This is surprise (not) ...

Trump’s evangelical advisors discussed transgender military ban

President Trump’s announcement on Twitter that he was banning transgender people from serving in the military seemed spontaneous and reportedly caught some administration officials and congressional leaders by surprise.

But evangelical Christian leaders who informally advise the president discussed reversing the year-old policy two weeks ago, according to a tweet by David Brody of CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) News.

“NEW ON @TheBrodyFile: Faith advisors to @realDonaldTrump discussed strategy to reverse transgenders in military policy at WH two weeks ago,” Brody tweeted Wednesday evening.



A number of those leaders, including some who had been on Trump’s evangelical advisory board during the campaign, attended a daylong meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House on July 10. Photos shared widely on Twitter showed them laying hands on the president in prayer afterward in the Oval Office.

Those in attendance did not reveal what they had discussed at the meeting or with the president, except to say the unfolding Russia investigation was not a topic. It was not clear from Brody’s tweet if this is the meeting he was referring to.

Brody also tweeted that Trump’s evangelical advisers had sent the president a letter this week asking him to reverse the policy on transgender people serving in the military.

And he added his praise for the president’s decision, tweeting, “The transgender announcement by @POTUS is more proof that @realDonaldTrump has become a dream come true for conservative evangelicals.”

The Trump White House continually has turned a spotlight on the Christian Broadcasting Network, with press secretary Sean Spicer appearing on its new online show, “Faith Nation,” last week (just days before he resigned) and the president himself sitting down to an interview with “The 700 Club” host Pat Robertson earlier this month.

The announcement of the ban on Wednesday (July 26) drew both cheers and condemnation from leaders of all faiths.

The New York Times and other outlets reported it came in response to a fight on Capitol Hill over whether taxpayer money should pay for gender transition and hormone therapy for transgender people in the military.

http://religionnews.com/2017/07/27/evan ... ith-trump/

Ok, I'm gonna go there. WTH.

So, the laying on of hands WAS an exorcism! I've wondered about Trumps small hands. Maybe he is transgendered. Born Donna. With their fortune, it would be fairly easy to get the surgery in another country and viola', Donald is born. However, hands can't be changed. Easy enough to buy a new birth certificate. Then daddykins threw millions his way and told him to go out into the world to "be a man". Now, the evangelicals are afraid that "Donna" will emerge and wanted to cast out that demon.

**the above is entirely fiction, pulled from my demented mind.

From my Facebook feed ~ well said, Senator! ~ ~ Sooz

shift, can you explain that? I don't remember.

One name - Chelsea Manning

Of course! Thanks.

Ivanka and other family members are there as his toadies; the only ones he can trust to never buck him and are expected to either stay silent or speak out for him openly. That is their true job and they know it - no mater what their individual beliefs are they will never buck him on anything big or small, as their lifestyles depend on him and his name.

I was wondering where Ivanka's self proclaimed "don't-always-agree-with-my-Dad-and-I-let-him-know-itedness had disappeared to. She's probably just been busy doing something important like inventing a new colour of toenail paint or something.

Candidate for Homeland Security Senior Position Withdraws Over Trump's Transgender Military Ban

Trump 'Squandered His Party’s Ability to Have Creditable Messengers in the LGBTQ Community' Former GOP Executive Director Says
A former executive director of the Delaware Republican party has notified the Dept. of Homeland Security that he is withdrawing his name from consideration for a senior position in direct response to President Trump's announced ban on military service members who are transgender. John Fluharty had been interviewing to be DHS's assistant secretary of partnership and engagement.

“As I mentioned in our conversation, I am a strong advocate for diversity, both in the Republican Party and in government,” Fluharty wrote in an email to DHS, as Politico reports. “The President’s announcement this morning — that he will ban all of those who identify as transgender from military service — runs counter to my deeply held beliefs, and it would be impossible for me to commit to serving the Administration knowing that I would be working against those values.”

Politico adds that "Fluharty, who is openly gay, said he interviewed for the job on Tuesday, one day before Trump’s surprise tweet that the government 'will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity' in the U.S. military."

It did not take Fluharty long to make his decision.

"Fluharty sent the email to Luke Beckmann of the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday at 11:06 a.m., roughly two hours after Trump announced the ban on twitter," the Washington Blade's Michael K. Lavers reports.

