Trump diminishes us all

Today, President Trump issued a memo restoring the ban on recruiting transgender people into the military. You can read in the CNN article on the memo some of the data from a Rand study that concluded that the idea that the presence of transgender folks in the military would cause big issues was basically false. Trump is simply doing again what he has done repeatedly: diminishing groups he does not like.

The thing is, though, that his moves diminish all of us.  When we as a country start saying which groups can have which rights, we set a dangerous precedent: that it's okay to deny rights to some of us.

I am past tired of this behavior.

We need to all recognize and proclaim loudly that we will stand with those whose rights Trump is damaging.

I'm lucky.  I'm an affluent, white, heterosexual male, the kind of person Trump seems to like to treat well.  If, like me, you are fortunate enough to enjoy these privileges, you should not let them stop you from standing with others who do not enjoy them.

When Trump signed that memo and took rights from transgender people, he hurt us all.  I stand with those transgender people, not with him.

We should all stand with them.