Rep. Schiff on Trump’s Transgender Military Ban: "Ugly and Wrong"
Washington, DC -- Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Vice Chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus, released the following statement:
"In February, President Trump made an unequivocal promise to the LGBT community to maintain existing federal non-discrimination protections. With his announcement this morning, Trump has reneged on his promise to the American people by disallowing transgender people to serve 'in any capacity' in the U.S. military. Simply put, Trump's anti-transgender pronouncement is ugly and wrong because discrimination is never patriotic; allowing all who love this country to serve, is.
"The LGBT community has fought for decades to achieve basic nondiscrimination protections and I was proud of the progress made under the Obama Administration, which introduced a policy that would allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military. The decision followed a study by the nonpartisan RAND Foundation finding that allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military would have no effect on readiness. The announcement by President Trump puts politics and catering to his extreme base ahead of the best interests of the military or basic principles of fairness and decency.
"This decision is an affront to the estimated 15,000 transgender people currently serving in the United States Military. LGBT Americans have made countless contributions to our nation's security and they deserve our respect and appreciation. I will join with my colleagues to use every tool at our disposal to reverse this baseless decision."