More than 100 protesters gathered outside of the Army recruiting center in Times Square on Wednesday evening to take a stand against President Donald Trump’s tweets indicating people who identify as transgender will not be able to serve in the U.S. military.
Protesters held signs reading “resist” and “we object,” and chanted against Trump’s statement as a stream of people took to a podium, including City Council members and transgender military veterans.
“When I read his tweets, it hit me hard,” said Dash Porter, an 18-year-old student from Astoria who recently came out as transgender. “So we’re going to fight back and do what we have to do.”
Flatbush resident Kendra Folsom, 28, said she hopes the tweets galvanize people into taking a stand.
“My first thought was, ‘I can’t believe this is happening in 2017.’ It’s outrageous,” she said. “The key is not letting it end here.”
Trump’s tweets came just over a year after the Pentagon lifted its ban on transgender men and women serving openly in the military.
“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,” Trump wrote Wednesday morning. “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.”
Equality NY, which organized the rally on Facebook, called the tweets “disgraceful words to use to describe the heroism and bravery of soldiers” and said the group “must resist.”
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said New Yorkers’ differences are strengths and should be celebrated.
“They should be afraid of us, because we’re going to go to the ballot box and put them out of their jobs,” she told the crowd in Times Square. “We need to call this what it is: bigotry and discrimination. We are outraged, but we are united, and we will never stop fighting.”
West Village resident Maggie Low, a 60-year-old actor, said she was already fed up with Trump, but Wednesday’s tweets “got me angry enough to come out and yell about it.”
“He’s chipping away at our civil rights, and we need to start calling it what it is: fascism,” she said. “We need to mobilize people to fight back when this happens.”
The Pentagon lifted the ban in June 2016 and was expected to begin allowing transgender men and women to enlist this year. In June 2017, however, Defense Secretary James Mattis approved a six-month delay on allowing transgender recruits.
Trump has not yet detailed when or how this policy change would be implemented, or how it would affect current service members.
