WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will issue an executive order to reverse a Pentagon policy that largely bans transgender individuals from joining the military, and a ban ordered by President Donald Trump in a tweet during his first year in office, a person told the Associated Press about the decision.
Biden is widely expected to reverse Trump policy in his early days. The White House may announce the move as early as Monday, according to the person informed of the decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the order.
The move to reverse the policy has the backing of Biden’s newly confirmed Secretary of Defense, retired General Lloyd Austin, who spoke at the Senate confirmation hearing last week about the need to reverse it.
“I support the president’s plan or plan to reverse 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 intends to focus his attention on stock issues that he says continue to overshadow almost every aspect of American life. Prior to his inauguration, Biden’s transition team distributed a memorandum from Ron Klain, now White House Chief of Staff, outlining Biden’s plan to use his first full week as president “to promote equity and color communities and other underserved communities. to support. ”
The move to destroy the transgender ban is also the latest example of Biden’s executive in his early days as president to undermine Trump’s legacy. His early action included orders to stop a Trump administration ban on travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries, halt the construction of the wall at the US-Mexico border and launch an initiative to promote racial equity to promote.
Biden also plans to hold a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony in the White House on Monday for Austin, who became the country’s first black defense secretary.
It was unclear how quickly the Pentagon could implement a new policy and whether it would take some time to work out details.
Until a few years ago, service members could be fired from the military because they were 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 on July 1, 2017, the military set the date on which transgender individuals would be allowed to join.
However, after Trump took office, his administration delayed the date of enrollment and asked for additional study to determine whether allowing transgender individuals to serve would affect military readiness or efficiency.
A few weeks later, Trump surprised military leaders and tweeted that the government would not accept transgender individuals or serve in a capacity of the military. “Our army must be focused on a decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the enormous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the army would bring,” he wrote.
It lasted almost two years, but after a long and complicated legal battle and additional revisions, the Department of Defense in April 2019 approved the new policy which did not have a total ban but prevented transgender troops and military recruits from switching to another generation and required most individuals to serve in their birth generation.
Under the policy, transgender troops can currently be served and anyone who has signed an enrollment contract before the effective date can continue with hormone treatment and gender reassignment plans if they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
But after the date, no one with sex dysphoria who uses hormones or has passed on to another sex may join. Troops who had already served and were diagnosed with gender dysphoria had to serve sex in their birth and were prohibited from taking hormones or having a transition operation.
Under the Trump policy, a service member can be fired on the basis of a diagnosis of gender dysphoria if he or she is unable or unwilling to meet all applicable standards, including those related to his or her biological gender. , or want to transition to another generation. And it is said that troops must formally give advice and have the chance to change their decision before the dismissal is finalized.
As of 2019, approximately 14,700 troops are actively serving and in the reserves as transgender, but not all are seeking treatment. Since July 2016, more than 1,500 service members have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; As of February 1, 2019, there were currently 1,071 ministries. According to the Pentagon, the department spent about $ 8 million on transgender care between 2016 and 2019. The military’s annual health budget is $ 50 billion.
All four service chiefs told Congress in 2018 that they saw no problems with discipline, morality or unity readiness with transgender troops serving openly in the military. But they also acknowledged that some commanders spend a lot of time on transgender individuals who have been working on medical requirements and other transition issues.
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Associated Press author Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.