Carter announced past year that the ban on transgender troops serving openly would be lifted unless it was proven that such an action would have a negative “impact on military effectiveness and readiness”.
Advertisement
If all goes through, officials say the repeal will go into effect next Friday, July 1.
Eighteen other nations, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Israel, allow transgender people to serve openly in their militaries.
News of the decision was quickly praised Friday by transgender service members and groups supporting the ban’s repeal.
After the formal announcement, each branch of the armed forces will have one year to implement new policies that will be needed in regard to recruiting, housing and uniforms for transgender troops.
After a visit this week to Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter called the facility a “national treasure”. Roddy Flynn, executive director of the caucus, said, “The entire LGBT Equality Caucus thanks the White House and the Pentagon for this historic policy change”.
“To what extent would military barracks, ship berths, gym shower facilities, latrines, and other facilities have to be modified to accommodate personnel in various stages of transition and what would be the projected cost of the modifications?”
“If reports are correct, I believe Secretary Carter has put the political agenda of a departing administration ahead of the military’s readiness crisis”, Thornberry said in a statement.
Pentagon officials responded to Thornberry in September, said Eric Pahon, a department spokesman.
In May, the Pentagon’s new acting Pentagon personnel chief, Peter Levine, said that it would likely take “months, but not large numbers of months” more to finalize details. The RAND study estimated that only about 2,500 of the 1.2 million active duty members are transgender, while a study by UCLA’s Williams Institute estimated the number to be 15,500, in addition to 134,300 veterans.
Advertisement
The Pentagon commissioned a RAND Corp. report on transgender troops but has not released it. Under the current policy, the secretary must approve the removal of any transgender service member; so far he has chosen not to do so.
