Defense Department forced to correct Trump's lies about medical treatment for troops
Trump falsely claimed transgender Americans could not serve in the military because of prescription drugs they would need.
Trump’s own Department of Defense was forced to issue a statement on Thursday to correct ignorant remarks Trump made about transgender troops during an interview with Piers Morgan.
On Tuesday, Trump lied about military policy when he said he banned transgender Americans from serving in the military because “they have to take large amounts of drugs for that, large amounts, and you can’t do that … you’re not allowed to take drugs.”
Trump was wrong, according to a Defense Department spokesperson.
“The Military Health System covers all approved medically necessary treatments and prescription medications,” Jessica Maxwell, a DOD spokesperson, told the Washington Post. “If a service member has a hormone deficiency for any reason (such as hypogonadism, hypothyroidism, menopause, etc.), he or she would be prescribed hormones.”
Further, Maxwell “assured that existing troops who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria before the transgender ban went into place in April ‘will continue to receive all medically necessary treatment.'”
Trump’s ban of transgender Americans serving in the military was roundly criticized by medical professionals, soldiers, and Trump’s own military advisers.
The American Medical Association stated there is “no medically valid reason — including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — to exclude transgender individuals from military service.”
Trump is denying others the ability to serve even though he himself never served in the military, using a sketchy medical deferral to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War.
Trump “got his deferments for the wrong thing,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said recently. “They shouldn’t have been for his disappearing, imaginary bone spurs — they should have been for that yellow streak down his back. At least that would have been a real condition.”
To make matters worse, Trump once compared the dangers of serving in Vietnam to the dangers of potentially getting a sexually transmitted infection from sleeping with many women.
Trump, who was too much of a coward to serve, is now preventing Americans who want to serve their country from doing so. And his reasons for doing so are so absurd that his own Defense Department has been forced to humiliate him by correcting the record.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
Recommended
Assemblywoman-elect Luanne Peterpaul will be first out lesbian in New Jersey Legislature
In January, Luanne Peterpaul will be the first out gay woman to become a New Jersey legislator, a move toward increasing LGBTQ representation in Trenton at a time when the queer community feels increasingly under attack in statehouses nationwide.
By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz - November 20, 2023
House Speaker Mike Johnson has long opposed abortion and LGBTQ+ rights
Before the newly elected U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson was in public office, the Louisiana Republican’s restrictive stances on gender identity, abortion and sexuality were honed at the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, where he served as a senior spokesperson and attorney. Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, is the legal force behind dozens […]
By Amanda Becker, The 19th - November 02, 2023
Philadelphia mayor signs executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care
Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney said the order is in response to the wave of legislation attacking transgender rights across the country.
By Will Fritz - October 19, 2023
