President Trump recently declared transgendered citizens are not allowed to join the military. What this means is we as citizens have been limited to a restriction as to who can join on the premise of gender appropriation.

Being a disabled veteran has the same stigma.  All too often there are places where we are met with the same microgressiveness in public due to PTSD. I had the chance to take the challenge to “Break Gender Norms” in Intro to Diversity Studies that changed my life forever. There is proximity between transgender and disabled veteran stigma.

My intent with the #TRANSCOMBAT22 initiative at Madison College is to address issues like gas-lighting, harassment, unwelcomed hate speech, and suicide. What I am asking from our student body is to join our community as veterans and citizens to act as allies by breaking gender norms as a token of solidarity.

When you are out shopping, remember, 22 veterans a day commit suicide from unwelcomed transition from war no different than transgender citizens face their entire life growing up unwelcomed in public by being shunned as the out group of hetero-dominant cultured society enforced norms. 

What I am asking of all us to do is to stand up to microgressions starting in school. If you see someone who may be acting through the approach of toxic masculinity, to go live on Facebook, or take a moment to file a complaint with the help kiosk and send the message we are not tolerating hate speech anymore. 

Microgressions are subtle. They often go unnoticed. What they do is set boundaries and walls that establish the grounds you are different, and you are not welcome here.

We as veterans hold a higher standard than that, and as an elder veteran at Madison College, I am requesting you maintain the responsibility to require the respect of others who you may turn the cheek to as it is not your problem.

We not only have a veteran suicide problem, we also have a subjugation of a community that is recognized as scientific human nature. 

We must co-exist. American infrastructure is slowly depleting. We need all the military support we can get.

I ask all of you to please support the #TRANSCOMBAT22 Initiative by working to build as scholars, a global/local reciprocity that encourages our leaders to reconsider the ban. Be kind to one another while you are here in school. We are the future of the world scholars. It is our civic duty to seek as members to resolve conflict by resisting microgressions. 

Diversity is our responsibility to our society to seek the fundamentals of reciprocity first by meeting the basic human need as a cooperative of equal distribution.