WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden signed an order on Monday reversing a Trump-era Pentagon policy that largely banned transgender individuals from serving in the military.
The new order, which Biden signed in the Oval Office during a meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, overrides a ban ordered by President Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in office. It immediately prohibits any member of the service from being forced to leave military service on the basis of gender identity.
Biden’s order says that gender identity should not be a barrier to military service.
“America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception, ”says the order. “Allowing all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform is better for the military and better for the country, because an inclusive force is a more effective force. Simply put, it is the right thing to do and it is in our national interest. “
The order directs the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to take steps to implement the order for the military and the Coast Guard. And he says they should reexamine the records of service members who have been dismissed or re-registered due to gender identity issues under the previous policy.
It requires departments to report to the president on their progress within 60 days.
Biden was expected to quickly change Trump’s policy. And the move was also supported by Biden’s newly confirmed defense secretary, retired general Lloyd Austin, who spoke about the need to overthrow it during his Senate confirmation hearing last week.
“I support the president’s plan or the plan to lift the ban,” said Austin. “If you are fit and qualified to serve and can maintain standards, you must be allowed to serve.
Under Biden’s new policy, members of the transgender service will not be dismissed on the basis of gender identity and can serve in their preferred gender once their transition is complete and recorded in the defense reporting system.
The decision comes at a time when Biden plans to turn his attention to issues of heritage that he believes continue to obscure almost every aspect of American life. Prior to his inauguration, the Biden transition team distributed a memo from Ron Klain, now the White House chief of staff, outlining Biden’s plan to use his first full week as president “to promote equity and support communities of color. and other needy communities. “
The move to overturn the transgender ban is also the latest example of Biden using executive authority in his early days as president to dismantle Trump’s legacy. His first actions include orders to lift a Trump administration ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries, halt construction of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and launch an initiative to promote racial equality.
Until a few years ago, members of the military could be released from the army for being transgender, but that changed during the Obama administration. In 2016, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that transgender people who were already serving in the army would be allowed to serve openly. And the military set July 1, 2017 as the date when transgender individuals would be allowed to enlist.
After Trump took office, however, his government postponed the enlistment date and called for further studies to determine whether allowing transgender individuals to serve would affect military readiness or effectiveness.
A few weeks later, Trump took military leaders by surprise, tweeting that the government would not accept or allow transsexual individuals to serve “in any position” in the military. “Our armed forces must be focused on a decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the enormous medical costs and disruptions that transgender people in the armed forces would incur,” he wrote.
After a long and complicated legal battle and additional revisions, the Department of Defense in April 2019 approved the new policy that fell short of a total ban, but prevented transgender troops and military recruits from transitioning to the other sex and demanded that the most individuals served at their sex of birth.
According to this policy, currently serving transgender troops and anyone who signed an enlistment contract before the effective date could continue with hormonal treatment and gender transition plans if they had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
But after that date, no one with gender dysphoria who was taking hormones or transitioned to another gender was allowed to enlist. Troops that were already serving and were diagnosed with gender dysphoria were forced to serve at their birth sex and were prohibited from taking hormones or undergoing transitional surgery.
In 2019, about 14,700 soldiers on active duty and in reserves identified themselves as transgender, but not all sought treatment. Since July 2016, more than 1,500 military personnel have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; as of February 1, 2019, 1,071 were currently in service. According to the Pentagon, the department spent about $ 8 million on transgender care between 2016 and 2019. The annual military health budget comes to $ 50 billion.
All four chiefs of service told Congress in 2018 that they saw no problems of discipline, morale or readiness for unity with transgender troops serving openly in the armed forces. But they also recognized that some commanders were spending too much time with transgender individuals who worked on medical requirements and other transitional issues.
___
Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.