Trump issues broad ban on transgenders in military
REVERSING OBAMA PLAN Says gender dysphoria risks military effectiveness PALMBEACH:
US President Donald Trump released an order on Friday night banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under “limited circumstances”, following up on his calls last year to ban transgender individuals from serving.
The White House said retaining troops with a history or diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” — those who may require substantial medical treatment — “presents considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality.”
Trump surprised the Pentagon’s leadership in a 2017 tweet when he declared he would reverse an Obama-era plan to allow transgender individuals to serve openly. His push for the ban has been blocked by several legal challenges, and four federal courts have ruled against the ban. The Pentagon responded by allowing those serving to stay in the military, and began allowing transgender individuals to enlist beginning January 1.
“This new policy will enable the military to apply well-established mental and physical health standards — including those regarding the use of medical drugs — equally to all individuals who want to join and fight for the best military force the world has ever seen,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday.
The new policy was promptly assailed by congressional Democrats and civil rights groups. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted, “No one with the strength & bravery to serve in the U.S. military should be turned away because of who they are. This hateful ban is purposebuilt to humiliate our brave transgender members of the military who serve with honor & dignity.”
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organisation, accused the Trump administration of pushing “anti-transgender prejudices onto the military.”
Trump received recommendations from defence secretary Jim Mattis in February for dealing with transgender individuals serving in the military. The White House said Mattis and homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen agreed with the policy.
Earlier on Friday, Maj David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said the announcement of a new policy would have no immediate practical effect on the military because the Pentagon is obliged to continue to recruit and retain transgender people in accordance with current law.