WASHINGTON — Nicolas Talbott, a graduate student at Kent State University in Ohio who is transgender, was told in May that because of President Donald Trump’s transgender ban in the military, he would no longer be eligible for placement as an Army officer. He could continue participating in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, but the benefits that he joined for — health insurance and student loan forgiveness — were no longer available to him.
Last month, a federal district judge struck down a Health and Human Services Department rule that would, among other changes, expand the protections for health care workers who refuse to treat transgender patients if it clashed with their beliefs, the third judge to do so. Story continues“President Trump has never considered LGBT Americans second-class citizens and has opposed discrimination of any kind against them,” Deere said.
The Education Department has rescinded Obama-era rules that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice or participate in sports corresponding with their gender identity. Last month, the Education Department drafted a “statement of interest” with the Justice Department to defend a Christian private school in Maryland that was kicked out of a state voucher program in part because it says “God immutably bestows gender upon each person at birth as male or female to reflect His image.”
For the Trump administration, the targeting of transgender protections may be politically advantageous. American society has shifted quickly to embrace gay marriage since President George W. Bush ran on it as a wedge issue in his successful reelection bid in 2004. But support for transgender rights lags among conservative Republicans, Trump’s base.
Ash Penn, who lives in North Carolina and is black and transgender, said, “To be queer, to be black, to be trans in America today, you constantly live in fear.” Mitterbach estimated that with insurance, the surgery will most likely cost around $500. Without it, the bill could be 10 times higher.
He’s a bigot.