The decision
reversed a policy initially approved by the Defense Department under
President Barack Obama, which was still under final review, that would
allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military. Defense
Secretary James Mattis announced last month that he was delaying
enactment of the plan to begin allowing transgender individuals to join
the US military.
....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
"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," Trump said
in a series of tweets Wednesday morning. "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," he added.
Ash
Carter, the Defense secretary under Obama, ended the ban on transgender
people serving openly in the military in 2016, but allowed for a
year-long review process to allow the Pentagon to determine how it would
accept new transgender recruits into the military.
On
the eve of that one-year deadline, Mattis announced that he was
delaying the implementation of the new policy, saying 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?" Mattis said
in a memo late last month. "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."
A 2016 Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Defense Department concluded
that letting transgender people serve openly would have a "minimal
impact" on readiness and health care costs, largely because there are so
few in the military's 1.3 million-member force.
The
study put the number of transgender people in the military between
1,320 and 6,630. Gender-change surgery is rare in the general
population, and the RAND study estimated the possibility of 30 to 140
new hormone treatments a year in the military, with 25 to 130 gender
transition-related surgeries among active service members. The cost
could range from $2.4 million and $8.4 million, an amount that would
represent an "exceedingly small proportion" of total health care
expenditures, the study found.
Trump's
decision marks a setback for LGBT rights groups who have expressed
concerns that the Trump administration could chip away at progress the
community has seen in recent years on the backs of a series of landmark
decisions in recent years that have included the legalization of
same-sex marriage nationwide and a repeal of the ban on gay people
openly serving in the military.
Trump's
decision is also another setback for the transgender community
following his decision several months ago to reverse an Obama
administration policy allowing transgender students to use the bathroom
of their choice.
The Obama
administration faced heated criticism from the right last year when it
announced the military ban and several Republican members of Congress
have urged the Trump administration to reverse the decision, arguing
that the decision does not serve the US' defense interests.