Fluharty, who headed the Delaware GOP from 2002-2015, told the Blade in a statement the "ban on allowing transgender heroes to continue to serve in the military, and the actions by the Justice Department the following day, have effectively alienated the Republican Party from our community for a generation.”

Fluharty was referring to the Dept. of Justice's attack on LGBT people this week, when attorneys argued in an amicus brief that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect gay people from workplace discrimination. The brief also used the term "homosexuals," which drew the anger of many.

"The president," Fluharty told the Blade, "has squandered an opportunity to strengthen not only our nation’s example to the rest of the world, but he has also squandered his party’s ability to have creditable messengers in the LGBTQ community on issues where there can be agreement such as reform of our public education system, lower taxes, and growing our economy."

Homeland Security is having a tough time filling the position. Earlier this year infamous right wing extremist David Clarke, a sheriff in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, who is a Trump ally and surrogate, announced he had accepted an offer for the position. Shortly after his announcement, CNN reported Clarke had "plagiarized portions of his master's thesis on homeland security." The following month CNN reported Clarke was "no longer under consideration" for the DHS job.

Live links in original

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.co ... litary_ban

From my Facebook feed ~ definitely makes the point! ~ ~ Sooz

Chelsea Manning: President Trump, Trans People in the Military Are Here to Stay

With three tweets, the leader of the largest employer in the country just tried to lay off all trans people in the military. Many service members who were just told “we want you” are suddenly being told “go away.” The sudden reversal by the administration, from allowing trans people to serve openly in the military to outright banning us, is a devastating blow to our livelihoods, our basic humanity, our survival. It is also a devastating blow to the entire credibility of the United States military for years to come.

This is all painfully familiar. Once upon a time, I was denied the ability to even exist as who I am. I had to hide. I had to be in the closet. I had to lie to people I stood next to. I had to virtually eradicate my own existence from myself. I served as a gay person under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and also as a trans person under the ban on open transgender service. I came out as trans only during my years working as an analyst in the Army.

So, here we are again. After years of advocacy, research, experts’ weighing-in, lives lost, we made progress. And now, again, we are hurtling backward. We are risking our credibility, our legitimacy as a nation and, again, risking the lives of so many people who are listening and watching, and who are already serving.

There is a lot of hurt. There is a lot of fear. Trans people even outside the military are terrified about what this means for the rest of us. Terrible discriminatory laws targeting trans people are proposed all across the country, and now the commander in chief of the armed forces is propagating lies about us, dehumanizing us and taking away our health care and employment.

What does this mean? Well, for now we don’t exactly know, since it is clear that the president’s tweets were not exactly well thought out. But it could mean that trans people will have to pack up and go home for pretty much no reason other than “you can’t stay here.” For no other reason than, we feel like using you as political pawns today, or we don’t understand you, or you simply are not welcome here.

Money is the excuse today. It was supposed to be expensive to provide trans people with adequate health care. The reality is that the costs are negligible. Military spending wastes billions of dollars on projects that are canceled or don’t work, every day.

Medicine was the old excuse. The old military regulations were laced with medical terms to justify discrimination. They psychopathologized us trans people as having “manifestations” of “paraphilias,” and “psychosexual conditions, transsexual, gender identity disorder to include major abnormalities or defects of the genitalia such as change of sex or a current attempt to change sex,” that would “render an individual administratively unfit” to serve.

These old regulations could come back. The rhetoric about trans people having “mental disorders” could come back, too. It’s the same thing we see in state houses across the country. Trans people are “mentally ill.” We are “predators.” We are the ethereal enemy of the moment. Even though there is a medical consensus, a legal consensus, a military consensus that none of this is true.

This is about bias and prejudice. This is about systemic discrimination. Like the integration of people of color and women in the past, this was a sign of progress that threatens the social order, and the president is reacting against that progress.

But we will move forward. We will make sure that all trans people in the military, and all people outside the military after serving, receive the medical care they need. We will not back down. Our progress will continue. Our organizing and activism will grow stronger.

We are neither disruptive nor expensive. We are human beings, and we will not be erased or ignored.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/opin ... nning.html

#40 in few works. "Fook you, Donald".

From the Economist ...

Why the president wants to ban trans people from serving

It has nothing to do with money and everything to do with politics



FOR a man late to politics, President Donald Trump has a master’s feel for divisive “wedge issues”—as gay and transgender Americans are learning to their chagrin. In 2016 Mr Trump delighted gay Republicans by hailing “LGBTQ citizens” at his nominating convention. In part this reflected a Manhattanite’s relaxed worldview. It was also a bid to divide gays from his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, accused by Mr Trump of planning to open borders to homophobic followers of radical Islam.

