A potentially significant blow to LGBTQ rights came Monday when US President Donald Trump issued an executive order purging the military of what he described as “transgender ideology.”
The construction of a US counterpart of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system was also included in a set of military directives that Trump told reporters he had signed aboard Air Force One.
In addition to extending a broader government crackdown on diversity initiatives for the military, the Republican issued further orders that reinstated service personnel who had been fired for refusing to receive the Covid vaccine.
At a Republican congressional retreat in Miami, Trump declared, “We will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military to ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world.”
Trump has already attacked any acknowledgment of gender diversity and pledged to reinstate the ban on transgender troops.
Trump stated in his directive that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty” and that the military “has been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists.”
The order stated “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member,” it added.
Trump asserted in a different order that military diversity initiatives “erode leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness.”
Additionally, it forbade the military and the defense department from pushing debate on “gender ideology” or spreading “un-American” views that the country’s foundational documents are sexist or racist.
The directives were issued at the beginning of Trump’s second week in office, the same day that Fox News celebrity and military veteran Pete Hegseth, his new defense secretary, was welcomed to the Pentagon.
“Mr. President, thank you for your leadership. We’ll carry out the execution! Despite reservations about his lack of experience and his reported history of excessive drinking and domestic abuse, Hegseth was confirmed last week on X.
In recent years, transgender Americans have experienced a whirlwind of shifting military service regulations, with Trump continually attempting to keep them out of the ranks and Democratic administrations attempting to allow them to serve openly.
In 2016, during the second term of Democratic President Barack Obama, the United States military abolished its prohibition on transgender troops.
Transgender recruits were to begin being welcomed by July 1, 2017, and trans troops who were already serving were allowed to do so publicly.
However, rights groups criticized the first Trump administration for delaying that date until 2018 before opting to completely repeal the policy.
Days after taking office in 2021, Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic successor, pushed to lift the limits, arguing that all eligible Americans should be entitled to serve.
Although there are only an estimated 15,000 transgender soldiers in the US military out of over two million uniformed service members, their removal would result in a reduction of US forces at a time when the nation is already having trouble hiring new recruits.
In a goodbye speech earlier this month, Biden’s defense secretary Lloyd Austin seemed to attack Trump’s intentions, stating: “Any military that turns away qualified patriots who are eager to serve is just making itself smaller and weaker.”
Since states ruled by Democrats and Republicans have taken opposing stances on subjects ranging from medical care to which publications on the subject are permitted in public or school libraries, transgender issues have become a contentious issue in US politics.
In the meantime, Trump has made repeated pledges to construct a version of the Iron Dome system, which Israel has utilized to destroy missiles fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
However, he disregarded the system’s short-range threat design, which makes it unsuitable for protecting against intercontinental missiles, which pose the biggest threat to the United States.
In Miami, Trump stated that “we need to immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield,” which would be “made right here in the USA.”