President Donald Trump had first announced his intention to reinstate a ban that prohibited transgender individuals from serving in the U.S Armed Forces "in any capacity" via twitter last year. His decision would reverse an Obama era policy that allowed transgender individuals to openly serve in the military. This ban, however, could not be implemented due to the rulings made by multiple federal courts that declared the ban to be  discriminatory towards transgender individuals.

Recently, though President Donald Trump has approved a modified version of this ban that would severely limit the ability of transgender individuals to serve in the military. This policy already faces multiple legal challenges in the Federal Court. Therefore, it has not been enforced or implemented by the Pentagon. 

The medical expenses for transgender individuals form the basis and core of the argument for the ban. This argument is contradicted by a 2016 study conducted by the RAND Corporation, which concluded that allowing transgender people to serve in the military would cause health care costs to rise $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year, representing a miniscule 0.04 to 0.13 percent increase in defense spending.

Now, that may sound like a lot of money to spend on individuals who risk their lives to defend us; however could the country request just a little money from the National Science Foundation's  reported $65 million used to study and build some important things like...a $1.5 million to build a laundry-folding robot with the ability to fold a towel in 25 minutes, $500,000 to study shrimp running on a treadmill, and $300,000 to study personal relationships built through FarmVille on Facebook?

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 I can go on and on. However, I would prefer to have good soldiers protecting the country rather than a laundry-folding robot. The security of the country is not political. The Commander in Chief's job description entails requiring a commitment to the security and safety of all Americans. This job is not political. It cannot be dictated by personal or individual preferences. 

 President Obama once remarked, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America—there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America—there's the United States of America."

References

C. (2018, March 24). Trump transgender military ban: Democrats, LGBT groups are outraged, and GOP is silent. Retrieved March 25, 2018, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-transgender-military-ban-gop-silent-democrats-and-lgbt-groups-outraged/

https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/trump-military-transgender/index.html

https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/trump-military-transgender/index.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/kristin-beck-trump-transgender-ban-2017-7