川普宣佈禁止跨性別者在軍中服役
President Donald Trump says the U.S. military will no longer let transgender people serve in any capacity, reversing a policy former President Barack Obama's administration announced a year ago.
In a string of Twitter comments, Trump said Wednesday that after consulting with generals and military experts, he was ordering the armed forces to stop accepting transgender recruits.
"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," Trump wrote.
Trump did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the U.S. military - about 4,000 personnel, according to research by the Rand Corporation.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that Trump will "have to work together" with the Defense Department to "lawfully determine" the fate of transgender service personnel already in the military.
She rebuffed reporters' inquiries suggesting that Trump had broken an election-campaign vow to support the transgender community. The president felt his decision was "the best one for the military," Sanders said.
In addition to service members known to be transgender, defense officials said there are about 250 military personnel who are believed to be transitioning to a gender other than the one they were identified with at birth.
Trump's announcement came one day ahead of a deadline for the military to update its medical regulations to accommodate transgender personnel, but the Pentagon appeared to be caught off-guard when the president issued his Twitter comments.
The Defense Department said it was referring all questions about the change in policy to the White House. The Pentagon said it would "continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander-in-chief," and then brief military officials.
Trump's action drew an immediate rebuke from a leading group supporting transgender rights and many lawmakers who had favored last year's policy change.
Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin said, “I know transgender service members and vets who have done more to serve their country than @realdonaldtrump has in his entire life."
One of the country's most prominent transgender activists, Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst freed recently from prison for leaking classified military documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, said, "So not only do you want to ban trans people, now you want to throw us in prison ?? sounds familiar."
A senior Republican lawmaker, Senator John McCain, held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in the 1960s, chided Trump for taking up such a serious issue on Twitter, and said the statement was unclear: "The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving."
Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, said, "No American, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be prohibited from the honor and privilege of serving our nation."
"Thousands of transgender service members defend our country," Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said in a tweet. "They're patriots & should be applauded not discriminated against by Pres Trump."
Another Democrat, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, said: "The thousands of transgender Americans serving in our #military are courage incarnate. They are patriots. And they deserve better than this."
Hundreds of people also gathered Wednesday in both New York and San Francisco to protest Trump's decision.美國總統川普宣佈，美國軍隊將不再允許跨性別者以任何身份服役，逆轉了前總統奧巴馬政府一年前宣佈的政策變更。
川普在週三發出的一系列推文中說，在與將領和軍事專家諮商後，他下令軍隊停止徵收跨性別者。
川普寫到“我們的軍隊必須精力集中取得決定性和壓倒性的勝利，而不能爲跨性別者造成的鉅額醫療費用和干擾所累。”
根據蘭德公司的統計數據，目前大約有4千名跨性別者在美國軍中服役。川普沒有說將如何處理已經在軍中服役的跨性別者。
白宮發言人桑德斯隨後表示，川普“需要與國防部合作”才能就已經在軍中服役的跨性別者的前途作出“合法的決定。”
她拒絕回答記者提出的關於川普是否違背了競選期間支持跨性別者的承諾。桑德斯說，總統認爲他的決定“符合軍隊最佳利益。”
除了已知的跨性別者人數，國防部官員說還有大約250名軍人正在進行變性手術。
川普是在軍方爲顧及跨性別者對醫療規章進行更新的截止日前一天宣佈該決定的。但五角大樓看起來被總統的推文有些措手不及。
國防部表示，會將所有政策變更相關的問題轉給白宮。五角大樓表示將“繼續就總統宣佈的新規定事宜與白宮密切合作，”隨後將向軍方官員彙報。
川普的決定隨即受到一個主要跨性別者權益組織和對去年支持政策變更的國會議員的抨擊。
人權戰線總裁查得·格里芬說：“我認識的跨性別現役軍人和退役軍人在服務國家方面所作的比川普一輩子做得都多。”
美國最知名的跨性別權益活動人士切爾西·曼寧說：“你不僅想禁止跨性別者，現在還想把我們關進監獄？聽起來挺熟悉。”曼寧曾是美軍情報分析員，因向維基解密泄露軍方保密文件入獄，近期獲釋。不過也有一些曾在軍中服役者在社交媒體上對川普的決定表示支持。
資深共和黨參議員約翰·麥凱恩曾在1960年代的越戰期間被俘。他斥責川普在推特上的處理這樣嚴肅的問題，並說該聲明模糊不清。他說：“國防部已經決定允許正在服役的跨性別者留在軍中，而且他們中許多人正在光榮服役。任何符合目前體檢和就緒標準美國人都應該被允許繼續服役。”
佛羅里達共和黨衆議員伊蓮娜·羅斯-雷婷恩說：“任何美國人，不能因爲他們的性取向和性別認同，而剝奪他們爲國家服務的榮譽。”
新罕布什爾民主黨參議員珍妮·沙欣在一條推文中說：“數千名跨性別者爲我們的國家服務，他們是愛國者，應當得到我們的掌聲，而不是受到川普總統的歧視。”
馬裏蘭州民主黨參議員本·卡丁說：“在軍隊中服役的數千名跨性別者勇氣可嘉。他們是愛國者。他們理當享有更好待遇。”
星期三數以百計的人聚集在紐約和舊金山抗議川普的決定。
