At least one openly transgender member of the U.S. military is vowing to continue serving the country despite the surprise ban announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
“I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military,” Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland of the Air Force told Air Force Times. “You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life.”
Ireland is married to Army Cpl. Laila Villanueva, a transgender woman, and the two were featured in a 2015 documentary.
He offered to meet the president to discuss transgender members of the military who are “fighting right now for their liberties and their country.”
“We have pilots, we have doctors, we have combat medics, we have security forces members like myself,” Ireland told the website. “We are everywhere in the military, and for our president to not have a military member’s back that is willing to die for him blows my mind. And it just makes me very motivated today to continue my training.”
The U.S. military dropped a ban on transgender people serving last year.
Trump cited “tremendous medical costs and disruption” as his reasons for reenacting the ban, but studies show he’s wrong.
“This has been studied extensively, and the consensus is clear: There are no cost or military readiness drawbacks associated with allowing trans people to fight for their country,” Joshua Block, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project said in a news release. “The president is trying to score cheap political points on the backs of military personnel who have put their lives on the line for their country.”
The ACLU is calling on any service members affected to contact the organization for assistance.