Ending a year-long process filled with internal conflict and concerns among senior service officials about how the change could be made, US Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Thursday, June 30, lifted the Pentagon's long-held ban on transgender troops serving in the military.
Beginning with guidance to be issued to current transgender service members and their commander, and followed by training for the entire military, Carter said at a news conference that the policy will take place over the next 12 months.
Beginning Thursday, however, service members can no longer be involuntarily separated from the services solely because of being transgender, Carter said.
“Our mission is to defend this country, and we don’t want barriers unrelated to a person’s qualification to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman or Marine who can best accomplish the mission,” Carter said. “We have to have access to 100 percent of America’s population for our all-volunteer forces to be able to recruit from among them the most highly qualified — and to retain them.”
In 2011, the Obama administration revoked the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prohibited gay service members from serving openly. Last year, Carter lifted a ban on women serving in units in ground combat assignments.
For decades, the Pentagon considered transgender people to be sexual deviants who had to be discharged from service. Last year, it was decided to move the authority to discharge to higher-ranking commanders, making it harder to force out those who came out as transgender. Still, many service mambers have been living in limbo.
A Rand Corp. research commissioned by the military indicate that there are about 2,500 transgender service members among the 1.3 million active-duty members of the military. About 1,500 are among reserve units.
According to Carter, the "upper end of their range of estimates" found that there are about 7,000 transgender troops on active duty and about 4,000 in the reserves. Another study by the Palm Center have found that there were about 15,500 transgender members of the service a few years ago and only 12,800 now because of reductions in overall size of the force.
The annoncement brought a mized reaction on Capitol Hill. A Marine Corps veteran, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter played a key role in the failed effort five years ago to slow the demise of "don't ask, don't tell." He decided it was better to focus on other issues, according to his chief of staff, Joe Kasper.
“He’s thought about it. We talked about it,” Kasper said. “But he’d likely be alone in the effort. On these issues — most members won’t touch them with a 10-foot pole. Hunter will, but he can’t get others on board.”
Rep. Mac Thornberry, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called Carter’s decision the latest example of the Pentagon and President Obama "prioritizing politics over policy."
“Our military readiness — and hence, our national security — is dependent on our troops being medically ready and deployable,” he said in a statement. “The Administration seems unwilling or unable to assure Congress and the American people that transgender individuals will meet these individual readiness requirements at a time when our Armed Forces are deployed around the world.”
Thornberry and Sen. James Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said they would consider legislative options on the subject.
Photo / Source: The Washington Post
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