After a series of attacks on the LGBTQ + community led by the Trump administration, President Joe Biden again authorized transgender people to serve in the United States military on Monday, January 25.
In the presence of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, the US President signed an executive order that “All Americans fit to serve in the United States armed forces should be able to do so”, the White House said in a statement. “President Biden believes that gender identity should not be an obstacle to service in the military and that America’s strength lies in its diversity”, adds the US executive.
“Allowing all Americans able to serve their country in uniform is better for the military and better for our country because a force [armée] inclusive is a more effective force, the statement continued. Put simply, that’s what’s right and it’s in our national interest. “
Discriminatory measures
At the end of his term, former Democratic President Barack Obama had planned that the military would begin welcoming transgender recruits to the 1er July 2017. His Republican successor first postponed the deadline to 1er January 2018, then decided to completely reverse this policy. Donald Trump had put forward, in a burst of Tweet in July 2017, “The burden of huge medical costs” and “Disturbances”, taking the opposite view of the military hierarchy.
After various legal actions, the case reached the Supreme Court, which in January 2019 authorized Donald Trump’s administration to limit transgender rights pending the outcome of the ongoing legal battles.
As of April 2019, transgender people are forced to serve based on their gender assigned at birth. And people who need hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery can no longer enlist, nor can people who have previously undergone medical treatment for gender reassignment. The measure had been criticized by human rights defenders, who considered it discriminatory and believed that it would lead transgender soldiers to conceal their gender identity.
The Pentagon estimates that 9,000 people who identify as transgender serve in the armed forces, a thousand of whom say they have changed sex or want to do so. The US military has 1.3 million active service personnel.
