Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) on Thursday harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s announced ban on letting transgender individuals serve in the U.S. military.
“When I was bleeding to death in my Black Hawk helicopter after I was shot down, I didn’t care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender, black, white or brown,” Duckworth, a U.S. Army veteran who lost both legs in the Iraq war, said in a statement. “All that mattered was they didn’t leave me behind.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that the White House was prepared to send the Pentagon guidance on how to implement Trump’s announced ban.
Duckworth said that Trump’s announced ban on letting transgender individuals serve “would harm our military readiness” and called on Democratic and Republican lawmakers to “enact legislation that prevents it from taking effect” if Trump continues to push the policy.
“If you are willing to risk your life for our country and you can do the job, you should be able to serve—no matter your gender identity or sexual orientation,” she said. “Anything else is not just discriminatory, it is disruptive to our military and it is counterproductive to our national security.”
It’s sad when a man who dodged military service decides that people who are brave enough to volunteer for it, aren’t allowed to.
I’m sure as sure that this ban is headed straight to court and it will not be upheld.
If you don’t kiss Trump’s ass and you are braver then he could ever be,he is against you.
These discussions about who’s OK to serve and who isn’t have been going on for decades and as far as I can recall the actual combat folks have always said they don’t care about anything but whether you can do the job. For some reason that seems like the most important thing to them.
I just watched the video Josh posted.
Ignorant, racist crap from an ignorant, chubby racist. Playing to a small crowd in SC.
SC is better than that. We saw it after the Charleston massacre. It was people like this jerk that influenced Dylann Roof.
There ought to be a law.