“I truly believe … that if you are fit and qualified to serve and can maintain the standards, you must be allowed to serve,” Austin told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing.
The application provides immediate protection for all members of the transsexual service. He interrupts all involuntary separations or layoffs based on gender identity and instructs the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security, who oversees the Coast Guard, to implement the order and inform the president within 60 days of its progress.
The executive order also requires officers to find the records of any soldiers who have been expelled from military service because of their gender identity and to correct their military records, which means that dishonorable dismissals can be exchanged for honorable ones.
“Simply put, transgender service members will no longer be subject to the possibility of discharge or separation based on gender identity. [and] Transgender members on duty can serve in their gender when the transition is complete, “according to a White House newsletter on the order.” Transgender members on duty should know that they are accepted into all armed forces in the United States. “
Defense groups celebrated the decision on Monday. Emma Shinn, president of the transgender advocacy arm of the Modern Military Association of America, said Biden’s restoration of open service policy “closes a dark chapter in history.”
“I am delighted that the approximately 15,000 members of the transgender service proudly serving around the world can be reassured knowing that their service to our nation is seen, valued and that they can continue to serve as their authentic selves,” she said.
Transgender personnel began to openly serve in the armed forces on July 1, 2017, under an order from the Obama administration. But Trump imposed the ban just a few weeks later, via Twitter.
“The United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any position in the United States Armed Forces,” he tweeted on July 26. “Our military must focus on a decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot afford the enormous medical costs and disruption that the transgender in the army would entail
The series of tweets drew outrage from LGBTQ supporters and Democrats, and also sparked a stir in the Pentagon, which was taken aback by the announcement. Former defense officials managed to slow down the implementation of the new policy. Trump wanted the ban to take effect in February 2018, but then Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered a further study of the policy, which had already been widely evaluated, and did not take effect until April 2019.
Trump’s ban also spawned four lawsuits that have been operating in the judicial system since August 2017. The author of one, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was “relieved and grateful” for Biden’s executive order.
“By promptly terminating the trans military ban, President Joe Biden prioritized correcting our course and put us back on track,” Navy sailor Brock Stone said in a statement. “I joined the Navy in 2006 to serve my country and my idea of patriotism includes speaking for me and for anyone who is being repressed. … The actions of the Biden government claim that I and other members of the transgender service belong to our armed forces, our country and our society. “
Trump’s ban has banned transgender military service members from serving in their identified gender and has ordered the discharge of anyone diagnosed with gender dysphoria – severe anxiety that some trans people feel when their bodies do not align with their gender – while in uniform . Obama’s policy also required transsexual members of the military to serve with their biological sex, but included an exception for individuals diagnosed with gender dysphoria for the transition.
Under Trump’s order, recruit candidates could not join the army if they had made the transition. The Obama-era plan would accept recruits who had made the transition as civilians, as long as they were physically and mentally stable for 18 months after the transition.
The concern of the panel of experts commissioned by Trump to look into the matter was that treatment for gender dysphoria is highly individualized and not well established among medical experts, said a defense official who left the Trump administration, adding that the Pentagon was “ Taking many risks ”. In addition, the suicide rate is “exceptionally high”, in some cases 50-60 percent higher, for people with gender dysphoria, even after treatment.
But a 2014 report by the Transgender Military Service Commission concluded that “there is no convincing medical justification for banning transgender service”.
That report also estimated that more than 15,000 transgender people were in the army. A more recent RAND study in 2016 said that 1,320 to 6,630 transgender soldiers were on active duty, but noted that it can be difficult to estimate because of prohibitions and lack of data. Only a fraction of them will seek medical treatment for the transition.
Supporters of transgender service members had devised a plan to lift the ban in 30 days. The proposal, developed by the Palm Center, says the Pentagon still has operations that allow transgender troops to serve openly with their identified gender because about 1,600 transgender troops were diagnosed with gender dysphoria before April 2019 and acquired by Obama-era policy .
The Trump-era Pentagon policy had two tracks: a ban on any new service member or those wishing to transition, and an inclusive policy for those who received their diagnosis before the deadline, the Palm Center report said.
To lift the ban, the Pentagon could simply continue the existing inclusive policy and apply it to all members of the service, not just those with vested rights, while removing the ban imposed by Trump, the report said.
Jennifer Dane, executive director of the Modern Military Association of America, a nonprofit group serving LGBTQ troops and their families, also said she hoped that policies would return to policy during the Obama administration.
Dane also asked Congress to make the change permanent, so that a future government could not undo it by executive order.
“While we celebrate this important victory for the second time, our greatest hope is that this reversal will be codified in law, like the repeal of Don’t ask, don’t say, to ensure that it never happens again,” said Dane. “Anyone qualified and capable of joining the army must have the right to serve, period.”