Trump Bars Transgender Individuals From US Armed Forces

I am Maureen Cavanaugh. The top story on midday addition, the American civil liberties Union tweeted thousands of tran servicemembers on the front lines deserved better from the commander-in-chief. That was in response to the announcement on Twitter today. The U.S. would not allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the military. The Obama administration announced that transgender people would be allowed to serve openly in the military. Officials have not commented on or confirmed they were consulted about the reversal of the policy. Joining me is Jeanette Steele, a reporter with the Tribune. Welcome.Thank you.Estimates vary on how many trans military personnel there are. Is it between 2000 and 6000? Is that right ?I heard it can be as high as 14,000. They did a study and they gave 6000 figures. Those numbers compared to the 1.3 million people in total. It is a small group.Is the president saying that those servicemembers who are transgender have to leave the military ?That is what everyone is saying is unclear. The history here would be, do not ask and do not tell era where the policy was, if you were quiet, you could serve but if you came out and were open, you were discharged. Who knows? That is one possible thing.Have you heard reaction in the military? I know the tweets just came out this morning. Has there been follow-up from military brass at all ?Not that I have seen. The Pentagon is caught flat footed by the announcement. They have said, we are referring this to the White House and it will come back with policy guidance. As you know, troops cannot speak out about policy issues. We know from stories that have been done in the past, there is mixed opinion about these kinds of social policy changes that has happened in the past eight years. The Obama administration have showed that people are opposed to transgender people serving openly just absent -- as some have not. Those are the social changes that happened under the Obama administration.Tell us about that policy towards judge other people in the militaryThis has been building since the overturn of don't ask, do not tell. It was transgender to her serving. There were studies. Last summer, in June, the secretary Ashton Carter announced that those who were serving at present could do so openly. What was coming was training for the troops to explain them to how -- how to handle this. On July 1, they were supposed to open new recruits. We might have seen this announcement in the tea leaves going back in the past month. A month ago, secretary Matus announced that they were going to delay the admittance of new recruits by a year in response to recommendations by the military branches. What we know is that the Army came back to the Pentagon and said, we need to study this further. That is why they delayed the admittance of recruits by a year.One of the objections referenced in the president tweets about this this morning, it seems to be the government paying for hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery. Is that a major cost to the military ?That seems to be the question on the table. There are studies. In one estimate, it would cost $8 million per year to attend to the medical needs of transgender troops. You know, the big picture is, that is a lot of money. You compare that to the annual Pentagon budget which is topping $600 billion a year, compared to that, 8 million -- $8 million -- it is taxpayer dollars.Could Congress reversed this policy really ?That is an interesting question. Some Republicans in the Senate have signaled that they are not a fan of the policy. John McCain of Arizona has released a statement saying that they are against this and they think people who are qualified to serve should be allowed to serve. Who knows what fight this might get in Congress. Scott Peters has released a statement saying he has filed an amendment to the Defense authorization act to block this. On the legal front, the ACLU has released a statement saying they are looking at options to fight this. It is a large question that remains to be answer.Joining me has been Jeanette Steele with the San Diego Union Tribune. Thank you very much.Thank you.