Donald Trump's war on trans people in the military is just a midpoint

Trans Americans, your day will come

I write this letter to encourage transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, guardians (members of the Space Force), members of the U.S. Coast Guard and those desiring to serve their nation and its armed forces to have hope.

On Jan. 30, The Columbus Dispatch published a USA Today article in which Francesca Chambers reported, President Donald Trump “has signed executive orders since returning to office barring service by transgender troops and establishing male and female as the only sexes recognized by the federal government.”

This is not the end point of U.S. history, but one of the countless midpoints.

In June 1987, a board of officers convened by order of my battalion commander after an administrative hearing issued me an honorable discharge and found that the military’s old anti-gay policy required my separation from service for having “engaged in homosexual acts.”

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In August 1989, I graduated with high honors in sociology from the University of Cincinnati with my education having been in large part financed by the Veterans’ Educational Assistance Program and the Army College Fund.

In December 2010, President Barack Obama signed a law ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on openly gay people serving in the military.

Last month, “[Scott] Bessent [made] history at Treasury as highest-ranking LGBTQ official” (The Hill, Jan. 27) upon Trump’s nomination and the U.S. Senate’s confirmation.

Not even a failed moral actor like the convicted felon in the Oval Office has made moves to return to the old failed anti-gay policy.

As Martin Luther King Jr. called us to see, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Your day will come.

Joseph Eric Peters, Columbus

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Trump’s attack on transgender troops is not end of fight | Letter

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