At the Pentagon, officials said they welcomed the action and indicated that the department would begin implementing it quickly. “The department will immediately take appropriate policy actions to ensure that individuals who identify themselves as transgender are eligible to enter and serve their own identified gender,” he said. “No one shall be divorced or dismissed, or re-aligned, solely on the basis of gender identity.”
Austin said Biden’s executive order ‘will ensure that all medically necessary transitional care approved by law is available to all service members’, which will remove a major obstacle for transgender men and women who want to join, or stay , the army. He also promised to re-examine the affairs of all members of the transgender service currently being forced out of the military.
Senior military leaders, in turn, responded Monday with some relief that the Pentagon did not have to continue to defend the controversial ban – which has caused a number of lawsuits across the country – in the courts. While military officials refused to speak publicly about the issue for fear of entering politics, General Milley said during his confirmation hearing in 2019, when asked about the transgender issue, ‘I do not believe there is something inherent in someone’s identity to prevent them from serving in the military. ”
Advocacy groups that have been fighting the ban since it was announced three years ago – in a tweet from Mr. Trump – argued that the Pentagon does not need months to study how to allow transgender people to serve, because he has already done so. One such group, the Palm Center, said in a policy note last summer that the military could quickly reopen to transgender people if ordered.
“A large ship can take time to turn, so often the Pentagon has to study policy changes and move carefully,” Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, said in an interview in July. “But this is the rare case, as the military has put in place an inclusive policy for already transgender staff, even though the ban has been applied, the switch is just waiting to be turned around.”
Others argued that the ban of Mr. Trump, not the recall of Mr. Do not pray, was ill-considered.