Republican Lindsey Graham didn’t know trans people are banned from the military
Republican Presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham was seemingly unaware that transgender people are banned from serving in the US military.
Despite the 2011 repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which banned openly LGB soldiers from military service, the US military continues to enforce regulations that block trans people from active service.
Rights activists have called on the military to scrap the outdated medical regulations – which disqualify people from service if they have “current or history of psychosexual conditions, including but not limited to transsexualism, exhibitionism, transvestism, voyeurism, and other paraphilias”.
However, Lindsey Graham – one of twelve Republicans to be the next US President and Commander-in-chief of the US Military – had no idea the ban even exists.
Mr Graham told news anchor Jorge Ramos: “I haven’t heard the military speak about that, I’d have to actually ask them. The policy is that anyone can serve in the military who’s qualified.
“The Don’t Ask Tell [sic] policy has been replaced. If I were president, I would keep the current system, and as far as I know, I don’t think there’s any bar against transgender service.”
Mr Ramos informed the politician – who has cited his military experience repeatedly in his campaign – that trans people are indeed banned from serving and are regularly dismissed for being trans.
He responded: “My preference would be to allow everyone to serve. I’d like to hear from the military, quite frankly, I don’t know.
“I’d like to hear their version of why we do what we do.”
Watch the clip vis Fusion below:
