Among the very many ways that the Trump administration has persecuted trans people is the recently enacted trans military ban. It was one of the most expected policy changes of the second Trump term, given that he tried to ban trans troops in his first term.
It’s an important and high-impact policy change given that the U.S. military just might employ the most trans people of any organization in the world, especially given the well-documented rampant unemployment and underemployment issues faced by trans people.
But despite the obviously disastrous fallout from the largest employer of trans people in the world mass firing all of its trans employees, some in the online left have seemingly welcomed the policy change. I don’t want to single anyone out, but I have seen multiple very online trans leftists, some of whom I otherwise align with politically and am mutuals with on social media, saying that trans troops deserve to be let go for daring to join up and helping the American imperialist machine.
I get the sentiment, I really do. I am not an advocate of the interventionist foreign policy that the United States has employed for nearly the entirety of its existence. American imperialism has snuffed out millions of lives in the Global South in the process of establishing the U.S. as the world’s economic and military hegemon.
Joining the U.S. military is not something that my own ethics would allow me to do, but I’m not going to speak for others. In the last 80 or so years, the U.S. government has depended on exploiting minorities and others who live in poverty to fulfil its labour needs, offering a rare path out for those who are desperate.
Some trans people try to bury their gender identity in the order of the military, while others, like transmascs, might find affirmation in the masculine-dominated culture of the armed forces. Under Democrats, policies were changed to allow closeted trans people to find a way to transition and continue to serve without disrupting their careers.
You can say all you want about those trans people who were willing to sign up for the American “brown people murder machine” individually, but opposing the trans military ban is not the same as supporting the U.S. military.
Who gets to serve openly and equally in the various branches of the U.S. military has long been a social indicator for who matters and gets to participate in American society. The Trump administration has gone to great lengths to slam the door shut on American opportunity for all trans people, and the military ban is a key piece of that agenda. The administration is currently using the military ban to portray trans people as inherent liars and dishonourable people, and that perception has carry-over effects into the minds of civilian hiring managers and must be opposed.
I want the U.S. military to drastically scale back its operations across the globe. I also want trans people to be able to participate equally in society. Those two things are not in conflict.
Kicking out trans people is not the first step in dismantling the U.S.’s global military hegemony. Denying early retirement to a trans woman who would otherwise have earned it is not going to save a single life in the Global South. The drones are still going to fly, with or without trans people.
I would love to some day have a commander-in-chief who will stand up and announce that they are rolling back the size and scale of both U.S. military operations abroad and our production of weapons, but I don’t think that day is in the foreseeable future. What is in the foreseeable future is trans people being morally—and legally mandated out of public existence, and the military ban is part and parcel of that happening.
We on the queer left must oppose the trans military ban; it is imperative. But that doesn’t mean we’re supporting the military as a whole.
Why you can trust Xtra
