Britney’s snake, Britney and Christina’s snog with Madonna, Miley Cyrus twerking on Robin Thicke…Kanye telling Taylor ‘imma let you finish’, Lady Gaga’s meat dress - the MTV VMAs have long been legendary at making big statements, but this year it’s taking a direct aim at President Trump.
Remember when he pledged on Twitter that trans military would be banned from the US because they were a ‘burden’ on the military’s healthcare budget? You know, when he did it without telling the US Department of Defence (Dod) as a way of pretty much shoring up his old-school fans by creating straw men (and women) out of trans people who simply want to fight for their country, supposedly the most patriotic thing a citizen can do?
Well, MTV were seemingly unhappy with this, if the invites to their upcoming Video Music Awards are anything to go by.
A Pentagon spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Haverstick told Variety: ‘DoD confirms that MTV has invited Service members in their personal capacity to this year’s VMAs. At the request of the Services, DoD is reviewing the parameters of the individual invitations.’
The last time something like this happened, Lady Gaga invited LGB military to join her on the red carpet in 2010 in order to celebrate the recent retraction of the US military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which meant that basically, LGB people could serve in the army, navy or air force, but just never, ever ever say a word about it.
Whether inviting trans service personnel along to the VMAs will make their lives immediately better is yet to be seen. After all, Trump has revealed no detail about how he would implement the trans ban and how he would deal with 15,000 trans people currently serving int the US military. What the VMAs do, though, should trans military be allowed to attend, is draw more attention to their plight, especially now that most conversations around Trump and the military seem to be his u-turn decision to send more troops into Afghanistan to kill the Taliban…At a time when he needs more resources, why should he be turning down any willing fighters and strategists on the basis that they’re trans?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.