WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will issue an executive order to undo a Pentagon policy largely prohibiting transgender people from joining the military, by dumping a ban ordered by President Donald Trump in a tweeted during his freshman year in office, a person informed of the decision tells The Associated Press.
Biden is widely expected to destroy Trump policies in its early days. The White House could announce the move as early as Monday, according to the person aware of the decision who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the warrant.
The move to reverse the policy is supported by Biden’s recently confirmed Secretary of Defense, retired Army General Lloyd Austin, who spoke at his Senate confirmation hearing last week about the need to revoke it.
“I support the president’s plan or plan to overturn the ban,” Austin said. “If you are fit and qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve.”
The decision comes because Biden plans to turn his attention to issues of equality that he believes overshadow almost all aspects of American life. Prior to his inauguration, Biden’s transition team circulated a memo by Ron Klain, now the White House Chief of Staff, outlining Biden’s plan to use his first full week as president “ to promote equality and promote colored communities and other disadvantaged people. communities. “
The move to overturn the transgender ban is also the latest example of Biden using executive power in his early days as president to dismantle Trump’s legacy. His first actions included orders to undo Trump administration bans on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries, halt construction of the wall on the US-Mexico border, and launch an initiative to promote racial equality. to improve.
Biden is also scheduled to hold a ceremonial inauguration at the White House Monday for Austin, who became the country’s first black defense secretary.
It was unclear how quickly the Pentagon can introduce a new policy and whether it will take some time to work out details.
Until a few years ago, soldiers could be fired from the military for being transgender, but that changed during the Obama administration. In 2016, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that transgender people already serving in the military would be allowed to serve openly. And the military set July 1, 2017 as the date on which transgender people would be allowed to register.
After Trump took office, his administration delayed the date of enlistment and called for additional research to determine whether allowing transgender people to serve would affect military readiness or effectiveness.
A few weeks later, Trump surprised military leaders by tweeting that the government would not accept or allow transgender people to serve in the military “in any capacity”. “Our military must be focused on a decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the enormous medical costs and disruption that transgender would bring in the military,” he wrote.
It took almost two years, but after a protracted and complicated legal battle and additional assessments, the Department of Defense approved the new policy in April 2019 that did not adhere to an outright ban, but transgender troops and military recruits transitioned and requires most individuals to serve in their birth gender.
Under that policy, currently transgender troops and anyone who had signed up for employment before the effective date would be able to proceed with plans for hormone treatments and gender transition if they were diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
But after that date, no one with gender dysphoria who was taking hormones or had switched sexes was allowed to sign up. Troops already serving and diagnosed with gender dysphoria were required to serve in their birth sex and were not allowed to take hormones or undergo transitional surgery.
Under Trump’s policy, a service employee can be fired based on a diagnosis of gender dysphoria if he or she is “ unable or unwilling to adhere to all applicable standards, including those related to his or her biological sex, ” or if he or she is transitioning to a different gender. ”And it said troops should be formally advised and given the opportunity to change their decision before the dismissal is finalized.
As of 2019, an estimated 14,700 troops on active duty and in the reservations identify as transgender, but not all of them seek treatment. As of July 2016, gender dysphoria has been diagnosed in more than 1,500 service employees; on February 1, 2019, there were currently 1,071 in service. According to the Pentagon, the department spent about $ 8 million on transgender health care between 2016 and 2019. The military’s annual health care budget is $ 50 billion.
All four chiefs of service told Congress in 2018 that they had seen no problems with discipline, morale, or readiness of units with transgender troops serving openly in the military. But they also recognized that some commanders spent a lot of time with transgender people working on medical requirements and other transitional issues.
___
Aamer Madhani, Associated Press author, contributed to this report.