Donald Trump bans trans people from the U.S. army. Historian Jacob Bloomfield from the University of Konstanz points out: "Expressions of gender variance have long been part of military life. Trump’s executive order goes against basic fairness."
The start of Donald Trump’s second term has been marked by executive orders targeting the rights of trans Americans. One of these executive orders targets the participation of trans people in the U.S. military, declaring,
“'expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service".
Historian Jacob Bloomfield from the University of Konstanz disagrees, with regard to military history: "Expressions of gender variance have long been part of military life." As an example, Bloomfield points out drag performances by soldiers: „Drag shows performed by British, Canadian and American servicemen in the First and Second World Wars not only entertained soldiers on the battlefront, but were hugely popular with civilian audiences on the homefront, too.”
Banning trans people from serving has damaging consequences, Bloomfeld warns: “Serving in the military is one of the few ways for Americans to access Western and Central European-style social programmes, such as state-subsidized healthcare and education. Barring trans people from serving in the military would mean that a whole class of people would be unable to access these vital social programmes. Trump’s executive order thus goes against basic fairness and the military’s historical acceptance of gender variance.”
“At the end of the day, every army will always have a proportion of people with trans identities, whether they are open about it or hide their identities,” Bloomfield concludes. “The military should reflect the population it serves.“
About Jacob Bloomfield:
Historian Dr Jacob Bloomfield teaches and researches at the University of Konstanz. He is an associated member of the university's Zukunftskolleg. His research focuses on cultural history, the history of sexuality and gender history. Jacob Bloomfield is the author of the book "Drag: A British History" (University of California Press, 2023). |