Tonight, in his State of the Union address, President Obama celebrated the fact that the American military will no longer bar openly gay and lesbian service members. He went on to call on colleges and universities to open their campuses to ROTC and military recruiters now that the discriminatory Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy has been repealed.  

However, students on campuses like Stanford and Harvard have already pointed out that the repeal of this policy, while an improvement, still does not allow transgender people to serve openly or to join the military. We support the organizing efforts of students on those campuses and others in continuing to advocate for the exclusion of the military from their campuses as long as the military continues to discriminate.

While the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a victory for fairness, it does not fully address the discrimination that LGBT people face. We must keep up our efforts until the job is completely done and the US military is open all Americans who seek an equal opportunity to serve our country.

In the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, conducted by NCTE and The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 20% of respondents reported having served in the military, a rate of service twice the national average. The full report from the survey will be released on February 4th.  

For more information about the military's policies that impact transgender people, please read the joint statement issued by NCTE and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.