President Donald Trump announces transgendered individuals are no longer allowed to serve in the U.S. military in any capacity. Richland Parish U.S. Congressman Ralph Abraham, who serves on the House Armed Forces Committee, says this change makes sense. He says if someone decides to undergo a gender transformation surgery while enlisted, it could hinder their service to the military.

“You only sign up for 4 years and if you’re not able to fight for 2.5 of those, then that’s really unfair to the rest of your platoon. It does become a very important readiness issue.”

But Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana Marjorie Esman says this is a huge mistake by President Trump because it’s clear discrimination. She says it’s against the law in America to discriminate against people based on their medical history.

“To single out a particular group of people to say their medical conditions might be too expensive has no bearing on whether or not these people are better for the country to have them serving.”

Abraham says this is not a discrimination issue, but transgender individuals can create problems that the military should not have to address.

“That disrupts literally everything, as far as bathroom privileges, as far as dining privileges, does he take a shower with the women? No, I hope not.”

Esman says the president is blaming the victim, as transgender individuals are not by nature disruptive. She says the best way to solve this problem is to get rid of the people causing the disruption, not the transgender individuals.

“The woman who is sexually assaulted, it’s her fault because she was wearing a short skirt, no it’s not her fault for wearing a short skirt. It’s not transgender individuals fault is somebody else has trouble dealing with them.”

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