Gov. Cooper: Welcome Transgenders Into Military

RALEIGH, NC -- North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said in a tweet Wednesday that the American military should allow all qualified people to serve. The announcement comes in the wake of President Trump's series of tweets proclaiming his ban on transgender people serving in the military.

The full text of the three-pronged tweet from the president said "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. Thank you."

Though studies show the president may be misguided. There are several thousand troops currently serving who are transgender, according to the RAND Corporation, and a decision to allow transgender troops to serve openly would "have minimal impact on readiness and health care costs."

RAND said there are between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender service members currently serving. They estimated that if they were provided with transgender-related surgeries and medical care, the annual military budget would need to find between $2.4 million and $8.4 million, a cost increase of a tenth of one percent.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, tweeted on Wednesday:

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