This year, on July 26th, Mr Trump unexpectedly tweeted that after consulting “my Generals” he will ban transgender individuals from military service, reversing an Obama-era decision from 2016. Mr Trump cited the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of allowing such troops to serve.

His intervention was timely. With public opinion growing ever more tolerant towards gay Americans, partisans on right and left are making the once-obscure field of transgender rights a place for culture-war battles. Republicans in the Texas legislature have spent months debating how to police transgender users of public lavatories. In Washington this July, conservatives in the House of Representatives narrowly failed to bar the Pentagon from funding gender-related medical treatments. Exposing intra-party divisions, more than 20 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing that ban.

A study for the Pentagon issued last year by the RAND Corporation, a research group, estimated that there are between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender servicemen and women on active duty, of whom at most 270 might seek gender-transition hormone treatments or surgeries in a year, adding up to $8.4m to annual military health costs of around $6bn. For perspective, in 2015 the Pentagon spent $437m on military music.

Earlier this summer James Mattis, the defence secretary, gave commanders until January 2018 to weigh whether admitting transgender recruits would harm force “readiness and lethality”, delaying an Obama-era deadline by six months. Advocates note that 18 countries allow transgender troops, from Britain to Israel. Mr Trump’s political calculations are easier to follow. Just as Democrats ponder how to win back blue-collar voters, they find themselves defending transgender rights. A neat wedge.

http://www.economist.com/news/united-st ... romserving

Donald Trump ran for president promising he was going to rebuild our military, as though it is falling apart and in ruins. If you want our military to be the best, which means you want the best people. You don’t ban people from serving because they make you uncomfortable.

You’re also not going to bolster our military if you view it as something to be used to throw red meat to shore up support from your base of haters. I would hope the Commander in Chief would have more respect for our armed forces than to use them as political props. I also expect those who say they support our troops, to support all of our troops.

North Korea tested another missile last week and experts are in agreement that they’re getting closer to acquiring the capability of not just hitting targets in Asia, but also Hawaii, Alaska, and the continental United States. We probably need to focus on how to prevent that from happening instead of wasting time on problems that don’t actually exist. North Korea launching a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile is the kind of stuff that should keep Trump up at night, not transgenders in our military.

You would think there’s a better way to handle the issue of North Korea’s nuclear and missile program other than tweeting at China. Of course, we’re talking about a man who doesn’t understand the nuclear triad.

Trump needs to focus on real problems. He needs to give our military and those who serve more respect than something he can use to distract us from his personal problems. Donald Trump will never truly respect the military, not just because he didn’t serve, but because he’s not intelligent enough.

The world doesn’t need the threat of an insane madman propped up by a cult of personality who has nuclear weapons at his disposal. It doesn’t need Kim Jong Un either.

https://claytoonz.com/2017/07/31/north-korea-missile/

I'm happy to know that the military is pushing back hard ... and publicly ~ Sooz

TPM LIVEWIRE
Coast Guard Breaks With Trump, Vows To Protect Transgender Service Members
By Nicole Lafond Published August 2, 2017 7:07 am

After the President announced in a tweet that transgender individuals would not be allowed to serve in the military in “any capacity,” the head of the Coast Guard reached out to all 13 openly transgender Coast Guard personnel and said he would “not break faith” with them.

Commandant Paul Zukunft made these remarks at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday, CNN reported, describing his call to Lt. Taylor Miller, who is the first openly transitioning member of the Coast Guard.

“I told Taylor I will not turn my back. We have made an investment in you and you have made an investment in the Coast Guard,” Zukunft said. “And I will not break faith.”

Last week, President Donald Trump made a haphazard Twitter announcement about the policy change, saying he had consulted with “generals and military experts” about the matter and thinks the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

A Pentagon-commissioned report from 2016 found that there are about 2,450 transgender people serving currently and that it would cost about $2.9 to $4.2 million a year to fund hormone therapy and surgeries. The Department of Defense is currently studying the impact transgender individuals’ medical obligations could have on military readiness.

The President’s announcement on the policy change took the Pentagon and members of the administration by surprise, with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saying there would be “no modifications” to the current policy until Trump provides guidance to the Department of Defense.

