Current U.S. service members looking to transition sexes could face forced retirement or be discharged from the military for medical reasons, as part of the Pentagon’s new transgender policy outlined Friday.
The guidelines spring from a tweet President Trump sent out in July 2017 abruptly announcing a ban on transgendered individuals serving in the military, reversing a decision made just before President Obama left office the year before.
The new policy released Friday seeks to address concerns voiced by military’s service chiefs over readiness of U.S. armed forces, as a result of transgendered troops. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered a review of the previous transgender due to those concerns during his tenure at the Pentagon, before the Trump administration announced plans last August to ban all transgender citizens from serving.
Under the new military guidance, U.S. soldiers, sailors, Airmen or Marines who have already been diagnosed with gender dysphoria — the medical condition that causes mental and physical stress due to an individual’s biologically-determined gender — and have undergone gender transition will be allowed to remain in uniform, Pentagon officials say.
But current U.S. service members who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria and choose to undergo medical treatment, either hormone therapy or gender transition surgery, could be “medically retired or medically discharged,” said acting Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Kurta.
Democrats and human-rights groups slammed the move, arguing that the policy will hurt America’s reputation abroad.
“The ban on transgender service members is a shameful step backward,” Tarah Demant, director of the gender, sexuality, and identity program at Amnesty International, said in a statement. “… The Trump administration is sending a dangerous message globally that the United States is ready and willing to blatantly disregard the human rights of thousands of people.”
As the 2020 election season heats up, Democrats suggested that they could use the issue against President Trump.
“This president once promised he would be an ally of the LGBTQ community. But time and again his policies, actions, and words have shown that he believes LGBTQ people are second-class citizens,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said in a statement.
Mr. Kurta told reporters at the Pentagon that a diagnosis of gender dysmorphia for transgendered civilians looking to join the military will be characterized as a “presumptively disqualifying” factor requiring the applicant to seek a waiver.
Active-duty service members identifying as transgender and seeking gender assignment may remain in uniform, if the issue can be treated through psychological therapy by military counselors “on a case-by-case basis,” Mr. Kurta said. If medical treatment is needed, transgender service members will be referred to the military’s disability board, where they could face early retirement or medical discharge, he added.
Mr. Kurta noted that military counselors would not attempt to dissuade a U.S. service member from seeking gender-reassignment procedures, but those mental health professionals would “lay out the consequences” to the service member if they opted to proceed.
Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter formally lifted the ban on transgendered citizens serving openly in the U.S. military in 2017 during the Obama administration.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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