America Should Have Pride in Transgender Service Members
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Washington, D.C. – July 27, 2017 – Today, the Asian Americans Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice) affiliation responded to the latest developments in the Trump Administration’s announcement that it will ban people who are transgender from the military.
Advancing Justice, an affiliation of five civil rights organizations, issued the following statement:
America is under assault from an administration that is determined to attack every civil and human right that millions of Americans have fought and died to obtain. We stand strong in the fight with LGBTQ people and all communities of color in refusing to allow the blatant discrimination and outright attacks on our civil rights by this administration.
When President Obama signed the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into law, Advancing Justice applauded the removal of this discriminatory ban on LGBTQ community members, including many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Yesterday, Trump dishonored those in service by attempting to denigrate the transgender service members who want the chance to serve and defend the very rights the administration is now trying to deny them.
In the last 24 hours, we have been heartened by Senators and Representatives, senior military leadership, civil and human rights leaders, and people across the country and the world who denounced the administration’s latest act of hate. We call upon the Joint Chiefs of Staff to maintain their steadfast stance to refuse to change current military policy.
We demand that the Trump administration abandon this latest attempt at targeting and discriminating against the LGBTQ community.