Out conservative Milo Yiannopoulos has
cheered President Donald Trump's announcement that the military will
no longer “accept or allow” transgender troops.
The president made the announcement
Wednesday in a series of tweets.
(Related: Trump
says military will bar transgender troops.)
Yiannopoulos, who is promoting his
autobiography Dangerous, which Simon & Schuster refused to
publish after a video surfaced of him allegedly condoning pedophilia,
told The Washington Post that he was “delighted” by the
president's decision.
“You don’t help mentally ill trans
people by sticking them on the front lines,” Yiannopoulos said.
“You help them with therapy and drugs – though not, I have to
stress, transition surgery. I only wish he’d gone further and
banned women from combat units too, since the evidence clearly shows
their presence is disastrous for both morale and performance. Baby
steps?”
The Post reminded readers that a
RAND study conducted in 2016 found little impact on morale among
militaries that had integrated transgender people.
Gregory Angelo, president of the Log
Cabin Republicans, which represents LGBT Republicans and has
previously praised Trump, described Trump's surprise decision as
“political.”
“This smacks of politics, pure and
simple,” Angelo said in a statement. “The United States military
already includes transgender individuals who protect our freedom day
in and day out. Excommunicating transgender soldiers only weakens
our readiness; it doesn't strengthen it.”