Transgender Navy SEAL Kristin Beck Slams Trump’s Military Ban: It’s a ‘Catastrophe’

Retired transgender Navy SEAL Kristin Beck weighed in on President Donald Trump‘s ban of transgender Americans from joining the military.

Beck, who served in the Navy for twenty years as Christopher Beck, transitioned in 2011 after she retired.

She told Anderson Cooper that everyone in the military seemed “blindsided” by Trump’s tweets, especially her transgender friends who are currently serving.

The Purple Heart recipient pushed back at the White House’s assertion that having transgender people serving “erodes military readiness,” which Cooper noted was the same argument made against black and openly gay people serving in the military.

“Nothing ever happened,” she said. “When we integrated into the military, everything was better. And diversity makes us stronger and diversity is what we need.”

Beck called the Trump administration’s position “excuses” and added that “something’s going on.”

Cooper mentioned that Beck did not come out while she served, but she insisted that she is the “same person” as she was when she did serve.

“They’re basing their emotions on misinformation,” she added. “They’re basing their emotions on parades with a person in a pink boa. That’s one picture of transgender. Transgender is also me. Transgender is this picture.”

She concluded by calling this policy change a “catastrophe.”

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

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