这项禁令宣布两年后，生效三个月后，唐纳德·特朗普总统禁止变性者服兵役，这最终造成了我们许多人担心的伤害。有尊严和杰出服务的变性服务成员正被他们的职业生涯撕裂。年轻新兵报告失去ROTC奖学金同时被剥夺了梦想。州国民警卫队是被迫做出选择在总司令的偏执政策和允许他们有价值的变性部队服役之间。
军方高层发出的相互矛盾的信号让这一选择变得更加困难，包括本周被确认为美国国防部长的马克·埃斯珀。
去年，Esper是反对总统禁令的几十名现任和前任军事领导人之一。在2018年4月参议院军事委员会听证会上，当被问及他是否收到任何表明变性军人正在造成军队混乱的报告时，他证实，“没有任何东西渗透到我的水平。”
然而，在本月担任国防部长的听证会上，Esper试图否认禁令的影响。“没有特殊住宿条件就能达到标准的人都可以服务，”他说。“变性人只要能遵守所有军事标准，包括与生物性别相关的标准，就可以服役。”
这意味着变性人只有在藏在壁橱里的时候愿意服务，他们才可以服务。此外，被医生开出过渡相关护理处方的人不得入伍，如果诊断出性别焦虑，服务人员必须退伍。
正如这一政策根除的生活所强调的，Esper的新断言与政府为证明这一禁令的合理性所做的误导性尝试相吻合。政府对变性人健康和幸福的虚假宣称被主要医疗机构拒绝在全国范围内，这与2000年变性人的公开服务相矛盾整个西方世界的军队。
事实上，受这一政策影响的大约13，000名美国变性军人的服役也许是总统和新任国防部长有意误导美国公众的最好证据。在过去的几年里，我很高兴见到这些勇敢的人，他们每个人都以一定的尊严、荣誉和奉献精神为国效力，这将使我们的国家感到骄傲。
其中五人作证说二月份在众议院军事委员会面前，离开壁橱，活出他们的真理更有能力履行职责，不少。陆军上尉阿利维亚·施泰利克说:“根据我作为作战军官和医务人员的经验，答案是明确的，我的转变——以及其他许多转变——极大地提高了武装部队每个分支的战备水平和杀伤力。”
海军三等士官阿基拉·怀亚特说，军队已经变得像家人一样。怀亚特说:“在我的整个服务中，我的性取向和性别认同都没有给我的同志和同龄人带来任何干扰。”。“事实上，除了积极，什么都没有。活出我们的真理让我们变得更加强大，更加忠于我们的职责。而且，没有秘密可以隐藏，我们可以完全投入。”
唐纳德·特朗普总统7月23日在华盛顿特区白宫椭圆形办公室举行的马克·埃斯珀国防部长宣誓就职仪式上发表讲话亚历克斯·王/盖蒂
每一个美国人都应该担心，总统会不顾一切地拒绝可靠的证据和忠诚的服务人员，支持自己的偏见。世界上最大的战斗力量应该得到领导，听取服役人员的意见，寻求将军委员会，并谨慎行事，尊重数百万献身于为国家服务的生命。相反，我们有一位总统，他相信他比一个想要和需要变性人的军队更了解。
为了美国的利益，埃斯珀必须勇敢地面对总统及其实际上危及我们军队的顽固政策。
至于我们其他人，每个美国人都有两个纠正错误的关键机会。一种是打电话给他们的参议员，要求他们就本月众议院通过的两党修正案进行投票，该修正案将平息任何实施禁令的企图。第二个是在2020年11月，届时美国人将能够选择一位拒绝羞辱和偏见作为任何政策基础的总统。
特朗普可耻的禁令降低了斯泰利克和怀亚特这样的人的服务质量，同时向每个雇主——每个美国人——发出了一个危险的信息，即变性人不像其他人那样应该得到同样的机会。哈里·S·杜鲁门总统知道军队必须成为推动国家平等前进的旗手拒绝了他自己过去的种族主义并在1948年废除了种族隔离。
2月27日，在华盛顿特区举行的军事人事小组委员会关于唐纳德·特朗普总统跨性别军事禁令的听证会上TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY
正如杜鲁门当时所说，国家必须“相信每个人都应该自由地按照自己的意愿生活”。他应该只限于他对同胞的责任。”
特朗普感觉不到这种责任，并拒绝为那些有责任的人服务。更糟糕的是，他缺乏羞耻显然正在蔓延到像Esper这样的好人身上。国会在道义上有责任保护美国人民免受一位因自身偏见而精神错乱的总统的伤害。如果他们做不到，那么美国人民一定要自己去做。
玛拉·凯斯林是国家变性人平等中心，美国领先的社会正义倡导组织，为变性人赢得拯救生命的变革。
DON'T LET OUR NEW DEFENSE SECRETARY FOOL HIMSELF: TRUMP'S BIGOTED TRANSGENDER BAN HAS TORN UP LIVES | OPINION
Two years after it was announced and three months after it took effect, President Donald Trump's ban on the military service of transgender people is finally creating the harm many of us feared it would. Transgender service members who have served with dignity and distinction are being torn from their careers. Young recruits report losing ROTC scholarships while being denied their dreams. And state National Guards are being forced to choose between the bigoted policy of the commander-in-chief or allowing their valued transgender troops to serve.
