Trump Reinstates Military Ban on Transgender People
President Donald Trump announced that he plans to bring back the ban on transgender people when it comes to serving in the US armed forces
The decision reversed a policy that was initially approved by the Defense Department, back in the days when Barack Obama was the president of the US. Defense secretary James Mattis mentioned last month that he delayed the enactment of the plan to begin allowing trans people to join the US military.
However, Donald Trump did not agree to it and shared a series of comments on Twitter:
“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.”
The Defense secretary under Obama, Ash Carter, put an end to the ban on transgender individuals serving openly in the military last year; however, it allowed a one year review process to give the Pentagon the chance to determine how it would accept new transgender recruits into the military.
Right before that one year deadline, Mattis announced that he is delaying the implementation of the policy as he needed more time.
“Since becoming the Secretary of Defense, I have emphasized that the Department of Defense must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force? Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America’s military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military Services,” Mattis said in a memo last month
Trump’s decision is just another setback for the trans community, following his decision from a few months ago to reverse an Obama administration policy that allowed trans individuals to use the bathroom of their choice, and not according to their birth certificate or id.
