Over 50 retired generals and admirals of every branch of the United States’ military have signed a letter condemning President Trump’s upcoming ban of transgender troops.
The officers numbering 56 from the US Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard insisted that implementing the President’s ban would reduce the readiness of the military.
TIME reports that the letter was sent to the Palm Center.
The newspaper quoted the officers to have said in the letter that, “This proposed ban, if implemented, would cause significant disruptions, deprive the military of mission-critical talent, and compromise the integrity of transgender troops who would be forced to live a lie, as well as non-transgender peers who would be forced to choose between reporting their comrades or disobeying policy.
“As a result, the proposed ban would degrade readiness even more than the failed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.
“Patriotic transgender Americans who are serving—and who want to serve—must not be dismissed, deprived of medically necessary health care, or forced to compromise their integrity or hide their identity.”
Trump had last week, announced his plan to bar transgender troops from the military in a series of tweets.
The President said in the tweets, “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.”
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