If his tweets are followed up with any type of formal policy, the move would reverse an Obama-era policy that allowed transgender individuals to serve openly and blocked a person from being discharged from the military solely because they are a transgender, according to policy on the Department of Defense’s website.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/coast-guard-breaks-with-trump-vows-protect-transgender-service-member

Trump’s transgender military ban isn’t going over very well with Americans
A new poll indicates the president’s effort isn’t sitting well with people across the country.

Far more U.S. citizens think transgender service members should be allowed in the army than do not, according to a new survey.

When asked if they agreed with the statement, “transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military,” 58 percent of respondents concurred, a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll revealed on Friday. Only 27 percent said transgender people should not be allowed to serve, with the rest responding that they “don’t know.” Those who identified themselves as Democrats were predominately in favor of transgender people serving, with 83 percent in favor. Republicans were more evenly split, with 32 percent in favor and almost 20 percent less decisive (49 percent were opposed).

Coming on the heels of President Donald Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from the military, the poll is a stark indicator that the policy move is far from representative of public opinion. It also reinforces the wave of backlash that emerged immediately following Trump’s announcement.

Trump announced the policy update in a series of tweets last Wednesday, surprising military officials and active service members.

etc ...

https://medium.com/thinkprogress/trump- ... 8e1916722b

A "look here, not there" moment?

Trump Tweeted Transgender Ban Just Hours After FBI Conducted Pre-Dawn Raid on Former Campaign Chief's Home

Did Trump use his transgender ban – an attack on the transgender community, the LGBT community, and our allies – as an attempt to detract from possible news that the FBI had raided his campaign chief's home?

In a pre-dawn raid just two weeks ago, on July 26, law enforcement officials from the FBI executed a search warrant and scoured one of the homes of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

"Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee," as The Washington Post just reported.

But just hours after the raid, in an entirely unexpected attack, President Donald Trump took to Twitter and announced, with no forewarning nor in consultation with the Pentagon, he was instituting a ban on all transgender service members in the U.S. armed forces.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump tweeted. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

Many have been curious as to what prompted the new policy. Various reports have claimed Trump was debating it in the days prior, but if there's one thing Americans have come to expect from this Commander-in-Tweet, it's that he is a master of deflection and obfuscation.

Was Trump scared that the FBI had just searched Manafort's home? Did he want to ensure Americans would not be talking about the raid? Is his transgender ban merely another attempt to deflect attention from the Russia investigation, which is clearly closing in?

In case you're not convinced, the transgender ban was not the only extreme act Trump took that morning. It was, in fact, a day many thought Trump was behaving off-the-rails, even for Trump.

Let's take a look at his tweets:

6:49 AM: Trump seems very pleased with his campaign rally the night before, but minutes later, he lashes out at Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski for helping block ObamaCare repeal:





Less than two hours later, 8:55 AM, the transgender ban, out of the blue:




40 minutes later, an attack on his attorney general and acting FBI director:





A few hours later, an attempt to re-live the night before's thrill:



Hours later, perhaps relieved the Manafort raid hadn't hit the news, a few attempts at "good news":

vids at site

Did Trump use his transgender ban – and the transgender community, the LGBT community, and our allies – as an attempt to detract from possible news that the FBI had raided his campaign chief's home?

There's still time – join the more than 1000 people who have signed our petition: Tell President Trump You Support Our Transgender Service Members and Oppose His New Ban

UPDATE: 12:03 PM –
Raw Story's Travis Gettys makes a similar connection in a report titled, "Coincidence? Trump and Scaramucci kicked off a bonkers news cycle in the hours after Manafort raid." Gettys adds that on that same day, July 26, Trump and his now-former Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci "soaked up most of the day’s news coverage with their outrageous tweets and bizarre CNN interviews — and Anthony Scaramucci later that night threatened an FBI investigation against then-chief of staff Reince Priebus."

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.co ... tsmovement

I chose an easier path: I automatically reverse whatever the DiC spews to get to reality ~ ~ Sooz

Does the US military actually want Donald Trump’s ‘great favor’?
08/11/17 10:55 AM
By Steve Benen

It’s been a couple of weeks since Donald Trump, without warning, announced via Twitter that transgender Americans would no longer be welcome in the United States military. As is often the case with this president, the policy decision stood at the intersection of discrimination and incompetence: Trump hadn’t told any of the relevant agencies he was poised to do this, and the White House struggled to defend the change.

