Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., slammed the Trump administration Thursday for moving forward with its transgender military ban, saying she didn’t care about the sexual orientation of her colleagues who came to her rescue when she “was bleeding to death” while serving in the Iraq War.
“When I was bleeding to death in my Black Hawk helicopter after I was shot down, I didn’t care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender, black, white, or brown,” the Illinois Democrat wrote in a statement. “All that mattered was they didn’t leave me behind.”
Duckworth, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and Purple Heart recipient, lost both her legs and injured her right arm when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting in Iraq in 2004 was shot out of the sky by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents.
“If you are willing to risk your life for our country, and you can do the job, you should be able to serve — no matter your gender identity or sexual orientation,” she continued. “Anything else is not just discriminatory, it is disruptive to our military, and it is counterproductive to our national security.”
The ban would also harm military readiness, she added.
The Pentagon is expected to receive guidance from the White House regarding the proposed transgender military ban within the coming days, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis will have six months to implement the changes to the military’s current open policy towards transgendered service men and women, a memo obtained by the newspaper directed.
