Trump has introduced a ban that does not allow transgender people to serve.
Several people familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News that President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Monday that will lift the ban on transgender people serving in the military.
The controversial ban was announced in 2017 by former President Donald Trump through a tweet and reversed the Obama administration’s policy of allowing public services by transgender people.
The new Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, will be available at the White House ceremony on Monday, where the executive order will be signed, the people familiar with the matter said.
“The ban will be officially lifted tomorrow,” said one of the people familiar with the signing of the executive order.
Biden said during the presidential campaign that he preferred the repeal of the ban.
In May 2020, Biden said he would order the Pentagon to “serve transgender service members openly and without discrimination in the military.”
“They can shoot as straight as anyone else can,” he added.
Austin said during his confirmation hearing last week that he would support an effort to repeal the ban.
“I support the president’s plan to reverse the ban,” Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If you are fit and qualified to serve and you can maintain the standards, you should be allowed to serve, and you can expect me to support it throughout.”
The White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the executive order.
It is unclear how many transgender people serve in the military, although some advocacy groups have said it could be up to 15,000 individuals.
In 2016, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a policy that would allow transgender individuals to serve openly in the U.S. military.
But in July 2017, Trump issued a series of tweets immediately banning such service.
The tweets blinded Pentagon officials, including James Mattis, Trump’s first secretary of defense.
He soon implemented reviews that led to the Pentagon reintroducing a ban on public transgender service two years later.
The new policy required service members and those who wanted to join the military to meet the standards related to their biological sex.
Employees diagnosed with gender dysphoria, defined as ‘a clear discrepancy between someone’s experienced / expressed gender and assigned gender … related to clinically significant distress and functional impairment’, may not receive further surgery for gender reassignment unless they are currently receiving medical treatment.
Transgender individuals who received hormones or medical surgery related to their transition were prohibited from joining the military, even if they could prove stability in their preferred gender.
ABC News’s Molly Nagle and Elizabeth McLaughlin contributed to this report.