It's a choice made all the more difficult by conflicting signals from military brass, including the man who was confirmed this week as our nation's secretary of defense: Mark Esper.
Last year, Esper was one of dozens of current and former military leaders who contradicted the president's rationale for the ban. Asked during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in April 2018 if he had received any reports indicating that transgender service members were causing disruption in the military, he confirmed, "Nothing has percolated up to my level."
However, during his confirmation hearings this month to serve as secretary of defense, Esper tried to deny the impact of the ban. "Whoever can meet the standards without special accommodations can serve," he said. "Transgender individuals may serve so long as they can adhere to all military standards, including the standards associated with the biological sex."
What that means is that transgender individuals may serve only if they are willing to do so while hiding in the closet. Also, people who have been prescribed transition-related care by their doctors may not enlist, and service members must be discharged if given a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
As the lives uprooted by this policy emphasize, Esper's new assertion matches the misleading attempts by the administration to justify this ban. The administration's false claims about the health and well-being of transgender people have been rejected by major medical organizationsthroughout the country and are contradicted by the open service of transgender people in militaries throughout the Western world.
In fact, the service of the estimated 13,000 transgender U.S. troops affected by this policy is perhaps the best evidence of all that the president and new defense secretary are purposefully misleading the American public. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of these brave individuals over the past few years, and each has served with a level of dignity, honor and dedication that would make our nation proud.
As five of them testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee in February, leaving the closet and living their truth made each more capable of fulfilling their duties, not less. "Based on my experience as a combat arms officer and medical provider," said Army Captain Alivia Stehlik, "the answer is unequivocally that my transition—and so many others—has dramatically increased the readiness and lethality of every branch of the armed forces."
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Akira Wyatt said the military had become like family. "For the entirety of my service, neither my sexuality nor my gender identity has led to any disruption among my comrades and peers," said Wyatt. "In fact, there's been nothing but positivity. Living our truths has made us all stronger and more devoted to our duty. And, with no secrets to hide behind, we can be fully engaged."
Pesident Donald Trump speaks during the swearing-in ceremony of Mark Esper as secretary of defense on July 23 in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C.ALEX WONG/GETTY
It should be of concern to every American that a president would so recklessly reject sound evidence and dedicated service members in favor of his own biases. The world's largest fighting force deserves leadership that will listen to service members, seek the council of generals, and act with care and respect for the millions of lives dedicated to serving their country. Instead, we have a president who believes he knows better than a military that wants and needs transgender people.
For the good of America, Esper must stand up to the president and his bigoted policy that actually endangers our troops.
As for the rest of us, there are two crucial opportunities for every American to right this wrong. One is by calling their senators and demanding they hold a vote on a bipartisan amendment passed in the House this month that would defund any attempt to enforce this ban. And the second is in November 2020, when Americans will be able to choose a president who rejects stigma and prejudice as the basis for any policy.
Trump's disgraceful ban degrades the service of people like Stehlik and Wyatt while sending a dangerous message to every employer—every American—that transgender people are less deserving of the same opportunities as anyone else. President Harry S. Truman knew the military must be a standard-bearer in moving the country forward on equality when he rejected his own past racism and desegregated the military along racial lines in 1948.
Navy Lieutenant Commander Blake Dremann, Army Captain Alivia Stehlik, Army Captain Jennifer Peace, Army Staff Sergeant Patricia King, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Akira Wyatt and Dr. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, chair-elect of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees, at the Military Personnel Subcommittee hearing on President Donald Trump's transgender military ban on Capital Hill on February 27 in Washington, D.C.TASOS KATOPODIS/GETTY
As Truman put it then, the nation must "believe that every man should be free to live his life as he wishes. He should be limited only by his responsibility to his fellow countrymen."
Trump feels no such responsibility and is rejecting the service of those who do. Worse, his lack of shame is clearly spreading to apparently good people like Esper. Congress has a moral duty to shield the American people from a president unhinged in his own prejudice. If they can't, then the American people must assuredly do so ourselves.
Mara Keisling is the founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, the nation's leading social justice advocacy organization winning life-saving change for transgender people.
