Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s historic decision to let transgender troops serve openly started a 90-day clock that the services will use to figure out how to implement the new policy.
But one advocate for transgender rights said that the services have largely already written their implementation plan and that Carter’s announcement leaves very little open for interpretation.
“The services have written their plans, they’re ready to go,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center. “It’s not difficult to let people be honest about who they are.”
Carter’s plan addresses many specifics that some thought would raise questions. Troops will wear the uniform and use the facilities, including bathrooms and berthing, of the gender they identify with once it has officially been changed in the military’s personnel system. The service member will also have to meet the physical fitness standards of his or her preferred gender after the gender has been changed in the system.
For a female who transitions to male, that means the PT standards will go up significantly. To graduate boot camp, a 17-21 year old male recruit must do 35 pushups. By comparison, a female recruit of the same age only has to do 13.
Carter is also requiring the services to establish a Service Center Coordinate Cell, which will act as a center where commanders can go with medical, legal and other personnel questions that may arise once they have transgender troops in their unit.
While at work, troops must perform and dress as their born gender until it is officially changed in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, the memo from Carter stated.
One thing the Pentagon will spend the next 90 days doing is designing training for troops and commanders about what the change means for them. Belkin said the ideal way to conduct the training is to just add a “little bit of new material” into diversity training that troops receive explaining what it means to be transgender.
For commanders, the training should not go too in-depth since some will never have transgender troops serving under them so they will never need to know the details, Belkin said.
Commanders must also consider things like deployment, training and exercise schedules when reviewing and approving a transgender service member’s transition process to avoid any impact on readiness, just like they do for medical procedures or requested time off, according to Carter’s direction.
Carter’s move faced significant pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said he intends to ask the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold hearings to resolve unanswered questions about what impact this will have on readiness.
On the House side, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said that the Pentagon is “prioritizing politics over policy.” He also said he will be looking at “legislative options to address the readiness issues associated with this new policy.”
Asked if Thornberry intends to hold hearings on the issue, a spokesman for the committee said the chairman “hopes to get answers to the readiness questions he posed nearly one year ago. Assessing those, as well as oversight of the policy itself will dictate the next steps.”
In response, Carter said readiness was a key part of the study about lifting the ban, and will be a key part of implementation as well.
Other critics have complained that the change means money that could be spent on new weapons systems or more training will now go to “shaving down Adam’s apples.”
But Belkin said estimates show that transition-related healthcare across the military will cost between $2 million and $5.6 million per year, which he points out is just a fraction of the military’s healthcare budget.
“The government should not waste money, but every other service member in the military is entitled to necessary medical care,” he said. “Cost isn’t an issue for nontransgender troops, so it shouldn’t be an issue for transgender troops as well.”
Belkin also pointed out that there was not a flood of criticism from Capitol Hill, suggesting that many learned from the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which allowed gay troops to serve openly, that the military can implement social changes without trouble.
“For years we were told the sky would fall when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was repealed,” he said. “The policy was repealed and no one noticed a difference from the day before repeal to the day after … It’s going to be the same here.”
