Demonstrators have flocked to a military recruiting station in New York City and a plaza named after a San Francisco gay rights icon to protest against Donald Trump’s abrupt ban on tran
Demonstrators have flocked to a military recruiting station in New York City and a plaza named after a San Francisco gay rights icon to protest against Donald Trump’s abrupt ban on transgender people serving in the US military.
Hundreds gathered around the US Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square, holding signs saying “Resist!” and listened to speakers who condemned the ban, which was announced on Twitter by the president.
Demonstrator Yael Leberman said transgender people “are completely adequate to serve” and combat was “not about physical, it’s about mental” abilities.
She said it was unsurprising from Republican Mr Trump to say what he said or to see the backlash from a place as diverse as New York City.
It is unclear what the ban will mean for currently-serving transgender soldiers.
Several hundred demonstrators gathered later in San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Plaza.
They waved pink and blue flags, held signs reading “Trans lives are not a burden” and chanted “Stand up! Fight back!”
A transgender woman who identified herself only as Layla told the crowd she was tired of being told who she could or could not be and asked for others in the LGBT community to support trans people as they fought for respect.
Doug Thorogood and Nick Rondoletto, a couple from San Francisco, waved a rainbow flag and held a sign that read: “The only reason transgenders are being banned from the military is for bigotry.”
“Haven’t transgender people gone through enough? I’m over it!” Mr Thorogood said, as they marched with the crowd from the Castro neighbourhood to City Hall.
“When (Mr Trump) goes for the people with the least rights, I just can’t sit back and let that happen, ” Mr Rondoletto added.
At a smaller gathering at the Los Angeles LGBT Centre in Hollywood, US Army Reserve member and transgender man Rudy Akbarian, 27, said at first he thought the news of the president’s order was a joke.
The five-year military veteran said he was “heartbroken” to learn it was real.
“There are people who are retiring in the military, there are people who’ve done 18,19 years and are about to retire and now it’s all taken away from them, ” he said.
“It’s not fair.”
“I know it’s not over, ” he said. “I know we’re not going to give up.”
Major advocacy groups depicted Mr Trump’s Twitter pronouncement as an appeal to the portion of his conservative base that opposes the recent civil-rights gains by the LGBT community.
“His administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government – even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation, ” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT-rights group Glaad.
Transgender military members have been able to serve openly since last year, after a move by then-defence secretary Ash Carter.
Mr Trump’s vow to end that policy was the latest, and perhaps the most stinging, of a string of actions since his election that have dismayed supporters of LGBT rights.
AP
