President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that transgender people may not serve “in any capacity” in the US military, citing the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” their presence would cause.
In late June, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis had delayed for six months a plan put in place under Barack Obama’s administration to start accepting transgender recruits.
An estimated 2,500 to 7,000 transgender people are among the 1.3 million active duty service members.
But, former Defence Secretary Ash Carter had given the military until July to develop policies around allowing people who had already identified as transgender to join the military if they met physical, medical, and other standards.
Military chiefs had argued that they needed more time to assess policy, and requested an extension of six months past July.
There isn’t an official tally of transgender people serving in the military, but Mr Carter quoted an estimate from the think tank Rand last year when making his decision, saying that there are around 2,450 transgender personnel in some active position in the US military. Other groups like the Transgender American Veterans Association, American Military Partner Association, and OutServe-SLDN have said that the figure is higher at 15,500 transgender personnel in the military.
There are approximately 1.3 million active service members in the US military, and 1,510 in the Select Reserve.
Following the loosening of restrictions on transgender people last year, there were as many as 250 service members who had announced they were in the process of changing their gender identity, or who had been approved for a formal gender change in the Pentagon’s personnel system.
