As everyone has probably heard by now, the "President" made an unprecedented announcement via twitter a couple of days ago regarding the service of transgender people in the military. If you haven't, here's the exchange below:
Trump’s tweets boil down to a clear witch hunt without any real backing -- especially from the U.S. Military. Blanket statements/promises like this from the commander in chief have dangerous repercussions not only within the military but within society as a whole. This blatant discrimination not only raises the question of whether the "President" is even aware that transgender people are already serving openly in the military and have been for years and how this policy could even truly be implemented, but it also opens the door for people with inherent transphobia to act out on their ignorant beliefs because the Trump seemingly echoes those beliefs and wants to make them into law.
While at this point the tweets are merely a smokescreen, possibly to distract us from some bigger, more pressing issue, if Trump is able to implement this policy the military would have to openly discriminate and pry into the identities of our soldiers to identify transgender troops—who were, just a year ago, encouraged to serve openly under the previous administration. Not to mention that there is entirely no basis for this sort of policy to be put into place:
"A RAND Corporation study looked at 18 foreign militaries that allowed open trans service and found no negative impact on military readiness. The same study estimated that covering gender-affirming surgery and treatment would cost the military “between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, representing a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in active-component health care expenditures.” By point of comparison: The military spends about $84 million on erectile dysfunction treatments." (Vox.com)
We don't know about y'all, but a majority of the veterans that we know personally are trans or at least within the LGBTQ community -- it wasn't long ago that gays and lesbians weren't allowed in the military and before that women and people of color. This policy would clearly be a step backwards for our military and for our nation and we could not be more against it. Any person who is willing to put their life on the line and serve their country deserves the right to do so if they can meet the general requirements to serve responsibly and within their abilities. Trans people are not a burden.
We have designed the shirt below in response to the Trump's tweets (along with the trans discriminatory bathroom bills making the rounds here in Texas) because trans people deserve acceptance, love, safety, equality, rights, and everything under the sun. This shirt will be offered as a pre-order that we will fulfill on September 1st.
Additionally, 20% of the profits from this shirt (vs. the usual 15% from everything else at flavnt.com) will go towards Spencer's top surgery fundraiser. Our current fundraising partner, Spencer, is a veteran of the United States Air Force and we are proud to support them and are honored that they served our country.
