TRANS ENLIST IN 2018

Don’s ban stalled

The Pentagon said Monday that transgender people can enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1 — despite President Trump’s efforts to ban them from serving.

The new policy reflects growing concerns about whether a ban would be legal and the hurdles the federal government would face to enforce Trump’s demand that transgender people be barred.

Two federal courts have already struck down the ban — and a federal judge on Monday denied the Justice Department’s emergency request to push back the Jan. 1 date.

Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it difficult, though not impossible, for them to join the armed services.

Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, said the enlistment of trans recruits will start on New Year’s Day and continue as the legal battles play out.

Eastburn said that the new guidelines mean the Pentagon can disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, which is the distress a person experiences over the sex and gender they were assigned at birth.

Those with a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction could also be disqualified.

But such recruits woule be allowed in if a medical provider certifies that they have been clinically stable in their preferred gender sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.

Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy must also be stable on their medication for 18 months.

The Pentagon has similar restrictions for recruits with a variety of medical or mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder.

“Due to the complexity of this new medical standard, trained medical officers will perform a medical prescreen of transgender applicants for military service who otherwise meet all applicable applicant standards,” Eastburn said.