Daily Times

The US is all set for another war. Donald Trump, as is his way, broke the news on Twitter. That the apprentice-president is not looking to open up a new front in the Muslim world offers little relief.

A war on the American homeland is what he has in mind, targeting the LGBTQ community and the Democrats alike. And his battle cry goes something like this: under his administration, the ban on transgender military personnel serving in the armed forces will be reinstated.

To Trump, we say, shame on you. Especially given that he had campaigned on a pro-LGBTQ mandate of sorts. Meaning that he did, at least, pose for the cameras while holding a Pride flag. Yet we now know that this was mere tokenism, the fetishising of progressive liberalism for ballot box wins.

Yet a word of caution, if we may be so bold, to those who rightly decry this latest move. The Democrats’ ensuing protestations have afforded them the moral high ground. What gives us certain cause for alarm is how they are interchanging the question of transgender Americans with patriotic Americans. We say this not to suggest that the two are mutually exclusive. Only to raise concerns about the relentless framing of the US military war machine in terms of those who love their homeland and those who do not. Meaning that off the table is any supplementary discussion on the legal, moral and ethical justification for the ongoing and multi-fronted American wars. The Democrats would have done better to simply challenge Trump by citing professional performance in favour of the patriotism card.

This form of manufactured liberalism can, at times, be dangerous. And its playing on identity politics — not in terms of sexual orientation but in terms of Left versus Right — is what makes it so. Meaning that being pro-LGBTQ is not sufficient to underscore progressive credentials. Just ask the Brits.

During this first term in office, the warmongering Tony Blair positioned himself as the darling of the LGBTQ community. And rightly so, as it happens. For during this time he lifted the ban on gay men and women serving in the army; equalised the homosexual age of consent; legalised same-sex adoption. Also on his watch was the Gender Recognition Act 2004 that allowed transgender people to change their birth certificate gender. Ditto the Civil Partnership Act 2004, sanctioning legally recognised same-sex partnership. Yet we must ask: is there anyone on the Left today that would call Blair anything but what he is — a full red-blooded neo-con of the first world disorder? Even his own party has woken up to the fact, however belatedly, that liberal agenda must offer more than a selective pick n’ mix approach. Or better put, the party acknowledged this once the decidedly non-Blairite Jeremy Corbyn won the popular vote.

We hope that the Trump ban doesn’t hold. We also hope that America’s transgender community is treated as more than ballot box point scoring. For that would be a real triumph to celebrate.*

Published in Daily Times, July 28th 2017.