Secretary of Energy Ricky Perry on
Friday declared his support for President Donald Trump's ban on
transgender troops.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday,
Trump declared that the military will no longer “accept or allow”
transgender troops to serve “in any capacity.”
(Related: Trump
says military will bar transgender troops.)
The following day, the Pentagon
clarified that the policy on transgender troops had yet to change.
(Related: Pentagon:
No official change has been made on transgender service.)
Perry, who served as the 47th
governor of Texas from December 2000 to January 2015, made his
remarks while touring an air conditioning plant in Waller, Texas.
“I totally support the president in
his decision,” Perry is quoted as saying by The
Texas Tribune. “The idea that the American people need to
be paying for these types of operations to change your sex is not
very wise from a standpoint of economics.”
In his announcement, Trump said that
the ban was needed to avoid the “tremendous medical costs and
disruption” posed by transgender people serving in the military.
When a reporter pointed out that the
military spends ten times as much on erectile dysfunction medication
than the estimated costs of gender reassignment surgery, Perry joked:
“You know what, I don't check on the price of Viagra.”
Perry, 67, lost the Republican
presidential nomination to Trump.