TV talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres slammed the Trump administration on Thursday, claiming that the limit on transgender soldiers serving in the military is about “hatred.”
“Tomorrow, the President’s ban on transgender people serving their country goes into effect. This isn’t about budgets. It’s hatred,” Ellen DeGeneres said.
Despite widespread reporting that the military is going to “ban” transgender soldiers, this is not true. The military is instituting certain restrictions on transgender people serving in the military, but not banning them outright.
As Breitbart News’ Ken Klukowski reported in January:
On July 26, 2017, President Trump announced that the U.S. military would generally continue its policy of not allowing transgender individuals to serve. DOD subsequently formulated a policy allowing some transgender individuals to serve, but that transgender individuals who would be unable to deploy on miss. This policy was implemented in October 2017.
Pursuant to subsequent orders from the commander-in-chief, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis recommended that transgender individuals cannot serve if their gender dysphoria requires in expensive gender reassignment surgery or other therapies that render them unable to serve for significant lengths of time. The specific military need is that those serving in uniform must be “free of medical conditions or physical defects that may require excessive time lost from duty.”
However, this hasn’t stopped Hollywood activists from going into full rage mode at the Trump administration over these rules.
Sarah Silverman declared in January that transgender troops are actually more brave than other troops, while The View host Meghan McCain called Trump’s decision “indefensible” as well as “unfair, un-American, and dangerous policy.”