Transgender former US Navy Seal Senior Chief Kristin Beck speaks at an ACLU conference on October 20, 2014.
Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
This morning, President Trump tweeted that transgender individuals wouldn't be allowed to serve in the US military "in any capacity."
He made the statements ostensibly after consulting with military experts about the medical cost and "disruption" trans people would cause in the armed forces.
The statements, if turned into law, would be a reversal of the Obama administration's policies, which allowed trans members to serve, offered assistance for their transitions, and obligated soldiers to undergo diversity training on working with trans people. There is no official policy in place rejecting trans service members yet, but two trans recruits, one from West Point and the other from the Air Force Academy, were denied their commissioning into the military in May.
In response, Silicon Valley CEOs and companies have been making statements on social media that advocate for allowing trans people to keep serving in the military.
Some are using the hashtag #LetThemServe.
Airbnb directed BuzzFeed News to a tweet from its head of policy:
Uber
Grindr
Snapchat and Intel declined to comment. Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, Oracle, Tesla, Lyft, Palantir, Dell, and HP did not immediately respond to requests for comment or make posts on social media. We will update the story with comments as we receive them.
Some of the first CEOs to respond to Trump's tweets were those who did not attend his technology roundtable in June. The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google's founder Eric Schmidt did attend that meeting.
The ACLU pointed out that Trump's tweets do not constitute an official change in policy.
They are, however, a dramatic change in sentiment from the previous administration.
from BuzzFeed - Tech https://www.buzzfeed.com/blakemontgomery/tech-ceos-are-calling-for-trump-to-let-trans-service?utm_term=4ldqpia
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