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Joe Biden Repeals Donald Trump’s Transgender Military Ban
President Joe Biden has repealed Donald Trump’s 2019 guidance that banned transgender people from enlisting and serving in the military, part of a broader effort to undo the former president’s transphobic and regressive policies.
“President Biden believes that gender identity should not be a bar to military service, and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,” reads a White House statement sent to reporters on Monday.
“This question of how to enable all qualified Americans to serve in the military is easily answered by recognizing our core values. America is stronger, at home and around the world, when it is inclusive. The military is no exception,” the statement reads. “Allowing all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform is better for the military and better for the country because an inclusive force is a more effective force.”
Biden signed an executive order to repeal the ban at a ceremony with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ― who said at his confirmation hearing last week that he supports the decision.
“I truly believe ... that if you’re fit and you’re qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve,” Austin said at the time. “And you can expect that I will support that throughout.”
The secretary will order the Pentagon to return to the 2016 policy enacted by former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, which allowed transgender Americans to serve openly in the military.
I’m grateful that the ‘coast is clear’ so to speak to allow me and other trans folx breathing room to keep carving more progress for better equality. Brock Stone, Navy veteran
Less than a year into his presidency, Trump announced in a series of tweets that he planned to ban transgender people from serving in the military in “any capacity,” citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption” that he claimed comes with employing trans personnel.
The controversial policy,...
