By Written by Sumayyah Dawud
On Wednesday morning before heading out to run some errands, I checked my Facebook news feed only to find a headline about Trump and transgender people. To my shock and disappointment, I found that Trump had made an announcement on Twitter that all transgender people will be banned from military service. The exact words of Trump’s announcement in three separate tweets read as follows:
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. 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. Thank you”
To my shock and disappointment, I found that Trump had made an announcement on Twitter that all transgender people will be banned from military service.
While I was shocked, given how this administration has worked day and night to demonize one marginalized group after another, I was not surprised. I am a transgender Muslim woman who was assigned male at birth. I transitioned in November 2010 and converted to Islam in March 2013. Because of my intersectional identity and experience, I have faced both transphobia and Islamophobia in America. This administration with its hateful rhetoric and discriminatory policies is making life more difficult for transgender people, Muslims and numerous other marginalized groups.
These tweets are transphobic in ways that go far beyond their impacts on transgender service members. It tells us that we are a “burden” and a “disruption” and therefore cannot be trusted to help achieve “victory.” It also implies we are weak. Transgender people endure being ostracized from their families, face homelessness, discrimination in employment, housing, education and public accommodations, and are at risk of violence simply for leaving our homes. We face hardships and challenges that Trump and his associates will never face and cannot even fathom. We face these difficulties every day simply for being ourselves rather than trying to fit into the black-and-white world of gender and transmisogyny that Trump promotes. We are routinely denied health care because of ignorance that tells us that we aren’t real, aren’t legitimate and therefore aren’t worthy of care.
While I was shocked, given how this administration has worked day and night to demonize one marginalized group after another, I was not surprised.
Trump mentioned the “tremendous medical costs” that we allegedly bring but, in reality, don’t. It has been demonstrated time and time again that including insurance coverage for transgender-related treatment has very little impact on group insurance costs as a whole. According to an article published by the Arizona Republic, “Military spends five times more on Viagra than on transgender troops” and according to another, “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips cost more than trans soldiers’ health care.” Furthermore, many private employers already offer transgender health care and have inclusive nondiscrimination policies that contribute to a diverse workplace, not a disruptive one. What is also missing from Trump’s tweets is that not all transgender people need transition-related treatment. Yet regardless of this fact, he stated that all transgender people will be barred “in any capacity.”
Trump’s transgender ban was preceded by his Muslim ban. On January 27th, Trump set off a firestorm of lawsuits and protests after he announced that all individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries would be denied entry to the United States. Similar to the transgender ban, Trump argued that the Muslim ban was needed to keep America safe and strong. Both of these bans accomplish the same thing: they do nothing to improve safety, ensure security or bring ‘victory’ to the United States but only further demonize already ostracized minority groups. They send a message that Muslims and transgender people are both second-class citizens who are not worthy of the same rights as other Americans.
These tweets are transphobic in ways that go far beyond their impacts on transgender service members.
While the transgender and Muslim bans are unjust, so is the military’s role in enforcing U.S. imperialism around the world in the name of “freedom.” That role has led to the deaths of numerous innocent Muslim civilians through “the war on terror.” I do not consider it mutually exclusive to oppose the military’s role while simultaneously defending transgender service members from discrimination.
Trump and I are both descended from immigrants. Not those he wants to ban or wall off, but those who arrived illegally from Europe. Before Trump decides who isn’t welcome to live in or serve this country, he ought to consider that he is standing on land stolen from indigenous people. Trump has never served in the armed forces and has no clue what life is like for transgender people or the immigrants he considers a safety threat. Transgender people are not unfit to serve this country, but Trump’s hateful rhetoric and discriminatory policies indicate that his administration is unfit to serve us.
Excellent article by the incomparable Summayah Dawud. Thank you so much for sharing your story, your courage and tenacity is a light for the entire Muslim community.
Just you so far, bluey.
Don’t see many hijaboobies lining up to commend this article.
Let’s not jump to conclusions or denigrate hijabis- a hijabi runs this site after all. Many of them are commenting on Facebook.
I’ll take your word for that. What is the point of this site anway? Not its mission but it’s actual point. I don’t see Hindu or Christian girl websites.
It seems like overcompensation for the lowly state of women in Islam; a facade for the inevitable low self-esteem.
Simple!
Dont come and read it if you dont like…
It is my role in life to divert people displaying muslimoidal tendencies towards the path of truth and logic. I don’t like it, but it my duty.
MuslimGirl stands on its own cognizance. It is independent. It does not take cues from Hindus or Christians. Muslims don’t, never did. And an assertive stand by MuslimGirl may be disconcerting for you but it certainly is not “overcompensation”.
Disconcerting? It’s horrific that a woman in the 21st Century would submit to a life of slavery. Wake up, smarten up, and grow some balls scaredy kitten.
Reasons for the conclusion are obvious. They could not have escaped you. As for the hijabi, they are provocative, flirtatious, sly. They provoke to attract attention. They create their own problems. They may be commenting on FB but the article here, what keeps them from commenting here?
That is a hyperbole if ever there was one. Is she a relative of yours?
Maybe?
A tweet does not make for an authorization. Have you applied to join the military or just venting?
But the US President made that tweet. It counts.
Not officially, though.
u can’t be muslim and trans u kafir
A person can suffer from gender dysmorphia (believing oneself to be what he isn’t–in this case, a guy who thinks himself to be a woman) and still be a Muslim. MOST OF US have various hang-ups and sinful habits. It becomes kufr when the person claims that sinful behavior is Islamically allowed (for it entails rejecting what the Prophet taught).
The article should make it clear that Muslims don’t adopt Cultural Marxist rhetoric when discussing Islam. The term “transphobia”–or its equivalent in other languages–does not exist in the Qur’an, in the Sunnah, or the traditional books of Islamic scholarship. Transsexualism is the problem–not those who rightfully object to it. The Prophet (sallallahu `alayhi wasallam) explicitly condemned those men who imitate women and the women who imitate men. Muslims have to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL not to reject what the Prophet came with. Islam means at its core submission to the Orders of Allah–and we know the Orders of Allah by way of what the Prophet conveyed.
If a Muslim is suffering from gender dysmorphia (and it is recognized in Islam that some people will suffer from this problem), then he or she needs to ask Allah to relieve him (or her) from this calamity. Muslims should be merciful with the person who has this struggle, but if that person claims that transsexual behavior is allowed in Islam–or that the one who objects to that behavior has a neurosis–then such a person has rejected and belied the Prophet. And the one who belies and rejects what the Prophet taught doesn’t understand Submission, and doesn’t–in truth–believe in Islam.
CRYSTAL CLEARLY STATED. May Allah make it easy on you brother. Ameen
Ameen wa iyyakum. Lots of people are spreading confusion under the guise of Islam. This is very dangerous.
Indeed! Alhamdulillah we have teachers much like yourself with an ear to the ground (digitally in this case) that can intelligently, clearly, and most importantly, CORRECTLY state the truth.
These are tumultuous times in our community. While we’re all facing our personal turmoils, collectively, we have our Islamic guidelines to safeguard. May Allah guide & protect us in our many battles! Ameen.
Wake up brother, there is no such thing as Islam. Islam is nothing more than the syphilitic imaginings of of a madman, ridden with venereal disease from sex with underage girls.
Even Islamic scholars admit that Muhammed was no more than a pile of oozing syphilitic pus when he caught the final donkey to heaven.
An apt metaphor for his disgraceful legacy. You should be ashamed.