Navy defies Trump transgender ban

AMERICAN sailors will be judged solely on their ability and not whether they are transgender, a US admiral said yesterday.

Rear Admiral Kenneth Whitesell was speaking aboard the supercarrier USS George HW Bush after it anchored near Portsmouth.

His comments follow tweets this week by President Donald Trump proposing a ban on transgender individuals serving in the US military.

Mr Trump said American forces ‘cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail’.

Rear Admiral Whitesell, commander of the carrier 2 strike group which includes the ship, said it would will be ‘interesting’ to see how the issue ‘plays out’ and stressed he does not have an opinion.

But he added: ‘I’ve got 5,500 sailors that are on board this ship, when you combine the air wing... 7,000 total that operate.

‘I’m looking for sailors that can accomplish the mission and that is all we judge people by.’