NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — At the Air Force Association’s Air Space Cyber Conference on Wednesday, Chief Master Sergeant Kaleth Wright affirmed that trans troops in the US Air Force will be treated with dignity and respect, invoking the end of racial segregation in the military, the Air Force Times reports.
“Right now, our transgender airmen are still just that: They are our airmen,” Wright said in response to an audience question at the Air Force Association‘s Air Space Cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland. “And until otherwise, we take care of them just like any other airmen.”
Wright, who is black, then referenced the Tuskegee Airmen, the first squadron of black fighter pilots who flew during World War II.
“There was a time when I couldn‘t serve in our United States Air Force,” Wright said. “There was a time when my wife, who is retired, couldn’t serve in our United States Air Force, because [the military] thought it would be too disruptive. So as long as they are in uniform and considered airmen in our United States Air Force, we treat them with the same level of dignity and respect we would treat any other airmen.”
There has never been a time when he couldn’t serve in the AF. The AF was founded in 1947. Heck, even segregation was ended in the military in 1948. It would have been sufficient for him to say that blacks have been discriminated against. Everyone knows that to be true and it wouldn’t have required a lie to support his point.