Last week, a series of tweets from President Donald Trump calling for a ban on transgender military members incited widespread outrage and calls to action.
Amongst those protesting the call is Christine McGinn, a former naval flight surgeon who happens to be transgender herself.
In an interview with CNN, Dr. McGinn addressed Trump's reasons for wanting to ban trans people from the military, shutting down his claim that having transgender people in service is too costly.
Trans ex-Navy surgeon: Cost of losing trained service people is "exponentially larger than just taking care of them" https://t.co/4JmaQUS6lg
— CNN (@CNN) July 29, 2017
"The estimated cost per year per the RAND study is 2.4 to 8.4 million dollars per year, and if you think about that in comparison with what is spent on healthcare for the entire military is 49 billion dollars — that estimate, by the way, is about the same price as one trip to Mar-A-Lago, and I think it's being twisted and spun to be more than it is," she said. "I think the cost of getting rid of very well specialized, trained military service people is exponentially larger than just taking care of them."
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That's why Dr. McGinn is offering to perform gender-confirming surgery for service members on her list who may be affected by a ban, cost-free.
"If the commander-in-chief won't take care of our veterans, our veterans will," Dr. McGinn said.
According to CNN, Dr. McGinn transitioned in 2000, the same year that she was named senior flight surgeon at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station. She was later nominated by the entire Navy for flight surgeon of the year, and currently still performs gender-confirming surgery at her practice in Pennsylvania.
She also told CNN that she believed that Trump's policy was based on "obvious discrimination."
"I think that this sounds a lot like when we had people of color who wanted to serve, women, or gays and lesbians who wanted to serve," she said.
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