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Veterans group fighting President's decision to ban transgender people serving in the military

Posted at 12:01 PM, Jul 30, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-30 20:03:25-04

DENVER -- A local equal rights group says President Donald Trump's decision to not allow transgender people to serve in the United States military is wrong.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump said one of his main reasons for not allowing transgender military members is that, "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."

"Everyone falls somewhere along that spectrum from changing their outward appearance to doing that full-fledged surgery,” Sarah Alder of American Veterans for Equal Rights told Anne Trujillo on this weekend’s Politics Unplugged. “Not everyone goes through to that extreme and I think what they are focusing on is that everybody wants to do that full transition and that’s not true. “

Trump's decision would revoke a policy approved by the U.S. Department of Defense under President Obama, which allowed transgender individuals to serve in the military.

“It’s a unique opportunity to show our true patriotism and dedication and service for the liberties we have,” Alder said. “So many countries out there cannot be on social media or anything like that. So to speak out against their president or anybody else... it gives us that fighting chance for anyone to have a voice.”

Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.