The White House is almost ready to issue guidance to the Pentagon on the implementation of President Trump’s proposal to ban transgender people from serving in the military, The Hill reports.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a White House memo will direct the Defense Department on details related to Trump’s intention to bar transgender people from being admitted to the military.
Under the new policy, Defense Secretary James Mattis would have to consider a service member’s ability to deploy in deciding whether to remove them from the military. Trump announced via Twitter last month that he would reinstate a ban on transgender military service that was lifted last year under former President Barack Obama.
Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had clarified that there would be no practical modifications to Pentagon policies until the White House issued detailed guidance on the reimplemented ban.
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” Trump tweeted.
The president said at the time that he had made the determination after consulting with his “generals and military expert”. The announcement, however, reportedly took Pentagon officials by surprise. Several members of the military openly opposed the decision. The Pentagon said after Trump’s announcement that its policies would not change until the White House issued new guidance.
A Rand Corp. study commissioned last year estimated that there are between 1,320 and 1,600 transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military. The announcement drew bipartisan condemnation, including from Senator John McCain, the top lawmaker on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who admonished Trump for making such a proclamation on Twitter and defended transgender military service.
“There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military – regardless of their gender identity,” he said in a statement.
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