Mr. Bloomfield, what is the current situation of trans rights in the U.S.?

Jacob Bloomfield: The start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second, non-consecutive term has been marked by a raft of executive orders targeting the rights of trans Americans. These include an executive order banning trans girls and women from participating in women’s sports in federally funded schools and universities as well as another restricting gender-affirming care for trans young people. The Trump administration has also removed state-run webpages that featured information on trans health. 

Another executive order targets the participation of trans people in the U.S. military, declaring, “'expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service". The executive order requires the Department of Defense to come up with a new policy on transgender service members, suggesting that an outright ban on transgender service members is coming in the future.

Donald Trump claims that gender variance contradicts the lifestyle of a soldier.

In my research, I have shown that expressions of gender variance (that is, gender presentations, or gendered understandings of oneself, expressed through comportment, clothes, and other means, that are unconventional – or that expose the diversity of gender – in a given cultural context) have long been part of military life. Drag shows performed by British, Canadian, and American servicemen in the First and Second World Wars not only entertained soldiers on the battlefront, but were hugely popular with civilian audiences on the homefront, too.

Take, for example, the servicemen’s drag troupe Les Rouges et Noirs who were deemed so important to interwar British popular culture that they were selected as the stars of one of the very first British-made '"talkies" (that is, films that featured sound). Canadian servicemen's drag troupe the Dumbells were lauded by their comrades in arms during the First World War and later found success with civilians in their native Canada, in London, England, and on New York’s Broadway.

Does this also apply to the U.S. army?

There were also drag shows by American GIs. Drag by black and white American servicemen-performers figured prominently in the stage and film versions of the Irving Berlin "all-soldier musical show" This Is the Army (1942). The cast of that musical was the only racially integrated company in the American armed forces during the Second World War. The film adaptation of the show even starred future U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Skirts (1943), a drag revue performed by American servicemen with music by Guys and Dolls songwriter Frank Loesser, was also a hit. 

"It is important to clarify that drag and transgender identities should not be conflated. But my research has shown that some of the participants of military drag shows saw the shows as a critical forum in which to explore and express their then-unconventional gender identities, and a number of these performers later identified as trans. The same was true for some audience members who saw the shows."

Jacob Bloomfield

About Jacob Bloomfield:
Historian Dr Jacob Bloomfield teaches and researches at the University of Konstanz. He is an associated member of the university's Zukunftskolleg. His research focuses on cultural history, the history of sexuality and gender history. Jacob Bloomfield is the author of the book "Drag: A British History" (University of California Press, 2023).

What are the consequences of banning trans soldiers?

Banning trans people from serving has damaging material consequences for them. Serving in the military is one of the few ways for Americans to access Western and Central European-style social programmes, such as state-subsidized healthcare and education. Barring trans people from serving in the military would mean that a whole class of people would be unable to access these vital social programmes. Trump’s executive order thus goes against basic fairness and the military’s historical acceptance of gender variance.

From a historical point of view, conservatives in the present are subverting the military’s time-honoured, historical role as a haven for expressions of gender variance. This is ironic, given the political right’s self-appointed position as defender of tradition.

At the end of the day, every army will always have a proportion of people with trans identities, whether they are open about it or hide their identities. The military should reflect the population it serves.