Worse, no one in the military knew how to implement Trump’s odd tweets, leaving the Pentagon and the service chiefs unsure how to proceed. In fact, since the president’s announcement, the military has largely ignored Trump’s announcement, pending some kind of policy review.

It’s against this backdrop that a reporter asked Trump yesterday why he banned transgender Americans from serving, and why he betrayed a community he pledged to support.


I’m aware of the fact that saying, “Trump’s comments don’t make sense” is a phrase that gets a lot of use, but the truth is, the president’s defense yesterday was bizarre.

Obviously, the idea that Trump “got a lot of votes” from LGBT voters – everything always ties back to the election in this guy’s mind – is plainly silly. The idea that he’s doing something worthwhile “by coming out and just saying it” might be true, if only someone could explain what “it” referred to.

But even putting that aside, Trump is making it sound as if the Pentagon was clamoring for a ban on transgender troops. There’s no evidence of that at all. On the contrary, as recently as yesterday, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer – a Trump nominee – seemed to take issue with his boss’ policy. “On a fundamental basis, any patriot that wants to serve and meets all the requirements should be able to serve in our military,” Spencer said.

Similarly, Coast Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft has pledged not to “break faith” with the transgender service members already in uniform.

The ban isn’t “a great favor”; it’s the opposite. If military leaders welcomed Trump’s move, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wouldn’t have left the status quo in place, indefinitely, while the White House tries to get its act together.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/does-the-us-military-actually-want-donald-trumps-great-favor#break

READ: Here's the (Laughable) Memo Trump Just Signed Authorizing His Ban of Transgender Service Members

Trump Using Debunked Arguments Claiming Military Effectiveness and Lethality and Unit Cohesion Will Suffer

The White House early Friday evening released the memo President Donald Trump signed authorizing the Pentagon and Homeland Security to discharge transgender service members. In briefing reporters the White House highlighted three major points: First, the ban must be implemented by March of 2018, with decisions complete by January. Second, the ban includes an immediate halt to paying for all transgender transition related medical expenses. Third, it allows the Defense Secretary to use various factors to determine which transgender service members should be removed from the armed forces, and which, if any, should be allowed to stay.

Below is the full text of the memo. But allow me to highlight a ludicrous passage first:

"In my judgment," Trump's memo states, "the previous Administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating the Departments' longstanding policy and practice" of not allowing open service by transgender service members "would not hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion, or tax military resources, and there remain meaningful concerns that further study is needed to ensure that continued implementation of last year's policy change would not have those negative effects."

Trump is literally using the debunked talking points of the far right when they fought the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Studies show they are not credible, which will only make the lawsuits that have been and are about to be filed even easier to win.

"Military effectiveness and lethality" and "unit cohesion" are all straw man arguments that the Trump administration cannot support in a court of law.

Below is the full text of the memo, via the White House. (For ease of reading we are not block quoting.):



MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY



SUBJECT: Military Service by Transgender Individuals

Section 1. Policy. (a) Until June 2016, the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (collectively, the Departments) generally prohibited openly transgender individuals from accession into the United States military and authorized the discharge of such individuals. Shortly before President Obama left office, however, his Administration dismantled the Departments' established framework by permitting transgender individuals to serve openly in the military, authorizing the use of the Departments' resources to fund sex-reassignment surgical procedures, and permitting accession of such individuals after July 1, 2017. The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security have since extended the deadline to alter the currently effective accession policy to January 1, 2018, while the Departments continue to study the issue.



In my judgment, the previous Administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating the Departments' longstanding policy and practice would not hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion, or tax military resources, and there remain meaningful concerns that further study is needed to ensure that continued implementation of last year's policy change would not have those negative effects.



(b) Accordingly, by the authority vested in me as President and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States under the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including Article II of the Constitution, I am directing the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the U.S. Coast Guard, to return to the longstanding policy and practice on military service by transgender individuals that was in place prior to June 2016 until such time as a sufficient basis exists upon which to conclude that terminating that policy and practice would not have the negative effects discussed above. The Secretary of Defense, after consulting with the Secretary of Homeland Security, may advise me at any time, in writing, that a change to this policy is warranted.



