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United States President Donald Trump’s announcement of a transgender ban in the military has led to widespread criticism from rights groups. In these uncertain times, a thought-provoking documentary (above) from The New York Times looks at a moving story from the military.

The 12-minute Transgender, At War, And In Love profiles a transgender airman named Logan Ireland who was in for a pleasant surprise when his leaders and peers supported him when he told them his sex was actually assigned female at birth. The military policy has been rough on this front and has notoriously prevented transgender people from being able to serve openly.

While the Obama administration did make the decision to let them operate openly in the military last year, it has seen delays and hiccups. The video also features Ireland’s fiancée, Laila Villanueva, who was assigned male at birth and went through a similar situation. However, she faced a major issue – she had to work without any kind of support from her command.

The couple had to deal with a lot of uncertainty related to their future and dreams of being in the military, building a home and having a family together because of the discrimination transgender people face. They knew that coming out publicly in such a scenario was going to be a major gamble.

Ireland is now a staff sergeant, and said would happily challenge the order in court. “You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life,” he said. The whole controversy is, in fact, centred on outdated medical regulations that look at transgender people as psychologically impaired.

Read below a series of Trump’s tweets illustrating his discriminatory stand against transgenders serving in the military.