Tag: transgender military

A federal judge has effectively blocked Donald Trump’s proposed ban on transgender service members in the military saying the ban was “driven by a desire to express disapproval of transgender people generally.”

From KCRA:

On July 26 Trump issued a statement via Twitter announcing that “the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.” A presidential memorandum later required the military to remove transgender service members by authorizing their discharge no later than March 23, 2018.

In a federal case, a judge said in an Oct. 30 opinion that the president’s directives are “not genuinely based on legitimate concerns regarding military effectiveness or budget constraints, but are instead driven by a desire to express disapproval of transgender people generally.”

Before the Aug. 25 presidential memorandum, the Department of Defense had announced that openly transgender individuals would be allowed to enlist in the military, effective Jan. 1, 2018, and had prohibited the discharge of service members based solely on their gender identities, the court summarized.

Bolding is mine.

Trump’s original announcement about the ban on trans people came via Twitter this summer:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

….victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

BREAKING! Court blocks @realDonaldTrump’s discriminatory #transgender troop ban. #ProtectTransTroops pic.twitter.com/IytNOMZhiA

— HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) October 30, 2017

Even on this insanely busy news day, this new district court ruling—partially enjoining the military #transgender ban—is a Very. Big. Deal. https://t.co/buBZzpLiuL

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) October 30, 2017

Over 100 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives have issued a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis asking for proof that Donald Trump consulted the Pentagon before announcing his proposed ban on transgender service members in the U.S. military.

On July 26 of this year, Trump surprised the nation with an out-of-the-blue tweet which sought to ban trans service members.

At the time, he said he’d consulted with “my Generals and military experts.”

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Since then, Trump has signed a memo halting any new enlistments by transgender people and eliminating funding for transition-related healthcare costs.

The memo also instructed Mattis to make a decision on transgender soldiers who are already in the military within the next six months.

Several military leaders spoke out against the ban.

To date, no one has identified themselves as having advised Trump in favor of the ban.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Pentagon’s top military official, recently told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee he advised the president to allow all qualified troops to serve.

General Joseph Dunford

You’ll recall that when Donald Trump announced the surprise news of his proposed ban on transgender folks serving in the U.S. military, it was “after consultation with my Generals and military experts.”

But it appears that may not be quite accurate.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, recently appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee and was asked whether transgender service members should be allowed to serve by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Via Pink News:

General Dunford replied: “I would say that I believe that any individual who meets the physical and mental standards and is worldwide deployable and is currently serving should be afforded the opportunity to continue to serve.”

Asked to give assurances to transgender troops, he said: “I can promise that that will be my advice. What I just articulated is the advice I provided in private, and I’ve just provided in public.”

Senator Gillibrand also asked Dunford if he had met with transgender troops to address their concerns about the potential new policy.

He said: “I have not since August when the announcement was made, but I will certainly do that, Senator.”

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces.

Peter Perkowski, legal director for OutServe-SLDN, pens a thoughtful, fact-based op-ed for The Advocate explaining the reasons why Donald Trump’s proposed ban on transgender military servicemembers has no rational basis.

As you may know, back in July Trump tweeted, “Please be advised that United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.”

Perkowski knocks down Trump’s justifications with sane and deliberate consideration.

Here’s an excerpt:

The president now wishes to discard a workable, nondiscriminatory policy in favor of a factually and legally indefensible one that violates basic civil rights.

The president’s justifications? Baseless. One of them, readiness and unit cohesion, is contradicted by the Pentagon’s own studies. In fact, Adm. Michael Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that excluding trans people undermines readiness — the opposite of what the president claims.

Another justification was “tremendous medical costs,” but we know this too is untrue. The Pentagon considered the cost associated with providing medical care to trans service members. Including gender-affirming surgery (if desired), such costs ranged between $2.4 and $8.4 million per year. At the high end of these estimates, the cost is still less than one one-thousandth of one percent of the proposed defense budget for fiscal year 2018. By contrast, the military spends $84 million — or 10 times as much — on medication for erectile dysfunction, something hardly essential to the national defense.

Medical care offered to transgender service members is also qualitatively indistinguishable from the care provided to cisgender troops. The surgeon general of the Navy, C. Forrest Faison III, told the Navy Times in December that most of the medical care for trans service members is offered to cisgender men with low testosterone or cisgender women needing hormone replacement due to menopause.

The Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, has issued new guidance regarding current transgender military service members allowing them to re-enlist over the next several months.

On July 26, Donald Trump surprised military leaders with a tweet demanding that all transgender military be banned from service. Trump gave Mattis six months to figure out the details.

It seems current trans service member may be allowed to remain on duty past the six month mark.

Via Military.com:

In a memo to top military leaders, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said a high-level panel will determine how to implement Trump’s ban on transgender individuals in the military. Trump directed the military to indefinitely extend the ban on transgender individuals enlisting in the service, but he left it up to Mattis to decide if those currently serving should be allowed to stay.

Members of Congress have already sent a letter to Trump calling on him to reconsider the ban.

Sen. John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Friday he backed legislation that would bar the Trump administration from forcing transgender troops out of the armed forces.

McCain of Arizona said in a statement that any service member, including those who are transgender, who meets the standards for military readiness and medical fitness should be permitted to serve.

“When less than 1 percent of Americans are volunteering to join the military, we should welcome all those who are willing and able to serve our country,” McCain said.

The memo was released the same day Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced bipartisan legislation, co-sponsored by Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) Susan Collins (R-Maine) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), which seeks to block Trump’s transgender military ban.

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (L) and Susan Collins (R)

A bipartisan amendment from Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has been introduced that would effectively stop President Donald Trump from implementing his proposed ban on transgender military service members.

The senators have attached the amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act that funds the military. Even though the NDAA is a “must-pass” bill, there’s no guarantee the amendment will get a vote.

The amendment would ban the military from booting transgender soldiers purely for the reason they are transgender.

Senator Gillibrand, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, said in a joint statement: “Any individual who wants to join our military and meets the standards should be allowed to serve, period. Gender identity should have nothing to do with it. I am proud to work with Senator Collins to introduce our bipartisan amendment to protect transgender members of our Armed Forces, and I will always fight for our brave transgender troops who put their lives on the line to protect our country.”

Senator Collins added: “Our armed forces should welcome the service of any qualified individual who is willing and capable of serving our country. If individuals are willing to put on the uniform of our country, be deployed in war zones, and risk their lives for our freedoms, then we should be expressing our gratitude to them, not trying to exclude them from military service.”

You’ll recall that Donald Trump initially said “his generals” told him to ban trans soldiers from the U.S. military.

Well, “his generals” just told him to hit pause.

Putting the brakes on Trump’s proposed ban on transgender folks in the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced today that there will be no change in the current policy regarding transgender soldiers serving in the military until he has a chance to review the results of a study by experts.

From USA Today:

The announcement follows an order from President Trump — first announced in a tweet — declaring that transgender service members can no longer serve in the military, effectively reversing an Obama administration policy. The order also affects the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Coast Guard.

“Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning implementation of his policy direction,” Mattis said in the statement. “In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place.”

Mattis’ move buys time for the Pentagon to determine how and if it will allow thousands of transgender troops to continue to serve, whether they will receive medical treatment, or how they will be discharged.