According to THE HILL.
Former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus bashed President
Trump’s move to prevent transgender individuals
from serving in the military, as the president’s
effort hits the one-year mark.
“That strikes me as the dumbest government
policy you could possibly pursue and it weakens
us and hurts our military,” Mabus said Thursday
evening at the Veterans in Global Leadership
event in Washington, D.C.
Trump in July 2017 abruptly announced on Twitter
that he would ban transgender individuals
from serving “in any capacity” in the
U.S. military.
The Obama administration had ordered the military
to begin allowing transgender troops to serve
openly in the U.S. armed forces, with a year
of review beforehand — during which Trump
made his announcement.
Mabus, who served as head of the Navy under
former President Obama from 2009 to 2017,
said in the year the Pentagon looked at the
effect, cost and impact on the military in
allowing transgender service, the conclusion
was that “overall it would be a positive
thing.”
“To have that reversed in a tweet with no
evidence, no thought, nothing, it’s breaking
faith with the people who are willing to serve,”
he said.
The administration’s transgender ban has
been blocked from taking effect while it is
debated in multiple courts.
Transgender people may continue to enlist
in the military until the opposing parties
go to trial, expected in April 2019.
Mabus, who was known for his progressive stance
while Navy secretary, pushed for the repeal
of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy
applying to sexuality in the military and
opened all jobs to women.
“I have this notion, that if you can do
a job, the only qualification to get that
job ought to be the ability to do the job.
Color or race or ethnicity or gender or who
you love, or what your sexual identity is
ought to be irrelevant.
Who cares?” he said.
The former governor of Mississippi recounted
being approached by a Navy medic who was on
his third deployment.
“He said, ‘I’ve been scared to death,
the whole 11 years that I was going to be
found out for being gay and kicked out.’
”
“Three combat deployments, risking his life
everyday with the Marines and yet his biggest
worry was he was going to found out as being
gay and kicked out,” Mabus said.
“How bad is that?
And how much weaker does that make our military?”
Mabus also didn’t mince words when speaking
his opinion on Trump’s tendency to tweet
major policy changes or military threats,
seemingly without the input from top national
security officials.
“It worries me that we have a president
who makes decisions by whim and by tweet about
how we’re going to use our military,”
he said.
“I think the military has the right to expect
that before we commit … that somebody’s
thought about it, it’s been really carefully
planned, that we’re not just doing it because
it’s what we think makes us feel good at
the moment.
That worries me,” he said.
