On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced in a series of tweets that the US military would no longer accept transgender people.
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Trump just revealed a deep misunderstanding of what it means to be transgender
President Donald Trump tweeted that the US military would bar transgender people from serving. Here's what it means to be transgender in the US forces.
Evan Young, a transgender veteran.
Transgender is an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity is different from the one they were assigned at birth.
The terms sex and gender, while often used interchangeably, are not the same.
A person's sex refers to whether they are biologically male or female — an assignment given at birth based on physical characteristics, including chromosomes and reproductive organs. A person's gender, on the other hand, refers to their internal sense of gender, which can fall on a spectrum.
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People who identify with the gender that matches their sex are called cisgender. People who identify as neither male nor female, or somewhere else on the gender spectrum, may describe themselves as nonbinary or genderqueer.
How someone knows they are trans
RAND Corporation's analysis found that the financial costs of allowing transgender people to serve would be low, considering the military's overall healthcare costs. By its estimate, between 29 and 129 of the US military's 1.4 million troops would most likely seek gender-confirmation surgery annually. The procedure, which can include a hormone process, anesthesia, and a hospital stay, can cost upward of $100,000 without insurance.
Evan Young, the director of the Transgender American Veterans Association and a former Army major, told Business Insider that hiding his trans identity during his 14 years of military service was emotionally draining and that the ban on transgender people in the military "impacted me a lot."
"I hid during 'don't ask, don't tell,'" he said. "As soon as that was lifted, I realized I was transgender, and I stayed in the closet. For my entire military career, I had been closeted. It affected me severely mentally. I couldn't bring my partner to any functions. And when I started taking testosterone, I could visibly see the changes, and I know my commander could, too. I was a recluse. It was very tough."
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"Trans military personnel serve bravely and loyally in 18 countries around the world," he told Business Insider. "Trump's rejection of trans troops in the US has no basis in objective evidence. This is bald-faced and counterproductive reactionary bigotry. This ban will be overturned in the courts. Hatred will not win in the long run."
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