Donald Trump’s first year as president was marked by many unnecessary bans applauded mostly by bigots, namely travel bans and his ban on transgender service members. Almost immediately, federal courts began working to block both bans, fights that will surely continue well into the future.
And though the ban on transgender service members took effect in April 2019, a new Pentagon-backed poll conducted by the Palm Center of nearly 500 sailors, soldiers, military aviators, and Marines found that the majority, 66 percent, think that transgender members of the military should be allowed to serve without being forced to adhere to their “biological sex,” which current policy mandates.
Though the current ban allows anyone who enlisted under Obama’s 2016 open service policy to both serve under their specified gender and access medical care, according to another study the Trump administration’s policy could mean a significant decrease in those signing up for duty. The National LGBTQ task force reports that 20 percent of trans people have served in some branch of the U.S. military, compared to just .4 percent of the overall population.
“If the military really cares about cohesion, it should read the research it funds or stop wasting taxpayer money,” Palm Center Director Aaron Belkin said in a statement about the results of the study. And while the military most likely does care about cohesion, the actions of the Trump administration indicate that it decidedly does not. [The Hill]
The knowledge that Mike Pence is in charge of keeping us all safe from coronavirus should have everyone good and queasy, so let’s barf, shall we?
- When will people learn to stop trying it with Liz Warren? [CNN]
- “Oh gosh, that’s so many,” was Warren’s response to Stephen Colbert asking her to name which billionaire resembled the “underbelly of a hairless cat.” [CBS]
- “Bless his heart,” black voters in South Carolina say to Pete Buttigieg. [Washington Post]
- A good old-fashioned 1952-style brokered convention sounds like just the ticket to present a unified Democratic Party to rally voters for the 2020 presidential election. [New York Times]
- Bloomberg is pricing his options for a running mate. [The Hill]
- South Carolina law allows for jailing sex education teachers who mention anything other than heterosexual sex except in the context of disease, which puts LGBTQ children in danger, meaning the law is working exactly as intended. [Guardian]
- Debate all you want, Democrats, but you can’t argue with the alphabet. [NBC]
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