Transparent actor Jeffrey Tambor has spoken out against the Trump administration’s transgender military ban—saying the recent decision has propelled him to work even harder to support the trans community.
“Something I’ve been harping on and I’m serious about is the military ban,” Tambor told . “It makes me get in my car faster and get to Paramount Studios,” he said.
“I think there is hatred, but I think there is fear,” he said of the US president’s to exclude transgender personnel from the military on the basis of ‘medical costs’ and ‘disruption’.
“The real big thing is ignorance,” Tambor continued, adding that Jill Soloway’s Transparent—which is now in its fourth season— is a way for people to understand the diversity of the transgender experience.
“I love that we get through to the human,” he says. “We don’t lecture and we don’t wag our finger didactically.”
“I think this show has a chance to change the playing field.”
The cast and crew of Transparent wrote a joint statement condemning the ban when the show's season four trailer was released at the end of July.
“Sharing this work amidst President Trump’s continued assault on the transgender community is painful," .
"It is reprehensible to deny an estimated 15,000 current trans service members, and 134,000 trans veterans, the dignity, respect and safety that they deserve,” it continued.
President Trump has of the proposed ban—which is still not finalised—that he had “great support from that [the transgender] community.”
“But the transgender… The military’s working on it now… It’s been a very difficult situation and I think I’m doing a lot of people a favour by coming out and just saying it.”
The US Department of Justice recently responded to a lawsuit that’s been brought forward by six transgender members of the armed forces saying that legal action was “premature”.
“The president’s memorandum states that no policy changes to the status quo will be effective until at least after January 2018,” the .
“The president further directed the secretary of defence to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving in the military and that no action be taken against such individuals until after a policy review is completed.”
