Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday that his administration intends to deny transgender people the right to serve in the military, leading to one of the most innovative late-night pile-ons in recent memory. In addition to offering their own takes, two comedians chose to amplify trans voices: Jimmy Fallon invited trans comedian Patti Harrison to respond directly to Trump for a brief segment, while Trevor Noah went long with a fascinating interview with two trans veterans about their experience in the military, and their reaction to Trump’s message.
Both Joey Whimple and Jennifer Marie Long served with distinction during their time with the military. Whimple, who did not physically transition while in the military for fear of negative backlash, noted that thanks to Trump’s whim, trans military personnel now find themselves on incredibly shaky ground:
“The past administration made a lot of strides in order to lift this ban,” Whimple said. “There was a lot of promise that was set in. And individuals felt that comfort—that safety net to come out in their units. And when they’re working in these strenuous environments and such, and they felt that comfort to come out and say, ‘Hey, I identify this way.’ Now the rug, the carpet’s being completely ripped out from underneath, and it just leaves this question of uncertainty: what’s next? There’s just those three tweets. We haven’t seen any legislation, anything of the sort. We have no idea what this means.”
One important factor, Whimple pointed out, is how greatly the nature of one’s discharge from the military can affect their future job prospects. Anything less than an honorable discharge, Whimple said, can serve as a black mark—so the president’s plan could threaten not only trans service members’ jobs, but also their ability to build a new life after leaving the military.
“I didn’t physically transition in the military because I was so afraid of the negative repercussions,” Whimple added. “When I was serving, it was considered a mental disorder to identify as transgender. And I saw people being chaptered out and dishonorably discharged from my unit left and right for various different reasons. So I held in my true self, and I was miserable. Absolutely miserable. But I socially transitioned outside of work . . . It ate me up inside that I had to live this lie while I was working, but that didn’t affect my job.”
Long, the first American soldier to receive the French National Defense Medal since World War II, faced exactly the outcome Whimple feared. “I wasn’t allowed to serve openly,” Long said. “In the last weeks of my career, word got out that I was transgender, and I was in fact living another life. Command called me up and asked me to retire. Quietly. My career ended with a phone call asking to retire. I was retired not with great fanfare—not with the pomp and circumstance that comes to a senior enlisted. I was a sergeant major. That’s the highest of enlisted ranks . . . I was doing it up until that moment they found out.”
Long noted that the concern surrounding trans military servicemen and women is the same sort that surrounded gay soldiers in the days of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” When that policy was lifted, Long said military command wondered how the process would play out—but in the end, she said, “nothing changed. The force was still the same; everybody still served the way they did.” Additionally, since the 15,000 trans soldiers currently enlisted are already serving openly, it’s hard to imagine that their presence could be causing any disruption, as Trump indicated it does. “If there’s no disruption there—if General [James] Mattis isn’t saying, ‘We have a problem with force and readiness,’ then it’s not an issue,” Long said.
Trump also cited budgetary concerns as a reason to ban trans service people, which Long couldn’t help digging at: “You showed the graph on how small the cost really is. It’s fractional at best. A small fraction of the military budget. So it’s not like you’re going to buy a lot of bricks for a wall with that.”
