Olympian and transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner called U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military “very, very disappointing” while speaking in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Trump tweeted last Wednesday that transgender individuals won’t be allowed to serve in the country’s military and said the decision came after consultations with military experts and generals.
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Trump decides to ban transgender people from U.S. military
READ MORE: Trump says transgender individuals won’t be allowed into U.S. military
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Jenner spoke to Sarah Adolphson on stage at WORLDZ Cultural Marketing Summit in Hollywood on Tuesday about Trump’s decision.
“We have had, especially a lot of trans men, who are frontline Afghanistan fighting for our country and they deserve our respect,” Jenner said.
Jenner continued, “It’s just very disappointing but we’ll see what happens in the future.”
“That was very, very disappointing,” Jenner said.
Jenner went on to speak about the difficulties many people in the transgender community face when trying to get a job.
READ MORE: Transgender U.S. soldier says Trump’s tweets sent her into ‘a state of depression’
“It’s young trans kids … a job for a trans person in our society is very difficult.They face job discrimination, very difficult time trying to get a job. And the military was a great option for a lot of people. And they have served admirably,” Jenner stated.
This isn’t the first time Jenner has addressed the topic of Trump’s decision.
On July 26, she took to Twitter to criticize Trump writing, “There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them?”
Jenner tweeted her comment along with an old 2016 tweet from Trump that read, “Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.”
READ MORE: Trump’s ban on transgender troops leads to shock, anger and confusion
Jenner, who said she voted for Trump, told CNN in April that the U.S. president “has made some mistakes” regarding his positions on some LGBTQ issues.
“I don’t support him in everything that he does,” Jenner said. “But we needed to shake the system up.”
In July, Jenner told John Catsimatidis on AM 970 that she is considering getting more involved politically.
“Can I do a better job from the outside? Kind of working the perimeter of the political scene, being open to talk to anybody? Or are you better off from the inside, and we are in the process of determining that. Yeah, but I would look for a senatorial run,” she said.
Jenner, who’s declared she’s a conservative Republican, said a large focus of her campaign would be an attempt to merge more progressive values on LBGTQ issues alongside the general Republican platform.
“The perception of the Republican party is that they’re all about rich white guys trying to make money,” she said. “I would hope in the next generation that we can change the perception of the Republican party, and make it the party of equality.”
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