Arcade Fire Speak Out Against Trump’s Trans Military Ban
Arcade Fire spoke out against Donald Trump’s efforts to ban transgender Americans from the military during the band’s Thursday night gig in Brooklyn, a show that was live streamed on Apple Music.
“I would just like to briefly say that trans people are not disturbances,” singer Win Butler told the crowd. “Usually a bully starts with someone who he thinks is weak, but it’s the fucking wrong call.”
Butler also expressed his overall frustration concerning the Trump administration, which seems to spout new scandals on a daily basis. Over the course of the last 24 hours alone, Trump’s new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci went on an expletive-filled rant against fellow members of the Trump administration. That was followed by the GOP’s failure to pass the “skinny repeal” and the Friday afternoon exit of Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
“Goddamn, I wish this whole fucking thing was a joke,” Butler added. “We have a lot of work to do, collectively. We’re really open to any way we can help, maybe we can figure it out together, because this fucking shit is really bad. We have to find a way to change it.”
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted, “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
Approximately 15,000 transgender Americans serve in the military. However, Trump’s tweets don’t rewrite the law, and the military’s Joint Chiefs of Starr later clarified, “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance.”