Pentagon has finally lifted the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. The move came in the wake of an announcement by the United States Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday that there will be no discrimination against transgender troops in the military.
Stating that transgender troops will not be singled out on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, Carter told reporters, "We have to have access to 100 percent of America's population." He said that their mission was to defend the country and they did not want barriers aside from an individual's qualifications, VOA News reported.
It took the Pentagon nearly a year to arrive at a decision on the issue. Nevertheless, the move came in spite of last-minute concerns expressed by the top brass as to how they would take care of the medical, housing and uniform issues for troops who are making a changeover to the other sex.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon did away with the last barriers to women serving in frontline combat roles subject to their fulfilling the physical standards. Moreover, five years ago, the United States military also revoked its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. This policy made it mandatory for gay and lesbian troops to conceal their sexual orientation or face discharge, USA Today reported.
In July 2016, Carter confirmed that they have set up a study group to look at the issues that may occur following the lifting of the ban. Moreover, the Defense Secretary issued directions that it would be mandatory to raise decisions related to discharging troops with gender dysphoria with senior officials of the Pentagon. In other words, it ended the practice of terminating the services of transgender troops from military owing to medical reasons.
Currently, the number of transgender troops in Pentagon is between 1,320 and 6,630. They are a part of the 1.3 million active-duty force, the media outlet quoted Agnes Schaefer, the lead author of a RAND Corp. study, which was commissioned by the Pentagon to explore the issue. According to an estimate by RAND, there are between 30 and 140 transgender troops who would want to go for hormone treatment, while 25 to 130 troops would ask for surgery.
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