The president of the United States announced on July 26, via Twitter, that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve in the United States military. The news shocked much of the world, including folks in the Pentagon and Congress, since it flew in the face of the policy put in place by former President Barack Obama that was backed by research commissioned by the military. The research found that health care costs would increase by a fraction of a percent and unit cohesion would see little to no impact if trans people were given the opportunity to openly serve.

Donald Trump's tweets aren’t official policy, but they're a telling sign of the administration's attitude toward trans people. At least one report has surfaced with White House staff reportedly asserting that the president's tweets were a sloppily calculated political move designed to put pressure on Democrats in the 2018 elections or secure funding for his promised border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

While his tweeted ban would have a direct effect on thousands of transgender enlistees and veterans, it’s easy to miss the forest for the latest blazing tree the president has set on fire. Life as a political football is a reality that trans Americans are already familiar with. Whether it's through the rash of recent "bathroom bills" — like the one currently making its way through the Texas state legislature — or when they’re used as a talking point by politicians, trans people are often the subject of conversations that rarely take into account their actual lived experiences.

How can cisgender people actually help the transgender people who live among them? Here are a few tips on how to be a better trans ally in these trying times.

Learn the vocabulary.

The GLAAD Media Reference Guide on trans vocabulary is a great place to start. It covers one of the most common mistakes allies make when they have conversations about trans people, whether it’s online or IRL: incorrect use of the word “transgender.”

"Transgender" and the abbreviation "trans" are both adjectives, meaning they can be used to describe a transgender person. "Transgender" is not a noun, so there is no such thing as a “group of transgenders,” and it’s already an adjective, so a term like “transgendered” is unnecessary. Trans people, as a group, can be referred to using terms like “trans community.”

The opposite of "transgender" is "cisgender." The two terms designate the difference between people whose gender corresponds to the gender they were assigned at birth (cisgender) and people whose gender does not correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth (transgender). “Birth assignment” is the best way to refer to the gender marker that a doctor puts on a baby’s birth certificate. Even cis people are “assigned female at birth” (AFAB) or “assigned male at birth” (AMAB).

It’s also important to remember that trans people have existed beyond the gender binary for centuries, and terms like “non-binary,” “genderqueer,” and “agender” are used by people to describe these identities.

Another vital piece of terminology has evolved regarding mental health. In 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders changed the terminology in its fifth edition to note transgender people as living with “gender dysphoria”, instead of “gender identity disorder.” The move was intended to destigmatize being trans by removing the “disorder” concept from the diagnosis.

But the language used by trans people to describe their own experiences is still evolving. Allowing trans people to define themselves on their own terms is an essential part of allyship.

Fight for laws that protect trans rights; fight against those that would take them away.

Trans issues have become a hot-button topic on the national political stage, but often only as a litmus test for a candidate’s progressive values or evangelical credentials. The reality is that the federal government’s most impressive feat to date was the Obama administration providing guidelines on whether or not trans students could use the bathrooms that corresponded with their gender. The Trump administration overturned the guidelines quickly after taking office.