Transgender Navy SEAL: Biden’s order ‘will give many other individuals the chance to finally be themselves’

Transgender Navy SEAL: Biden’s order ‘will give many other individuals the chance to finally be themselves’

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“I didn’t necessarily want to get my hopes up,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “Full Circle” on Friday. “I was hopeful, but I also wanted to keep my expectations in check as to what exactly that would mean.”

Nefzger lived and wrote transgender military history since the Supreme Court allowed Trump’s ban on transgender people in the armed forces to take effect in January 2019. In the year the ban came into force, Nefzger – who has served in the army since 2002 – official transition and became the first Navy SEAL on active duty to identify as transgender. Last week, Biden signed an executive order to lift the ban.

“It is a burden lifted not only from my shoulders, but from so many transgender individuals who are serving now, but also from all those who are not open and who are still unsure whether they want to leave or are unsure of themselves,” she said . “This allows everyone to remain themselves without having to worry about the adverse effects of their command or being expelled. And it allows them to serve with freedom to do their job ”.

Nefzger continued, “I think it’s incredible and I’m glad it happened, so I think it will give many other individuals the chance to finally be themselves without having to worry about anything else and hiding.”

SPART * A, Service Members, Partners, Allies for Respect and Tolerance for All, estimates that there are 15,000 transsexual members of the service, and the organization is in contact with more than 300 other trans individuals who are ready to enlist.

Speaking of the Oval Office just before signing the executive order last week, Biden said the order “is restoring a position that previous commanders and, like the secretaries, supported. And what I’m doing is allowing all qualified Americans serve your country in uniform. “

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing at the White House that “no one will be separated or discharged from the army or denied realist on the basis of gender identity, and for members of the transgender service who have been discharged. or separated because of gender identity, their cases will be re-examined. ”

Then President Donald Trump first announced the ban on Twitter in July 2017, which was rebuked by the Democratic-led House of Representatives and condemned by LGBTQ activists as discriminatory. Trump argued that transgender people in the armed forces would lead to “tremendous medical costs and inconvenience”.

The policy, later officially launched by then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis in 2018, blocked the service of individuals who were diagnosed with a condition known as gender dysphoria, with limited exceptions. The policy specifies that individuals without the condition can serve, but only if they do so according to the sex they were assigned at birth.

Trump’s ban reversed a policy initially approved by the Defense Department of then President Barack Obama, which was still under final review and which would have allowed transgender individuals to serve in the armed forces.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan, Oren Liebermann, Ellie Kaufman and Anne Clifford contributed to this report.

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