Sec. 2. Directives. The Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the U.S. Coast Guard, shall:



(a) maintain the currently effective policy regarding accession of transgender individuals into military service beyond January 1, 2018, until such time as the Secretary of Defense, after consulting with the Secretary of Homeland Security, provides a recommendation to the contrary that I find convincing; and



(b) halt all use of DoD or DHS resources to fund sex‑reassignment surgical procedures for military personnel, except to the extent necessary to protect the health of an individual who has already begun a course of treatment to reassign his or her sex.



Sec. 3. Effective Dates and Implementation. Section 2(a) of this memorandum shall take effect on January 1, 2018. Sections 1(b) and 2(b) of this memorandum shall take effect on March 23, 2018. By February 21, 2018, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall submit to me a plan for implementing both the general policy set forth in section 1(b) of this memorandum and the specific directives set forth in section 2 of this memorandum. The implementation plan shall adhere to the determinations of the Secretary of Defense, made in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, as to what steps are appropriate and consistent with military effectiveness and lethality, budgetary constraints, and applicable law. As part of the implementation plan, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving in the United States military. Until the Secretary has made that determination, no action may be taken against such individuals under the policy set forth in section 1(b) of this memorandum.



Sec. 4. Severability. If any provision of this memorandum, or the application of any provision of this memorandum, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this memorandum and other dissimilar applications of the provision shall not be affected.



Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:



(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or



(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.



(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.



(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.



(d) The Secretary of Defense is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.







DONALD J. TRUMP

###

http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.co ... ce+Members

I read somewhere that Sen. Tammy Duckworth's comment was brilliant ~ paraphrasing here, she said she didn't care who rescued her when she was shot down, only that she be rescued ~ smart woman! ~ Sooz

ACLU sues Trump over transgender ban
By Lydia Wheeler - 08/28/17 09:42 AM EDT

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing President Trump over his decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

The ACLU made the announcement on Twitter on Monday morning.

“BREAKING: We're taking @realDonaldTrump to court to challenge the unconstitutional transgender military ban,” they wrote.


Trump in a memo last Friday directed the Department of Defense to stop accepting transgender people who enlist for military service.

He had earlier announced his plans on Twitter to ban transgender people from the armed forces.

Trump claimed he had consulted with “generals and military experts” and decided the “United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you,” he said in a second tweet last month.

Soon after, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders filed a lawsuit on behalf of five transgender service members, arguing the policy change violates the equal protection component of the due process clauses of the Fifth Amendment.

The 39-page complaint, filed by the ACLU’s Maryland Chapter on behalf of six military service members in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, is embedded with Trump’s tweets and claims the ban not only violates the Fifth Amendment but is invalid on its face.

"The Trump administration has provided no evidence that this announcement was based on any analysis of the actual cost and disruption allegedly caused by allowing men and women who are transgender to serve openly,” the group wrote.

“News reports indicate the Secretary of Defense and other military officials were surprised by President Trump’s announcement, and that his actual motivations were purely political, reflecting a desire to accommodate legislators and advisers who bear animus and moral disproval toward men and women who are transgender, with a goal of gaining votes for a spending bill that included money to build a border wall with Mexico.”

LGBT rights groups Lambda Legal and OutServe-SLDN also announced on Monday morning that they had filed a lawsuit against Trump over the transgender military ban.

“This ban not only wrongfully prevents patriotic, talented Americans from serving, it also compromises the safety and security of our country,” Peter Renn, Lambda Legal's senior attorney, said in a statement. “Thousands of current service members are transgender, and many have been serving openly, courageously and successfully in the U.S. military for more than a year—not to mention the previous decades when many were forced to serve in silence.

Lambda Legal filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of Ryan Karnoski, a 22-year-old social worker from Seattle who wishes to become an officer doing social work for the military, Staff Sergeant Cathrine “Katie” Schmid, a 33-year-old woman and 12-year member of the U.S. Army, and Drew Layne, high-school student from Corpus Christi, Texas, who is about to turn 17 and wants to join the Air Force with parental consent. The suit is also brought on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign and the Gender Justice League.

“The Ban and current accessions bar are motivated by impermissible animus towards transgender people and are thus invalid as a whole,” the groups wrote in their 29-page complaint.

--This report was last updated at 10:29 a.m.

http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/348242-aclu-sues-trump-over-transgender-ban

On my way to a meeting ~ I'll look for more when I get back upstairs ~ Sooz

From MSN -- BREAKING NEWS: Mattis freezes transgender policy; allows troops to continue serving, pending study