according to this new language, are deficient,” Peace explained on Monday on MSNBC, “So how is it that I can say — almost a second class of soldiers that we’ve created, I’m allowed to be open and trans but you’re not, because you’re deficient?”

She also pointed out the policy effectively instructs senior officers to ignore existing transgender soldiers because the official policy is now that they are “deficient.”

The policy is unnecessary and discriminatory.

Dozens of retired generals and admirals have come out against Trump’s ban, describing it as something that will “cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie.”

The American Medical Association slammed the policy and pointed out that there is “no medically valid reason” for the ban.

Military leaders have also been against the disruptive action. Trump did not consult with them before putting the ban in place, and his previous defense secretary, Jim Mattis, appeared to have serious reservations about it. So did Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

Trump has ignored them all and still enacted the policy. In doing so he has stigmatized a loyal group of men and women who swore to protect the country and labeled them as deficient.

With Trump, bigotry always wins, even when it makes America weaker.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.