On Wednesday, February 27, The Pentagon released a new policy related to the Transgender troops currently serving in the United States military. The policy requires the military to identify Transgender members by March 26. Then, those individuals will have to obtain a waiver by June 25; if not, they will be removed.
The policy states that Transgender members have to prove through the waiver that they “have never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex,” as well as displaying the “standards associated with the service member’s sex,” according to USAtoday. This order states that there are only two genders, and that gender dysphoria is “incompatible” with military service.
In January, Trump issued an executive order that effectively would bar transgender individuals from serving in the military. The executive order states that transgender people “do not meet the high standards demanded of servicemembers.” So far, the military has stopped its recruitment of Transgender individuals looking to join. However, they have reportedly not begun ruling out or separating individuals, according to USAToday.
The debate about Transgender individuals in the military is nothing new and has been around for almost ten years now. It began in the summer of 2016 when the military began accepting Transgender troops. The Defense Secretary at the time, Ash Carter, was supportive of the idea of Transgender people in the military; he made his beliefs clear by stating that the army would continue to move forward when transgender individuals could no longer be “discharged or otherwise separated from the military just for being transgender.”
However, in Trump’s first term, he barred transgender individuals from the service. His policy, pushed forward in January of 2019, banned transgender people from enlisting in the military as well as participating in Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) or attending military academies.
However, the policy did allow some to continue serving. During his first term, Trump allowed trans service members who had come out before the ban to continue to serve as well as receive transition-related medical care. However, those who had not come out before the ban were not permitted to serve as their sex assigned at birth and could not receive transitional healthcare.
Then, former President Joe Biden wasted no time when he was sworn into office; during his first week he overturned Trump’s orders. Now, Trump has overturned Biden’s order and replaced it with one of the latest executive orders.
No one knows the exact number of transgender troops currently serving in the United States. However, what we do know is the number is extremely small compared to the roughly two million troops currently serving.
Kate Cole, a Sgt. 1st Class, and a Transgender woman who enlisted at 17, has spent her entire life in the Army. She is now helping to fight the enforcement of the ban on transgender people. She has won multiple medals throughout her time in the service. She told the LA Times how she and other transgender service members felt about the ban, “We’re here, we’re serving honorably, we meet the standards and we just want to continue to serve,”
Since the executive order, lawsuits have been filed against Trump. According to USAToday, the lawsuit states that Transgender individuals will be “discharged from service, lose their means of supporting themselves and their families, and stripped of the honor, status, and benefits associated with uniformed service to their country.”
All individuals who take the oath and work to honor their country deserve our respect, no matter how they choose to identify themselves.
