In the first half year of Donald Trump’s rule, we have stayed on the sidelines. We acknowledge that to date, the Facebook liberal has lost most of his vigour, now that he has realized that the world is not vastly changing, and because we have seen that Trump is more moderate and predictable than expected. The first half year has been unspectacular, which is a few grades higher than most Facebook liberals were predicting. Other certain potentially discriminatory policies have also been overturned, exemplifying the liberal institutions that still govern the society.
I had written that I would call out anything problematic with the new administration, and so today we must discuss the transgender military ban tweeted by Donald Trump. The policy is clearly a discriminatory measure that is unacceptable in our modern society. It is acceptable to minimize costs associated with transgender people, and not create special exemptions for them, but to ban them outright is unacceptable.
There are two arguments in support of the ban. One is that few people are affected. That argument works both ways. Discriminatory measures are often implemented little-by-little, slowly degrading a group’s freedoms, in order for the laws to be palatable. We cannot allow movement in that direction.
Another argument is that the military is exempt from forms of discrimination. This argument is supported by that transgender people were not allowed to serve in the military until June 30, 2016. In the grand web of discriminatory policies, this one is less problematic for this reason, but problematic nonetheless. But it should be clear that to treat transgender people differently in any part of society is unacceptable and this view is shared by most of the Western world (http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/27/us/world-transgender-ban-facts/index.html).
This policy is different than the travel ban. The travel ban, although in effect is likely discriminatory, is not in principle. Had the ban been on all muslim majority countries, or had the ban been only on muslims arriving from those countries, then it would be discriminatory. The travel ban, in principle, is defensible as a nation has no obligation to the citizens of other nations.
Although the transgender military ban is only a reversal of an Obama order from a year ago, it is still clearly discriminatory and unusual for the Western world. This policy needs to be condemned.