A group of 26 retired military officers came out against Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ proposed transgender policy on Tuesday, calling it a “troubling move backward.”
The policy proposal unveiled last week echoes the earlier ban on gay and lesbian troops under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and would force transgender troops to hide who they are for fear of being discharged, the former officers said in a statement released by the Palm Center, which supports transgender rights.
President Trump has given Mattis the green light to pursue a new personnel policy that would ban most transgender people from serving. Those who would be allowed to stay in the military would be denied treatment for the associated condition of gender dysphoria and would be required to serve according to their birth gender. Those who come out as transgender before the policy is enacted would be grandfathered.
“Many of us personally experienced the belated removal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and faced firsthand how that mistaken policy set back our force and enabled discrimination against patriotic gay and lesbian Americans,” the retired officers said. “We learned a clear lesson: the singling out of one group of service members for unequal treatment harms military readiness, while inclusion supports it.”
The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy was a compromise passed under the Clinton administration that lifted the prohibition on service by gays and lesbians as long as they did not openly declare their sexuality. The policy was ended in 2011 and those groups were allowed to serve openly.
The officers said the proposed transgender policy would be a return to the days of forcing troops to “hide in the shadows” without support.
“Under the newly announced policy, most transgender individuals either cannot serve or must serve under a false presumption of unsuitability, despite having already demonstrated that they can and do serve with distinction,” they said. “They will now serve without the medical care every service member earns, and with the constant fear of being discharged simply for who they are.”
Mattis’ policy would not allow anybody who has transitioned gender to serve and bars recruits who have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, unless they have been symptom-free for three years.
Service members who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria are allowed to remain as long as they meet all requirements, including physical fitness and grooming standards of their birth gender and do not need any transition-related medical care, which was provided under the Obama administration’s open service policy enacted in 2016.
Trump called for rolling back the Obama era policy last year and allowed Mattis to set the details. But the Pentagon’s proposed policy is on hold due to four federal injunctions as opponents battle against it in court.
