Transgender Veteran Will Quiz Clinton and Trump at Commander in Chief Forum

Expected to Ask Candidates Question About Rights for Transgender Veterans

Former U.S. Army Major Evan Young will ask both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at least one question at Wednesday night’s Commander in Chief Forum. 

“Do you support medically necessary transition-related surgeries by the VA for transgender veterans that have served their country honorably?,” Young, who is retired from military service and happens to be transgender, is expected to ask both presidential candidates. NBC is hosting the event, which will be held in New York City at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and aired live.

“Young retired from the military in 2013 after beginning his transition from biologically female to male. He currently serves as national president of the Transgender American Veterans Association,” the Arkansas Times’ Arkansas Blog reports. “Young said that while active-duty transgender service members can receive free gender-reassignment surgeries under the DOD’s Tricare system to help them transition, veterans cannot.”

It’s unknown what response either candidate will give.

Clinton has been a strong supporter of LGBT rights. In 2010 as Secretary of State she quietly changed the rules so that transgender Americans could obtain a U.S. passport listing their identities with only a doctor’s note – no surgery required. And contrary to some who believe she opposed same-sex marriage and LGBT civil rights until politically necessary, Clinton in 2011 in a speech at the Palace of Nations in Geneva declared “gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.” 

Trump has flip-flopped on rights for transgender people, most recently supporting North Carolina’s HB2.

 

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