Today, the President decided to intensify his near daily torrent of disgusting and abhorrent remarks by announcing his plan to bar trans Americans from serving in any branch or form of the military, claiming that the fiscal cost of doing so would be too great a burden for our armed services to handle. Given the president’s demonstrated affinity for promulgating lies, it hardly seems worth it at this point to address how this plan is predicated on falsehoods and bigotry, not to mention that it is a direct contradiction of promises that Mr. Trump made to be a Trans and LGBT advocate while he was campaigning for the presidency.

I would like to address this plan by thanking all the trans Americans who have served and continue to serve in the American armed services like any other members of the military. These Americans have sacrificed their well-being, and even their lives in order to keep us safe. They are patriots and should be respected and honored for dedicating themselves to the preservation of our way of life. The very least we can do, as a country, is not discriminate them and not treat them as unequal citizens by barring them from serving in the most selfless way an American can our country.