Last Tuesday, the progressive growth of the U.S. came to a screeching halt. In July 2018, via tweet, President Donald Trump proposed new legislation banning transgender in the military. On Tuesday, Jan. 22, the Supreme Court ruled 5:4 on a case that overruled orders from lower courts that had served as a block to prevent the ban from going into action.

Many are saying that this new order is a “green light” of sorts which paves the way for further legislation. To give you an idea, this ban will prevent potential service members from joining as well as ban current service members from continuing their military careers. The ruling is an insult to the transgender community in service and we should not stand for it.

There are currently around 2,450 active service members who are transgender, according to MSNBC. That means that these people have met the required criteria and undergone the same harsh training as their cis-gender [conventional gender] counterparts.

To put this into business terms, since that’s how our country is run these days, this ban is essentially removing qualified employees from the jobs they have worked hard to earn. This ruins their chances of progressing in their desired career field.

But since this is not a business, I must remind you that these newly unemployed citizens have made the decision to lay their lives on the line and serve their country which should be a right for all citizens.

Regardless of where you stand in the social argument of gender, if someone is willing to make a sacrifice for their country, you can’t stand in their way. For this proposal to come from an agenda that claims to be more patriotic than its counterpart, this brazen discrimination is ironically not patriotic at all.

If a citizen has passed through training and worked their way to where they stand in military ranks, they can’t say they are not fit to serve.

President Trump tweeted about the issue saying the military should focus on victory and not medical costs and disruptions that transgender people bring.

However, a FOX news report stated that 0.001 percent of our $600 billion military budget is spent on transgender medical treatment.

As of now, the ban is only a proposal. It has not gone into effect because there are orders from lower courts that block legislative action from being taken. However, if decisions like the one by the Supreme Court keep occurring, more of these blocks will continue to be lifted.

There is a common misconception that students cannot do much to impact the governmental proceedings of our country. That is far from the truth. We are the future. If they are truly representing the people’s best interests, they will hear ours.