President Trump’s controversial ban on most transgender people from serving in the armed forces took effect Friday amid protests by advocacy groups.
The Trump administration has argued that there is “too great a risk to military effectiveness and lethality” to allow transgender people to serve — reversing a policy enacted under his predecessor, President Barack Obama.
The Pentagon says the restrictions are not a blanket ban, but would bar many if not most people who identify as transgender from enlisting in the military — and could also impact current personnel.
“This policy will ensure that the US military maintains the highest standards necessary to achieve maximum readiness, deployability, and lethality to fight and win on the battlefield,” the Department of Defense says on its website.
The policy — which has undergone various changes since Trump first announced it on Twitter in July 2017 — has been assailed by rights activists and has been repeatedly challenged in court.
In January, the US Supreme Court ruled that the policy could take effect pending the outcome of ongoing litigation.
Under the current version, no one who has transitioned to another gender or who requires hormone treatment will be able to enlist.
Those who have been diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” also are “presumptively disqualified” from enlisting unless they have been “stable for 36 months and (are) willing and able to serve in (their) biological sex,” according to the department.
Gender dysphoria “involves a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify,” according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Troops who already transitioned or requested gender reassignment surgery prior to Friday are allowed to remain in the military.
But starting Friday, those who are newly diagnosed with gender dysphoria may be discharged if they are “unable or unwilling to serve in (their) biological sex,” the Pentagon says.
Jennifer Levi, transgender rights project director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, said Friday: “That the Trump administration has pushed so hard to be allowed to implement this baseless, immoral and un-American ban is nothing short of shameful.”
She added, according to The Hill, that “as of today and until this policy is overturned, transgender people are barred from service, regardless of their qualifications and ability to meet military standards.”
Aaron Belkin, head of the Palm Center, a research institute focused on sexual minorities in the military, said the policy amounts to a ban that will force transgender troops to remain “silent and invisible.”
“It is ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ all over again,” Belkin told AFP, referring to the policy under which gay service members had to hide their sexual orientation or face dismissal.
Sarah McBride of the Human Rights Campaign described the policy as a national security threat.
“The Trump-Pence transgender troop ban is dangerous for both transgender people and our national security,” McBride said.
“The fact that a service member who came out on Thursday can continue to serve openly while a service member who comes out on Monday can’t only reinforces the cruel and arbitrary nature of this ban,” she said in a statement.
Under the Obama-era policy, transgender recruits were to start being accepted by July 1, 2017. Team Trump postponed that date to Jan. 1, 2018, before deciding to reverse the policy completely.
According to the Pentagon, about 9,000 out of a total of 1.3 million active-duty personnel identify as transgender. Of those, 1,000 say they have undergone gender reassignment surgery or want to.
Transgender rights activists say the figure is higher.
“As many as 15,000 transgender service members stand to lose their jobs,” Army Staff Sgt. Patricia King, who is transgender, told ABC News this week.
“For those of us who are grandfathered in because we’ve already come out and we already have a diagnosis, there’s the possibility for systematic discrimination,” King said.
The new policy is “indefensible,” Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, a Navy veteran, said on Twitter.
“This discriminatory policy will lead Transgender service members, patriots who have decided to serve their nation, to live in the shadows,” she wrote on Wednesday.