This month, Pres. Biden repealed a Trump-era ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military. “It is my conviction as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces that gender identity should not be a bar to military service,” read a portion of the executive order.
William Robert is the director of LGBTQ Studies and an associate professor of religion at Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He provides a written perspective about how the ban was basic discrimination, and what this move by President Biden reaffirms for all Americans, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Prof. Robert says:
“Arguments against allowing transgender persons to serve in the military aren’t new. They’re straight out of discrimination 101. Anti-progressives have dusted them off and trotted them out many times, to try to ban men of color, then women, then LGB persons from military service.
“It’s reassuring to see that, once again, these arguments have failed. Because these arguments are really about who gets to count as a citizen, and whose lives count enough to be lost in military service. There probably hasn’t been, in the last few decades, a more important moment to reaffirm that American citizenship is a capacious category, one more interested in welcoming folks in than in keeping folks out.”
To request interviews or get more information:
Daryl Lovell
Media Relations Manager
Division of Marketing and Communications
M 315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu | @DarylLovell
The Nancy Cantor Warehouse, 350 W. Fayette St., 2nd Fl., Syracuse, NY 13202
news.syr.edu | syracuse.edu
Syracuse University
Developers like Epic Games, which is the creator behind the popular game Fortnite, will be able to use alternative payment systems within the Apple platform, according to a recent legal decision. Earlier this month, a judge ruled that Apple was…
Throughout the United States, there are people who have come out strongly against mask or vaccine mandates. But Syracuse University assistant professor Kyla Garrett Wagner, who studies the relationships between public health and the First Amendment, says that laws and…
The AP wrote, “Angela Merkel will leave office as one of modern Germany’s longest-serving leaders and a global diplomatic heavyweight, with a legacy defined by her management of a succession of crises that shook a fragile Europe rather than any…
A state of emergency was declared in New York on Sept. 2 following the torrential rainfall and heavy flooding in many parts of the Northeast last night. At least 10 deaths have been reported across Maryland, New Jersey and New…
On Aug. 31, the last of the American troops left Afghanistan. In an afternoon address, President Biden spoke extensively about the costs of war for American servicemembers and veterans and the lasting impacts on their mental health. Kenneth Marfilius is…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
