Pentagon Set To Reverse Trump With New Transgender Policy
Michael Cantrell
|
The Pentagon on Wednesday will wipe away policies put on place by the former Trump administration that largely banned transgender individuals from serving in the United States military, issuing a brand new set of rules that will provide them with wider access to medical care and assistance for gender transition procedures.
The new department regulations allow transgender people who meet military standards to enlist and serve openly in their self-identified gender, and they will be able to get medically necessary transition-related care authorized by law, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal decisions not yet made public.
The changes come after a two-month Pentagon review aimed at developing guidelines for the new policy, which was announced by President Joe Biden just days after he took office in January.
Biden’s executive order overturned the Trump policy and immediately prohibited any service member from being forced out of the military on the basis of gender identity. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin then gave the Pentagon two months to finalize the more detailed regulations that the military services will follow.
“The new rules also prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. Austin has also called for a reexamination of the records of service members who were discharged or denied reenlistment because of gender identity issues under the previous policy. Results of that review have not been released,” the report says.
Up until just a few years ago, if a service member was found to be transgender they could be discharged from the military, but former President Barack Obama and his administration changed that. In 2016, the Pentagon announced that people who are transgender and already serving in the armed forces could serve openly, and that by July of 2017, they could enlist.
When Trump took over the White House, his administration delayed the enlistment date and then called for additional study. A few weeks later, Trump caught military leaders off guard by tweeting out that the government wouldn’t accept or allow transgender people to serve in “any capacity” in the military.
“After a lengthy and complicated legal battle and additional reviews, the Defense Department in April 2019 approved a policy that fell short of an all-out ban but barred transgender troops and recruits from transitioning to another sex and required most individuals to serve in what the administration called their ‘birth gender,'” the report went on to say.
The left is working hard to undo anything and everything done by President Trump, whether or not they agree with the policy. Just look at how many executive orders Biden did during his first week in office, just for the sole purpose of erasing the former president’s legacy.
Welcome to politics in the 21st century.
Share: